Police suspect immigrant family killing may be pre-meditated

Washington, Oct 8 (UNI) The police suspect the killing of the family and suicide by Indian immigrant Karthik Rajaram to be pre-meditated act and "not a spur-of-the-moment" type of event.

Karthik Rajaram (45), an MBA in finance, allegedly shot dead his wife, two sons and mother-in-law before turning the gun on himself, sometime between Saturday night and Monday morning, in his home located in an upscale neighborhood of San Fernando Valley, 20 miles north-west of Los Angeles.

Deputy Chief of Police Michel Moore said the police had found several letters at his house written over a period of time. "This was something that was not a spur-of-the-moment type of event," he said.

According Mr Moore, the killing was discovered on Monday morning after a neighbour called police to report that Rajaram's wife, who shared a car pool arrangement with her, had failed to pick her up.

It was not immediately known whether the killings and suicide had anything to do with the financial turmoil that has shaken the stock markets in the US.

Ed Winter, assistant chief from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, identified the other victims as Rajaram's mother-in-law, Indira Ramaseshan (69), wife Subasari (39) and three sons-- 19-year-old Krishna Rajaram, a Fulbright Scholar and honour student at UCLA, Ganesh (12) and Arjuna (7).

Authorities said the man appeared to have been unemployed for several months and had worked for major accounting firms, such as Price Waterhouse, earlier.

Rajaram was found in one of the five bedrooms, with a gun still in his hand.

The killings are thought to have occurred after 6 pm (local time) on Saturday, when the man was last reported seen, Mr Moore said.

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