Steve Mackessy was conducting field and lab research in thesummer of 2014, searching out snakes in the western slope, with no cellservice, when he unknowingly received an eerie phone call.
It wasn’t until later when he listened to the voicemail that he knew it was an urgent matter.
The call came from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in theVancouver area of British Colombia.
When Mackessy called back, almost immediately after he heardthe voicemail, he spoke with an officer of the RCM who explained that a younggirl had died. Autopsy reports showed snake venom in her system.
It is likely that the RCM chose to contact Mackessy, who holds a Ph.D. and is professor of biology at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado, because of his extensive published work on snakes and venom.
A Canadian man in the area, 51-year-old Henry Thomas, who had a variety of snakes – most obtained illegally – believed he would enhance his immune system by injecting himself with snake venom. His girlfriend at the time had a 2-year-old daughter who was in his custody one evening in May 2014. Thomas decided to inject the young girl with the same venom.
The next morning, he returned the young girl to her mother’s home, already dead, with bruises on her body, claiming she had fallen down the stairs and hit her head, Mackessy said.
The unusual situation gave Canadian law enforcement reason to make an arrest and confiscate Thomas’ snakes. Officials found skins from 10 or 11 different species as well as four rattlesnakes in his custody, Mackessy said.
Corporal Bryson Yuzyk of the RCM said, “What followed [the arrest] was a years-long investigating involving over a hundred police officers and a variety of professionals in the medical and scientific community.”
“There are a subset of individuals who think injectingthemselves with venom is good, that it will give them immunity – this is why hehad snakes,” Mackessy said, “but it is foolish, irresponsible, andunnecessary.”
Thomas, responsible for the death of the young girl, pleaded guilty to failing to provide the young girl the necessaries of life back in July, six months after he was arrested and charged. His sentencing is coming up Thursday.
As part of the case, law enforcement provided 37 samples to Mackessy, including syringes found in the man’s home, serum and urine samples from the victim, skins and a dead rattle snake – with hopes Mackessy could analyze the samples and determine whether the victim was in fact filled with venom from any of the man’s snakes.
“The analysis of the serum and urine was the most criticalto getting a guilty plea from the man,” Mackessy said.
Mackessy, two of his former doctorate students, Anthony Saviola and Cassie Modahl and one master’s student at the time, now studying for her Ph.D., Cara Smith, worked tirelessly for months to analyze the samples for the case.
The analyses of the snake skins was easy, Mackessy said – they were quick to uncover that Thomas had snakes from both South America and the United States – none of which are legal without a permit.
But finding evidence of venom in the serum, urine andsyringes was much more challenging – snake venoms are highly complex proteins,and the analysis of the syringes was not definitive, according to Mackessy.
But Mackessy and his student team found a high concentration of venom in the victim’s samples. The levels of venom were “well into the lethal range… far beyond anything she could’ve possible tolerated.”
Snake venom, based on processes in our own bodies, cangenerate an auto-immune response or stimulate anaphylactic shock, Mackessysaid.
This kind of reaction can kill a person within minutes. The body’s response to venom can be very similar to a bee sting allergy. When the body is sensitive to antigens, like snake venom and bee stings, it takes very little to create a lethal response within the body.
Mackessy, from an academic standpoint, felt that the casewas very centered around puzzle-solving. But he was also careful to rememberthat underlying the research, a young girl carelessly and needlessly lost herlife.
Mackessy and his students made their final report in October 2016.
“To put it mildly, it is highly unlikely that the investigation would have been successful without the hard work of Doctor Stephen Mackessy and his team at the University of Northern Colorado,” said Yuzyk.
After all is said and done, Mackessy is concerned with the bad name snakes are given because of situations like these. Snake venom can be, and have been used to make up life-saving medications. Venoms have interesting components, that when administered correctly, can be used in positive ways, he said.
A regulator found in snake venom is very similar tomolecules in our own bodies, but different enough that it can create a lastingaffect, said Mackessy. Venom has been used to limit cancer cell growth andbreak down blood clots in the past.
“Ecologically and biologically speaking, snakes are very fascinating animals, but they can also be used to do nefarious things,” Mackessy said.
