Thaindian News

New York, Oct 31 (IANS) After an Indian American killed his family of five in Los Angeles before shooting himself three weeks ago over financial problems, global meltdown seems to have taken further toll as an unemployed Indian techie is suspected to have killed his family of three in Detroit.A Telugu software programmer, who lost his job recently, is a “person of interest” in the brutal murders of his wife and two children whose bodies were discovered Monday in their Novi township home, 20 km from Detroit, according to a Detroit Free Press report.

The US federal police have launched a manhunt for the 42-year-old Lakshminivasa Rao Nerusu, who has disappeared after the homicides. According to unconfirmed reports, he is said to have gone back to India about a fortnight ago.

The bodies of his wife, Jayalakshmi Nerusu, 37, their daughter Tejasvi, 14, and son Siva, 12, were found after Lakshminivasa Rao’s brother told the police that he had not heard from the family for several days.

“The accused, Lakshminivasa Rao Nerusu, caused grievous injuries on the head and neck areas of each victim,” Novi police chief David E. Molloy said, describing the crime scene as “very disturbing”.

While Molloy said detectives knew how long the family had been dead, he declined to release that information, the Detroit paper said.

Investigators said Nerusu lost his job recently and the family car was repossessed about a month ago. But there was no record of domestic violence against him.

While the motive behind the crime is unknown, officials believe the killer or killers knew the family because there was no sign of forced entry and the doors to the apartment were locked.

The family had lived in Michigan for about two years, and had previously lived in Texas and Illinois, the police said.

Jayalakshmi was a housewife, while the two children were school students.

In the earlier incident, Karthik Rajaram, 45, was discovered Oct 6 to have shot dead five family members - his wife, mother-in-law and three sons - before killing himself. He was said to have been despondent after losing heavily on the stock market.