Kin clueless over family murder in US

VIJAYAWADA: Family members of an Andhra NRI who killed his wife and two children near Detroit are clueless about the incident even as US authorities have launched an international manhunt for the recently-laid off Indian techie.

The techie wanted for the murders is Lakshminivasa Rao Nerusu, a 42-year-old Telugu software programmer, who is believed to have lost his job recently. Unconfirmed reports said he left for India on October 14. The bodies of his wife Jayalakshmi Nerusu (37), 14-year-old daughter Tejasvi and 12-year-old son Siva Kumar were found on the first floor of their two-story home in Novi, a Detroit suburb on Monday evening.

In Krishna district, the relatives of Lakshminivasa said the family had no financial problems. ‘‘My brother (Lakshminivasa) had no worries over money matters and it might be the case that miscreants killed his family and whisked him away from the house,’’ conjectured Rambabu, a headmaster at Pamidimukkala village in Krishna district.

Lakshminivasa’s father, Koteswara Rao, a retired teacher, could not be contacted.

His house at Gandigunta village near Vuyyur was found locked and it was learnt that as soon as he heard of the tragedy, he left for Hyderabad to make further enquiries.

A pall of gloom descended on Gandigunta village as the villagers came to learn of the incident.

Lakshminivasa Rao is the youngest of Koteswara Rao’s six sons. Three of them, including Lakshminivasa, are settled in the US, one lives in Hyderabad and two stay at Gandigunta village with their parents.

It is learnt that Lakshminivasa and his wife were already related before their marriage — she happened to be his niece. Her sister, Koteswaramma, who lives in Kandrika village has been in a state of shock since the news came in. Lakshminivasa, who left for the US about two decades ago, had visited the village last year to attend a relative’s marriage, said sarpanch N Sambasiva Rao.

Novi town police in Detroit where the family lived believe Lakshminivasa might have killed his wife and two children upset over the financial crisis. The Nerusu family was based in Michigan for nearly two years and had previously lived in Texas and Illinois. While Tejasvi was a student of Walled Lake Western High School, Shiv Kumar attended Geisler Middle School.

The bodies are likely to flown in in the next few days.