Arjun Aravind’s father had reportedly become worried enough about the Massachusetts teen’s behavior and internet activity that he started hiding knives in the house before the family’s home became a double-murder scene.
The 17-year-old Acton boy is now accused of killing his mother, 45-year-old Sudha Venkatesan, and his 14-year-old brother, Siddharth Aravind, inside the family’s Martha Lane home after investigators uncovered disturbing searches involving ChatGPT.
Court documents cited by WBZ-TV said Aravind’s father had recently been concerned about his son before the deaths.
The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office said the teen had been using the internet and ChatGPT for material about killing relatives.
“The subsequent investigation indicates that Arjun had recently been demonstrating concerning behavior including using the internet and ChatGPT to make searches including for theoretical ideas or fantasies regarding killing his family,” the district attorney’s office stated.
District Attorney Marian Ryan gave Boston.com another piece of the teen’s online activity, saying Aravind had asked ChatGPT for help with “Gothic novel-kind of stories” and characters.
The violence described in court was not presented as a clean or quiet attack.
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Prosecutor Susan Wiseman said the evidence inside the home pointed to blunt force trauma against both victims.
“At this time, based on the evidence that was found at the scene, it was apparent that blunt force trauma was used in some fashion on both individuals,” Wiseman said Thursday, according to WBZ-TV.
She also described a “physical and violent struggle.”
Officials said the chief medical examiner was still working to determine the exact cause and manner of death, and investigators had not yet settled what weapon or weapons were used.
A not-guilty plea was entered for Aravind during his Thursday arraignment in Concord District Court, where WBZ-TV said he appeared in handcuffs.
The charges against him include two counts of murder, two counts of assault and battery on a household or family member, two counts of assault and battery, use of a vehicle without authority and theft of a motor vehicle.
He was ordered held without bail.
The first alarm came from Aravind’s father, who called Acton Police shortly after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday because he had been unable to reach his family.
Officials said he had last contacted his wife early that morning before going to work. Siddharth had last been seen around noon.
A tutor expected at the home had arrived by Tuesday evening and also could not reach anyone inside.
Police entered the house and found Siddharth on the first floor and Sudha in the finished basement. Both were dead.
Aravind was gone from the home, and so was his mother’s 2014 green Honda Accord.
Officials said investigators tried to find the teen and then alerted other law enforcement agencies and the public to watch for him and the missing car.
The hunt led to Wayland, about 20 miles south of Acton, before dawn Wednesday.
Police there found the Honda with Aravind inside and took him into custody.
Wiseman told the court that the vehicle contained “a number of items” that corresponded to the murder scene when police found Aravind around 3:40 a.m., WBZ-TV said.
Authorities allege Aravind killed his mother and brother before leaving the house in the car.
Defense attorney Debra DeWitt told reporters after the arraignment that Aravind did not realize his mother and brother were dead when he left.
He was “in somewhat of a shock situation,” DeWitt said, according to WBZ-TV.
DeWitt also said Aravind had not spoken with his father since the killings.
“The father just wants help for his son,” she said.
Aravind is due back in court Sept. 11 for a probable cause hearing.
Another family killing case in Florida centered on suitcases filled with human remains near an elderly man’s home.
Jose L. Proano, 44, was arrested on a first-degree murder charge after the remains of his elderly stepfather, Jorge Vazquez-Escutia, were found dismembered.
Vazquez-Escutia had been missing from his Hal Court home since Aug. 4.
Orange County deputies later searched near the home on foot and found suitcases containing multiple human remains.
Surveillance video recorded someone stuffing human remains into suitcases, an arrest report said.
The report also included a warning from someone who told police that Proano had been threatening Vazquez-Escutia and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Another tip came through a voicemail left for Vazquez-Escutia’s wife by someone claiming to be Proano’s friend, who said Proano had killed him, according to the report.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said no one else was being sought.
“There are no outstanding suspects, and there is no threat to the community,” the sheriff’s office said.
Neighbor Patrick Washington told WESH-TV that Vazquez-Escutia had been known for nearly 20 years as someone who was kind and helpful in the neighborhood.
“To hear that he’s been found unalive, that’s really close to home, because he was that neighborhood guy, we’re talking about close to 20 years,” Washington said.
“Gonna be touched to hear that one. Gonna be hurt,” he added.
The sheriff’s office later posted Facebook video from Proano’s arrest, showing him pause with his eyes on the camera before an officer shut the cruiser door.
