US police says Indian-origin techie shot wife, twin sons before taking own life

The death of an Indian-origin family of four in their San Mateo home in the United States on Monday has been confirmed as a murder-suicide, the San Mateo Police Department said on Thursday.

Former Meta engineer Anand Sujith Henry appears to have killed his two minor sons and shot his wife Alice Benziger multiple times before shooting himself, said the police. The incident occurred on February 10, Saturday afternoon and the bodies were discovered by the police on February 12 at around 9.15 am.

“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,” it said in a statement.

“Anand Henry has been identified as the suspect. A 9mm handgun legally registered to Henry was located on the bathroom floor where both adults’ bodies were located,” the statement added.

An investigation into the motive is ongoing. Police said that there was no history of violence at the home. Their only previous interaction was when the police responded to reports of a mountain lion in the yard in 2020.

US media reports said that the couple had filed for divorce in December 2016, before the birth of the twins. Hailing from Kerala, they were both alumni of TKM Engineering College in Kollam and had gone on to get Master’s degrees from the US. Anand had worked at Google and Meta before founding his own AI company, reported Daily Mail. Alice had been working at the American tech real-estate company Zillow.

The incident came to light after the family was unreachable over the weekend, raising alarm. The San Mateo police were called into the couple’s house on Sunday at 11 pm to check on their well-being but did not enter as there was no sign of forced entry, said the Daily Mail report. The next morning, they received another call from the family nanny, following which the police climbed through an open window into the $2.1 million house, it added.

Police said that they stood by their initial decision not to enter as the door to the house was locked. Nothing suspicious was observed through the windows and there was no sign of a break-in, they said, as per the report.

“The adults’ identities have been confirmed via fingerprints and the boys have been identified via familial visual identification,” said the police.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.