Karthik Rajaram kills family, then himself

[brokenandtwisted]

UCat probably found this one...but the search feature is being retarded (no, it's not me, I swear! ):

Six die in family murder-suicide in Los Angeles

Updated Tue. Oct. 7 2008 12:52 PM ET

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- The only hints of trouble in the big beige house on Como Lane were the newspapers in the driveway and the lack of any activity behind the front door.

But when police summoned by worried friends of the residents got inside Monday, they found a horror -- six members of a family fatally shot in a murder-suicide committed by an unemployed father in financial crisis.

The body of 45-year-old Karthik Rajaram, a gun clutched in one hand, was found by officers who followed a trail of carnage through the home in a gated community in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley.

His victims, most slain in their beds, were his wife, three sons and his mother-in-law.

"Absolute devastation," Deputy Chief Michel Moore told reporters outside the home.

The bodies were found when officers were sent to make a check on the home Monday morning after the wife, Subasri, 39, failed to show up at a neighbor's home for her ride to work as a pharmacy bookkeeper, Moore said.

Officers found the mother-in-law, Indra Ramasesham, 69, dead in bed on the first floor. Upstairs, they found Subasri Rajaram dead in one room, and the 19-year-old son, Krishna, a college student, dead in another, Moore said.

In a third room, 12-year-old Ganesha was dead on the floor, and his 7-year-old brother, Arjuna, was dead in bed. Their father's body was nearby with a handgun "in his grasp," Moore said.

Coroner's assistant chief Ed Winter said the victims were shot multiple times, sometime between midnight Saturday and early Monday morning.

Bold for emphasis on the man being a royal douche.

Continued

Here's an interesting spin on the story:

'Rajaram was fired for behavioural problems'

8 Oct 2008, 0353 hrs

WASHINGTON: Los Angeles Police found two suicide notes at Karthik Rajaram's residence - one for the cops and one for extended family and friends - and a will. In these, Rajaram spoke of his financial difficulties and took responsibility for killing his family members, police said.

"This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed," LAPD deputy chief Michel Moore told reporters. "It is critical to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times."

The family appears to have been well-off at one time. According to the 'Los Angeles Times', they sold their home in Northridge in 2006 for $750,000, making a sizeable profit on a home they purchased in 1997 for $274,000. They had also taken out two loans for $241,400.

Rajaram once made more than $1.2 million in a London-based venture fund before he ran out of luck playing the stock market, reports said. A 2001 article in 'The Daily Telegraph' of London, under the headline "Bust, but big bucks for the big boys," called Rajaram a "winner" in a deal for NanoUniverse, a LA- and London-based venture fund taken public on the London Stock Exchange. For a £12,500 investment, Rajaram, one of the company's founders, received £875,000 - or about $1.2 million in 2001 dollars - after a voluntary liquidation, the newspaper reported.

Continued

[jenthgr8]

I read about this earlier today in the local paper. What a fucking tragedy. The whole family, gone forever, because this guy had a plan. He shoulda stuck with plan A and just killed his miserable fucking self.

[crickett]

This has een all over the news here since last night. You know, if you want to kill YOURSELF, that's one thing. But did he ask his family if they wanted to go along with him? His oldest son was an honours student in college. He had a future and was eligible for all kinds of grants. His wife had a good job. Fucking prick!