WASHINGTON: A teenaged Indian-American high school student has been arrested for matricide in Cary, North Carolina. The police arrested Arnav Uppalapati, 17, over a year after he strangled his mother Nalini Tellaprolu, 51, at their upscale home in Wake County district, where the victim worked at Duke Medical Centre.
While the authorities wouldn't reveal his motive, nor what evidence led to his arrest, they steadily maintained that he was a person of interest in the case. Arnav was only 16 when he dialled 911 on the afternoon of December 17, 2015, and told an emergency dispatcher that he had arrived home from school and found his mother lying dead on their garage floor. His father, who was out on a business trip, had been trying to reach her over the phone all day and had asked him to go home from school to check on her. When the police arrived at their home, they found Nalini strangled with a plastic bag over her head, her feet in the back seat of a car.
Medical examiner's office ruled the death a homicide after they found her body covered with bruises and scratches, and a fractured cartilage in the neck. The police did not find any signs of forced entry, and noticed that their home alarm system that Nalini switched on meticulously every night was not activated on the night of her death. Arnav, meanwhile, maintained that he had last seen his mother alive the night before. He has been charged as an adult and faces a life sentence.
The Indian community, including Telugu associations in North Carolina, where Nalini was a known member, expressed shock. "It's very devastating. There's never been an incident where a son has taken the life of his own biological mother," said Satish Garimella, a Morrisville town councilman.
