Indian-origin couple, teen daughter, found dead in mansion in US’s Massachusetts

An Indian-origin couple and their teenage daughter were found dead in their mansion in the US’s Massachusetts in what authorities described as a “domestic violence situation”.

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said the bodies of Rakesh Kamal, 57, his wife, Teena, 54, and their 18-year-old daughter Ariana were found in their Dover mansion, near Boston, on Thursday evening.

Teena and her husband had previously run a now-defunct education systems company called EduNova.

Morrissey, the district attorney, said that it was a “domestic violence situation”, adding that a gun was found near the husband’s body.

He didn’t state whether all three family members were shot dead, the New York Post reported.

Morrissey said he was waiting for the medical examiner’s ruling, before deciding whether to refer to the incident as a murder or suicide.

Records showed the couple had been facing financial problems in recent years.

Their bodies were discovered when one of their relatives had come to check on them after not hearing from them for around two days, the district attorney said.

Morrissey added that there had been no prior incidents reported from the house.

“There’s been no police reports, there’s been no problems and no domestic issues at that house or in the entire neighbourhood that I’m aware of,” Morrissey said.

“Although the investigation is at a very preliminary stage, the evidence available at this time does not indicate the involvement of any outside party, but suggests that this is a deadly incident of domestic violence,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

“It is not believed that there is any ongoing danger to the Dover community related to this incident,” it stated.

The family’s sprawling mansion, estimated to be worth $5.45 million, went into foreclosure a year ago and was sold to the Massachusetts-based Wilsondale Associates LLC for $3 million, according to The New York Post.

The Kamals had purchased the 19,000-square-foot estate, which has 11 bedrooms, for $4 million in 2019, according to the records.

The family members were the only ones living in the mansion at the time, the DA said, adding that the area, one of the richest in the state, was “a nice neighbourhood, a safe community”.

Their company was launched in 2016, but was dissolved in December 2021, state records showed.

Teena was listed on EduNova’s website as the chief operating officer of the company, describing her as an alumna of Harvard University and Delhi University in India.

According to his biography on the EduNova website, Rakesh was an alumnus of Boston University and the MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as of Stanford University.

Before working at EduNova, he “held many executive positions in the education-consulting field”, the biography added.

EduNova marketed a “student success system” designed to improve the grades of students in middle school, high school and college”, The Boston Globe newspaper reported.

Teena filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in September 2022, listing between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities, filings showed. The case, however, was dismissed two months later due to insufficient documentation.

Teena, who was a Harvard alumna, was listed as one of the boards of directors for the American Red Cross of Massachusetts.

Her online bio said she had more than three decades of working in the education and technology industries. 

The couple’s daughter was a student at Middlebury College, a $64,800-a-year private liberal arts school in Vermont, where she was studying neuroscience, according to her LinkedIn profile.

“It’s very rare to have this kind of a violence situation in almost any community in Norfolk County, but particularly Dover,” Morrissey said.

“It’s a small, well-run community, but like everybody else, there are problems out there that can affect no matter where you live,” he further said.