Raghunandan Yandamuri, the man accused of brutally killing 61-year-old Satyavathi Venna and her 10-month-old grand daughter Saanvi in the USA, confessed to the double murder on Thursday. He said he had kidnapped and demanded the ransom of $50,000 to pay off the debts he accumulated via gambling.
“My intention was not to kill anyone or harm anyone. I only tried to kidnap the baby. When Satyavathi resisted my attempts, I had to slash her neck with the knife and she collapsed. Later, I covered the mouth of crying Saanvi with my handkerchief and pushed her into a large suitcase along with jewellery and other valuables stolen from the house. The girl died of suffocation in the suitcase, which I later hid in the apartment building’s basement,” he confessed before the court-appointed attorney in Bridgeport, Stephen Heckman, according to footage aired by local TV channels. The entire confession was recorded on video.
Raghunandan said he had needed money as he had lost around $15,000 to $20,000 in gambling. “They (Venkata Venna and his wife Chenchu Latha) both are working, so I thought maybe they have some money and I demanded the ransom,” Raghunandan said. The Venna couple are software engineers and had moved to USA in 2007.
On the fateful day of Oct 22, the couple had left for work around 8 a.m, leaving Saanvi in the care of Satyavathi, who was on a visit. Venna raced home at 12.30 p.m. when his mother did not answer his calls, only to find her in a pool of blood.
Raghunandan was also a techie working for GSI Commerce, a unit of eBay that builds e-commerce sites. He had moved to the Philadelphia area from San Jose about the same time that his wife was expected to come to the U.S. He worked for GSI from March to October 26, when he was dismissed.
After hearing the confession and watching the video footage of his confession, Kevin Steele, first assistant district attorney of Montgomery County, termed the murders brutal. Raghu is now charged with 13 offences including murder, kidnapping, burglary, robbery and abuse of a corpse and is likely to face the death penalty.