Financial Crisis: The Worst Of The Worst

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Police: Porter Ranch Gunman's Letters Cite 'Financial Problems'
'Suicide' Letters Found In Residence

POSTED: 10:57 am PDT October 6, 2008
UPDATED: 9:44 am PDT October 7, 2008
LOS ANGELES --
Crisis counselors were sent Tuesday to the schools attended by three children killed by their father in a murder-suicide that also took the lives of their mother and their maternal grandmother.

The Los Angeles Police Department said the violence occurred sometime between Saturday evening and Monday morning. Officials said 45-year-old Karthik Rajaram killed his 39-year-old wife Subasari, her 69-year-old mother and his three sons -- 19-year-old Krishna, 12-year-old Ganesha and 7-year-old Arjuna.

Rajaram was a one-time millionaire who lost his job and apparently his money, as well, as a result of stock market losses.

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Rajaram was found dead with a gun in hand by police officers who followed a trail of carnage from bedroom to bedroom through the big, two-story house the family rented in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley.

Investigators quickly found two suicide letters and a will, and determined that the man once worked for a major accounting firm and was at least the part-owner of a financial holding company, Deputy Chief Michel Moore said.

"We believe that he has become despondent recently over financial dealings and the financial situation of his household, and that this murder-suicide event is a direct result of that," Moore said.

The man wrote in his suicide letter that he felt he had two options -- to just kill himself or to kill himself and his family -- and decided the second option was more honorable, Moore said.

The bodies were found when officers were sent to make a check on the home Monday morning after the wife failed to show up at a neighbor's home to go to work as a pharmacy bookkeeper, Moore said.

Officers found the mother-in-law, Indra Ramasesham, 69, dead in bed on the first floor. Upstairs, they found a 19-year-old son, Krishna Rajaram, dead in bed in the master bedroom.

The gunman's 39-year-old wife, Subasari, was found in another room, also apparently shot while sleeping, Moore said.

In an adjoining room, a 12-year-old son was dead on the floor, and his 7-year-old brother was dead in bed. Their father's body also was found there with a handgun "in his grasp," Moore said.

"The handgun that was discovered here on scene was recently purchased, only on the 16th of September," by the father, Moore said.

Authorities withheld the names of the wife and two youngest children because their wounds made official identification difficult, said coroner's assistant chief Ed Winter.

"Some received multiple gunshot wounds," he said.

The killings occurred some time between midnight Saturday and early Monday morning, Winter said.

The gated community, called Sorrento Pointe, is among several developments along curving lanes and cul-de-sacs set on the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains in Porter Ranch, about 23 miles northwest of downtown.

"It's very quiet here," said Ryan Ransdell, who lives across the street. "That's what's so shocking about this. ... You'd think someone would have heard it. You can hear a car door shut at night."

Ransdell said the family kept to themselves.

The father had a master's of business administration in finance, formerly worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sony Pictures, but had been unemployed for several months, Moore said. The deputy chief did not identify the financial holding company, though Nevada records show an incorporation there.

Moore did not specify what financial trouble the man had been in. He noted that the family did not own the home.

One of the suicide letters was addressed to police and the other to friends and relatives.

In the suicide letters, "he attests to some financial difficulties, takes responsibility for the taking of the lives of his family members and himself as a result of those financial difficulties," Moore said. "We believe that he has become despondent recently over financial dealings and the financial situation of his household."

The man had no record of mental disabilities or contacts with mental health professionals in Los Angeles County, Moore said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers spokesman Steven Silber said Karthik Rajaram last worked for the company in 1999, but declined to offer any further information about him.

"This is obviously a terrible tragedy, about which we are very saddened. However, Mr. Rajaram has not worked for PWC for nearly a decade, so it would be inappropriate for us to comment any further," Silber said.

Sony Pictures Entertainment spokesman Steve Elzer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Karthik Rajaram is listed as a co-manager of a corporation called SKGL LLC, which is incorporated in Nevada, according to state records. He formed the corporation for his family's assets and used his family members' initials to form the name, said Las Vegas attorney Christopher R. Grobl.

SKGL was incorporated in 1999 and renewed its annual business license in December 2007.

Grobl did not know what sort of business SKGL was or why Rajaram incoporated in Nevada.

Krishna Rajaram was enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, as a junior majoring in business economics, spokesman Phil Hampton said.

The LAPD was working with the Los Angeles Unified School District to arrange for crisis response teams to be dispatched to the two local schools that the 7- and 12-year-old victims attended, Moore said.

A crisis response team from the mayor's office also responded to assist the family's friends and neighbors.

Superintendent David Brewer issued a statement saying the "entire Los Angeles Unified School District family is saddened to hear" about the deaths and would " provide support and assistance to the school staff and students following this unfortunate tragedy as long as needed."