Indian-Origin Techie And Family Found Dead In US, Murder-Suicide Suspected

A tech entrepreneur allegedly died by suicide after shooting his wife and one of his sons at their residence near Washington in the United States last week. The incident occurred in Newcastle, Washington, on April 24.

One of the sons survived as he was not home at the time.

The deceased have been identified as Harshavardhana S Kikkeri, 57, who was the CEO of HoloWorld, a robotics company headquartered in Mysuru's Vijayanagar, his wife, Shwetha Panyam, 44, and their 14-year-old son. The motive behind the act is yet to be identified.

According to The Times Of India, Harshavardhana’s wife, Shwetha, and their son died from gunshot wounds, with their deaths ruled as homicides, while Harshavardhana died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, classified as a suicide, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Police responded to a townhouse on 129th Place Southeast around 7 pm, following a 911 call, according to a spokesperson from the King County Sheriff's Office, as per India Today.

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Who is Harshavardhana S Kikkeri?

Harshavardhana, a native of Kikkeri village in Karnataka’s Mandya district, was the CEO of HoloWorld, a robotics company formerly based in Mysuru that has since shut down. He co-founded HoloWorld with his wife in 2017 after relocating to India. The company, which specialised in AI and robotics but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company folded in 2022.

He graduated from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering in Mysuru and had worked with Microsoft in the US, focusing on robotics.

According to the description of a TEDx talk posted on YouTube, Kikkeri has been the recipient of several leadership honours, including the Microsoft Gold Star, an Excellence Award from Infosys, a Bharat Petroleum Scholarship, and multiple chess championship titles.

The description also states that he holds 44 international patents across countries such as the US, China, Japan, and various European nations.

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