NRI
shot five family members and killed himself
Los Angeles, Oct. 08, 2008
Mohan Sharma
NRI Karthik Rajaram, 45, an unemployed financial
advisor killed himself and shot five family members:
- Wife Subasri, 39, found dead in bed
- Mother-in-law, Indra Ramasesham, 69, found dead in bed on
the first floor
- Son, Krishna Rajaram, 19, found dead in bed in the master
bedroom.
- Son,Ganesha, 12, found dead in bed
- Son, Arjuna, 07, found dead in bed
LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore says investigators
found two suicide letters and a will. Moore says the notes indicated
Rajaram was desperate on extreme financial problems and felt killing
himself and his family was the honorable thing to do. He had an
MBA in finance from University of California (UCLA) and formerly
worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sony Pictures, but had been
unemployed for several months. He had no record of mental disabilities
or contacts with mental health professionals in Los Angeles County.
The bodies were found when officers were sent to make a check
on the home Monday morning after the wife failed to show up at
a neighbor's home to go to work as a pharmacy bookkeeper.
Karthik Rajaram is listed as a co-manager of a corporation
called SKGL LLC, which is incorporated in Nevada, according to
state records. He formed the corporation for his family's assets
and used his family members' initials to form the name, said Las
Vegas attorney Christopher R. Grobl.
SKGL was incorporated in 1999 and renewed its annual business
license in December 2007. Grobl did not know what sort of business
SKGL was or why Rajaram incorporated in Nevada.
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.
Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer said:
What drove him over the edge to total despair is a mystery. By
all accounts, he had enjoyed a successful career as an investor
in start-up companies before running into an economic crisis that
led him to a violent end. The financial pressures can seem like
an inescapable pit.
Police found no obvious foreclosure looming in Rajaram's future
and no bankruptcy. But one investigator familiar with the case
said Rajaram "lost a lot of money in the markets."
"We know he believed he had no options," Police Capt.
Sean Kane said. "It is a shame he believed that, because
he clearly had options."
Moore said: Karthik Rajaram wrote in his suicide letter that
he felt he had two options- to just kill himself or to kill himself
and his family — and decided the second option was more
honorable, Moore said.
The American Psychological Association press released that eight
of 10 Americans say the economy is a major source of stress in
their lives. Nearly half say they are worried about providing
for their families' basic needs.
