Indian American family found dead in possible murder-suicide

Police are investigating the horrific tragedy of an Indian American family of four, including two young children, found dead in their home in New Jersey this week, as a homicide.

The bodies of Tej Pratap Singh, 43, and his wife Sonal Parihar, 42, were found alongside their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter in their Plainsboro home on Wednesday afternoon.

Police are now investigating the incident as a homicide — and have hinted that the family’s deaths may have been a murder-suicide, CBS News reported.

Just about 18 months before their deaths, Pratap Singh shared a Facebook photo of the family grinning and covered in bright colors in celebration of the Hindu festival of Holi. A few months later, the father of two was pictured alongside other Plainsboro parents at a PTA meeting for one of his children’s elementary schools.

“They were such a sweet family,” a woman who lived near the family’s Titus Lane home told NJ.Com. The neighbor’s daughter met Pratap Singh and Parihar’s daughter at the school bus stop every morning until Wednesday, when the child failed to appear.

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“It was weird for me to not see her in the morning,” she said. The neighbor texted Parihar later in the morning, but never heard back, she said.

The family’s bodies were found just a few hours later, shortly after a relative called for a welfare check around 4:40 pm, the Plainsboro Police Department said.

Family members told CBS New York they cannot believe they were found dead and that this was a happy couple. They both worked in IT. They say the husband was very active in the community and the PTA at his children’s school, so this does not add up.

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Singh, an IIT Kanpur alumni, was the lead engineer at Ness Digital Engineering, according to his LinkedIn profile. He describes himself as “a passionate, hands-on, senior technology executive with 16+ years of diverse technical and business experience, with emphasis on the design, configuration, management, and business continuity of large, distributed enterprise systems. Extensive experience in establishing the strategic value of technology and working hand-in-hand with other senior business executives.”

According to a press release issued by Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office on Oct 5 “This tragedy remains under investigation and autopsies are being performed today.” An initial investigation determined that there is no threat to the public, the release said.

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Police asked anyone with information or surveillance footage of the area to call Detective Atkinson of the Plainsboro Police Department at 609-799-2333 or Detective Morillo the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-745- 8843.