VIJAYAWADA: The Fox Meadows Apartment Complex in Burlington, New Jersey, where an Narra Sasikala and her six-year-old son Narra Anish Sai were found murdered on Thursday, seems to be jinxed, or at least that's what local US dailies say the locals think.
According to reports from the US, a series of murders have taken place at the apartment complex over a period of time. The AP mother-son duo's murder has taken the number of killings in the building to a startling five.
Burlington County Times, one of the leading dailies in New Jersey, has reported that the previous murders had taken place in 1996 and 2015. According to a BCT publication report, two brothers were stabbed multiple times outside of a unit at Fox Meadow in 2014.
In 1996, a man killed his wife by hacking her with an axe in their apartment and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison in 2014, the BCT said.
Sasikala and her husband Hanumantha Rao, both engineers, left for the US five years ago seeking better career prospects.
Reacting to the tragedy, Telugu Association of North America (TANA ) said it was making arrangements for sending the bodies of the mother and her son to India.
Sources said Hanumatha Rao was earlier detained by the police, but sent home after a 10-hour questioning session. The police who are investigating the crime are for now tight-lipped on to what extend the investigation had progressed.
Sasikala's mother, Krishna Kumari, on Saturday reiterated that her son-in-law had murdered Sasikala and Anish.
"We have information that there are several injuries on the body. Hanumantha Rao, who had an extra-marital affair, was harassing my daughter and we have e-mails as evidence. For the past three years, he was demanding that she give him her salary and also asked her to pay the school fee of the boy and house rent. We are sure he committed the crime and is now acting innocent. Our friends in the US have informed us that the progress in the investigation will be known only on Monday," Krishna Kumari said