Indian techie killed wife and twins before shooting self: police
Indian American couple Anand Sujith Henry and Alice Benziger, and their 4-year-old twin boys were found dead inside a home in San Mateo, and police are investigating the case as a murder-suicide.
San Mateo police suspect Anand Henry hailing from Kerala, killed spouse and 4-year-old twin boys before shooting himself
Police suspect that Anand Henry, an Indian American former Meta software engineer, killed his wife and 4-year-old twin boys before shooting himself even as they investigate the motive of the gruesome tragedy.
Henry, his spouse Alice Benziger, both hailing from Kerala, and their 4-year-old twin boys were found dead inside their home in San Mateo, about 20 miles south of San Francisco on Monday, February 12.
At 9:13 am that day, San Mateo Police officers were dispatched to the 4100 block of Alameda de las Pulgas on the report of a welfare check, police stated Thursday.
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Officers entered the home and located 1 adult male, 1 adult female, and two children deceased inside. The adults’ identities have been confirmed via fingerprints and the boys have been identified via familial visual identification.
“Both Henry and Benziger succumbed to gunshot wounds and based on the shared investigation to date between the San Mateo Police Department, the San Mateo County Crime Lab, and the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office, Anand Henry has been identified as the suspect.”
A 9 mm handgun legally registered to Henry was located on the bathroom floor where both adults’ bodies were located, it said.
Police said their investigation shows Benziger succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds, while Henry suffered from a single shot. “The cause of death for the minor boys is still pending pathology, but we can confirm they did not die from gunfire or show signs of bodily trauma,” police stated.
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There is no history of violence at the home, and outside of the context of this incident, the San Mateo Police Department has only responded to the home since 2020 on reports of a mountain lion in the yard, it said.
After being unable to get a hold of the family over the course of the weekend, police was contacted. They estimate this incident occurred sometime Saturday afternoon.
Police said its investigation into the motive for the tragedy continues and offered to share with the community both domestic violence and mental health resources to prevent another such incident.
“While we can’t undo this horrific incident, we would like to share with our community both domestic violence and mental health resources, because there is help and/or assistance out there, and something like this does not need to happen again,” it said.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Henry used to work at Meta as a software engineer and, before that, for Google, in a similar role. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the Los Angeles Times reported.
He was working in artificial intelligence at the time of his death, according to his profile. Benziger worked for Zillow as a data scientist, according to her profile on LinkedIn.
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The couple, hailing from Kerala, both attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
According to court records, the husband filed for divorce in December 2016 but apparently did not go through with it.
