I think for future reference I would put a warning on this - stating there is a dead snake photo - to many herp lovers this is not a pretty sight.
I hope you can educate your neighbours to allow them to see that snakes are mostly harmless if you leave them alone and that they are easy to remove with a simple call to your local wildlife officer.
I am quite upset about seeing the dead snake, but more so that the people that killed it attacked first then asked questions later. Another death that goes by that needn't have happened.