Murder-Suicide Suspected In Deaths Of Washington Family; Child, 7, Survives

India-West News Desk

NEWCASTLE, WA — In a tragic and deeply unsettling incident, tech entrepreneur Harshavardhana Kikkeri, 57, his wife Shwetha Panyam, 44, and their 14-year-old son Dhruva were found dead in their home in what authorities suspect to be a murder-suicide. A 7 year son, tragically survives them.

Police were called to the family’s townhouse in King County on April 24 after a 911 call, where they discovered signs of violence, including blood on a window and a bullet found in the street, according to The Seattle Times. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the deaths of Shwetha and Dhruva as homicides and determined that Harshavardhana died by suicide.

Originally from Kikkeri village in Karnataka, Harshavardhana held a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University. He had a distinguished career, including a tenure at Microsoft specializing in robotics. In 2017, he and Shwetha co-founded HoloWorld, a robotics startup based in Mysuru. Though the company shut down in 2022, the family returned to the US the same year.

Kikkeri was best known for inventing the HoloSuit, an AI-powered full-body motion capture suit designed for virtual training applications. His achievements included leadership awards from Microsoft and Infosys, a prestigious Bharat Petroleum Scholarship, multiple chess titles, and an impressive portfolio of 44 international patents spanning the US, Europe, China, and Japan.