California: An Indian-origin techie is suspected of killing his wife and four-year-old twins before turning the gun on himself in a gruesome murder-suicide in California, police said today. The statement comes days after Anand Sujith Henry, 42, his wife Alice Priyanka, 40, and their twin sons Noah and Neithan were found dead at their $2.1 million home in California’s San Mateo.
The couple was found dead with gunshot wounds inside a bathroom when cops visited the house for a welfare check on Monday. The children were discovered dead in a bedroom.
“At this time, next of kin have been notified and we can now confirm the identities as Anand Henry (father), Alice Benziger (mother), and their minor twin boys. A 9mm handgun legally registered to Henry was located on the bathroom floor where both adults’ bodies were located,” the San Mateo Police Department said in a statement.
Police allege that Henry, a former Meta employee, was responsible for all four deaths.
“Both Henry and Benziger succumbed to gunshot wounds and based on the investigation to date between, Anand Henry has been identified as the suspect,” the police department said.
“Our investigation shows Benziger succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds, while Henry suffered from a single shot. The cause of death for the minor boys is still pending pathology, but we can confirm they did not die from gunfire or show signs of bodily trauma,” officials added.
The family, originally from Kerala, had been living in the US for the past nine years. While Anand was a software engineer, Alice was a senior analyst. According to court records, Anand had filed for divorce in 2016 but did not go through with it.
Authorities said there was no history of violence at the home and the one instance when cops had been called in the past was when the family spotted a mountain lion in their backyard.
But when people who knew the family could not get in contact with them over the weekend, police responded to the scene to do a welfare check. The motive behind the murder-suicide is still unknown.
“Our investigation into the motive for this tragedy continues. While we can’t undo this horrific incident, we would like to share with our community both domestic violence and mental health resources, because there is help and/or assistance out there, and something like this does not need to happen again,” police said.
