Forensic investigators from the medical examiner’s office in Costa Rica are trying to determine the ophidian species that killed a 46-year old woman in a remote area of Los Chiles canton, province of Alajuela.

According to a news report filed by Alexander Mendez of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the woman was a student at the Unified Center of Adult Education (Spanish acronym: CINDEA) of northern Los Chiles, a rural community that is near the border with Nicaragua.

The woman has been identified as Rosa Mendoza; she left a CINDEA classroom on Tuesday afternoon and never made it back to her house. Family members, friends and neighbors were concerned that she was taking too long to return home, and thus they started looking for her. She was found by the side of a country road that stops at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) arrived at the scene along with forensic staff to collect Ms. Mendoza, who suffered multiple bites to her ankles and lower limbs.

At this time, forensic investigators believe that Ms. Mendoza may have been killed by either a fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper , known as terciopelo in Costa Rica) or by an “ox killer” (Lachesis stenophrys, bushmaster or bocaracá).

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, fer-de-lance attacks have increased in the last few years, and biologists have noticed that this incidence coincides with irregular green (rainy) seasons that make the Bothrops confused and excitable; however, fer-de-lance bites are dangerous but not necessarily lethal.

Ox killers, on the other hand, secrete a neurotoxic venom that is very lethal. Although fer-de-lance and ox killer snakes are both pit vipers, they do not share the same habitat. Ox killers are extremely shy and generally terrified of humans while fer-de-lance snakes are more tolerant and known to settle their nests in coffee farms.