BATON ROUGE - An over 48-hour search for a 12-foot python that escaped from an aquarium in Louisiana's largest mall came to an end Thursday morning.

Earlier this week, employees of the Blue Zoo, a relatively new interactive aquarium located in Baton Rouge's Mall of Louisiana, were surprised to find that one of their featured attractions, Cara the Python, had escaped from her habitat.

>Click here for more on the search for Cara<

Blue Zoo flew in a specialist to help locate the python and teamed up with local officials to comb the Mall of Louisiana during a Tuesday through Thursday search for the animal.

About an hour after Cara was found in a crawl space within the mall, WBRZ's Dana DiPiazza spoke with the python's caretaker, Victoria, to learn more about the great escape and how Cara was recaptured.

Victoria said it was about 3:45 a.m. when she received word that Cara had been found.

"I don't think I'd ever driven that fast to get back to Blue Zoo," Victoria said. "I'd actually just left whenever they'd found her. It was a quick turnaround, and I was back at that zoo before anyone even realized it."

Victoria explained that Cara is by nature, a very curious creature, and things like this can happen.

"She was in our ceiling," Victoria said. "We knew exactly where she was for the most part."

When Victoria initially realized Cara had gone missing, she said she had no doubt the snake would be recovered and that Cara, a gentle animal, would not intentionally hurt anyone.

"As far as finding her," Victoria said. "She did the snake thing, where she coiled up and sat down and hunkered down. I mean, she's my snake, I know her. More than anything, I had high hopes we were going to find her the whole time."

The python may appear an imposing animal, but Victoria reiterated the fact that Cara's personality is anything but aggressive. 

Victoria said, "The Burmese python is an easy-going snake. These guys are one of the largest snakes and they have the kindest hearts. This girl came from a family that had little kids, she was their puppy dog."

The Blue Zoo says it will launch an investigation into how Cara managed to escape.