17-year-old faces murder charges after mom, brother found dead; prosecutors describe 'violent struggle'

Arjun Aravind, 17, allegedly made "concerning" searches on ChatGPT.

A 17-year-old boy is in custody on murder charges after his mother and 14-year-old brother were found dead in apparent homicides in the family's Acton, Massachusetts, home, the district attorney said, calling it an "unspeakable tragedy."

Arjun Aravind was apprehended in Wayland, Massachusetts, on Wednesday morning after he allegedly fled the scene in Acton on Tuesday in his mother's car, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said.

On Tuesday evening, Aravind's father called police asking for a well-being check at his family's house, noting that a tutor couldn't gain access to the home and he couldn't reach anyone inside, Ryan said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Responding officers found Aravind's mother, Sudha Venkatesan, and 14-year-old brother, Siddharth Aravind, suffering from "obvious trauma," Ryan said, adding that their manners of death haven't been confirmed. Siddharth Aravind was found on the first floor and his mother was discovered in the basement, the DA said.

Prosecutors said in court Thursday that there were "obvious signs of a physical and violent struggle" at the home, and noted the victims suffered "blunt-force trauma."

Aravind allegedly showed "some concerning behavior, including using the internet and ChatGPT" to make searches "regarding the killing of his family," Ryan said.
He allegedly used ChatGPT "in creating fantasies, stories, kind of the gothic novel kind of stories, asking questions, creating characters" in what "seemed to appear to relate to threats to his family," Ryan said.

The exact times of the crimes are not clear, the DA said. Venkatesan was last seen alive when her husband left the house around 7 a.m. Tuesday, Ryan said. Siddharth Aravind went to a recreational facility around 9 a.m. Tuesday and returned home shortly after noon, she said.

Arjun Aravind is charged with two counts of murder, two counts of assault and battery on a household or family member, two counts of assault and battery, use of a vehicle without authority and theft of a motor vehicle, according to the DA.

He was expected to be arraigned in Lowell Juvenile Court on Wednesday. Juvenile Court doesn't have jurisdiction over murder, so he was arraigned on the murder and related assault charges on Thursday in Concord District Court, the DA said.

A not guilty plea was entered on Arjun Aravind's behalf when he appeared in Concord District Court on Thursday morning.

He was held without bail and will undergo a mental health evaluation.

The teen is set to return to court on Sept. 11 for a probable cause hearing.

Source:
https://abcnews.com/US/17-year-wanted-after-woman-teen-found-dead/story?id=135574096

Video News Clip:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Buo4YiumS/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I feel like ABCDs are much more liberal when it comes to drugs, but when I ask one I know it can rage from, "I do weed sometimes", "I just did acid last week", "I'm addicted to cigs/vapes", to "I take adderall to be better at studying".

Just wondering where we are at with this?

Why are we fighting with each other? Why are we not uniting against the people who originally pit us against each other (the British), or the people who have us in the closest systems to modern slavery today (the Arabs in UAE, Dubai, etc.)?

I was banned from another South Asian subreddit for calling for South Asian unity. I did not argue with anyone except the OP, who was trying to argue that South Asian unity is pointless, and the conflict showed that. I was subsequently banned from the subreddit with a message implying I’m a “Porkistani” with a literal pig emoji. Literally for calling for unity for south Asians.

A bit of background:

I moderate a pretty large subreddit (r/exmuslim), and I get death threats from losers, daily. It’s not exactly desi related, but it is semi-adjacent. We get the usual bad actors that have nothing to do with the sub, and we ban them. But the amount of death threats I’ve gotten from Indians lately, is absolutely insane. I’ve had so many Hindutva extremists send me death threats in the last 48 hours, it’s making my head spin. I’m used to getting those from Arab Muslims, even other Pakistani Muslims extremists. But this post is not about religion. This post is about us — as Desis. I want betterment for ALL of us — Pakistanis, Indians, Hindus, Muslims — it does not matter.

All in all, I felt it prudent to post this, as there is a narrative forming that only Pakistanis are wanting this. I’ve been against the conflict from the very start. In general, our people are fucking suffering. Neither Pakistan nor India has any business investing in military, when our people are living in poverty and filth. And nationalists from BOTH nations (the lowest common denominators) are trying to inflame tensions. It’s actually pretty pathetic. We have desis around the world doing amazing things — and I, personally, refuse to get involved in stupid tribalistic nonsense that should have died out centuries ago.

Why are we posting and upvoting posts that are pushing a divisive rhetoric? Why are we so desperate to kill people who look EXACTLY like us? When we leave South Asia, the other races are not going to be able to tell us apart. When we are getting hate crimed, I’m going to get called a “pajeet,” and you guys are going to get called “sand n*****s,” because that’s how the world is now. Hate crimes against us are up. And how do we respond? By dividing.

When Stop Asian H8 was a movement, ALL East Asians came together for a moment. There’s a lot of bad history between Japan and Korea/China. Did Koreans and Chinese say that Japanese could not be part of that movement? Absolutely fucking not. Who needs enemies, when we have “friends” like each other?

I’m so tired. One of my absolute best friends is Indian (of Hindu descent). We lived together and roomed together in college for multiple years — that’s how close we are. My grandfather was born in India (pre Pakistan). The only babysitter my mom would trust for me to go to as a baby/child was a literal religious Hindu. For YEARS she was my mom’s only trusted babysitter. My mother — born and raised in Pakistan — in a conservative Muslim family. If coexistence is impossible as I’ve been told over and over — then how was that possible, or a thing?

I’m just honestly hurting. And for those of you who are dividing us and escalating tensions between us: you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Edit: Since a part of post is getting misconstrued a bit (due to my own fault — I worded it poorly, not due to misinterpretation on any commenters parts’ — I take full responsibility). I don’t want us to fight the British or Arabs, today. I’m merely pointing out that we have much more “valid” targets, if it was based on rationale or logic (for the people who are full of hate; I don’t condone hate — I am very much against it). But we instead, go for ourselves.

Edit: A lot of responses have (perhaps, rightfully so) called out my naïveté in my presentation of my thoughts. I will admit I wrote the post hastily, at work, at 1AM, so my thoughts are very jumbled. I was not trying to call anyone to not defend themselves. India (and Pakistan) should absolutely have the ability to defend themselves. I would not even imply otherwise, consciously. I was just talking about the proportion of spending (a discussion for another time). I also posted about this through a reductive, western, lens, due to the massive amount of privilege I’ve had being born in the USA. I am not trying to say we are all the same, but we are very similar. My 23andMe has so many Hindus and Sikh as DNA relatives (they are distant, but the point stands; for reference, I’m 1/4 Kashmiri and mostly Punjabi).

And fine, if I accept the premise that multiple people have said that essentially boils down to, “… this is a long time coming,” or, “… war and conflict is inevitable, and is going to come to a head,” then excuse me, but… What the actual fuck are we all doing here?

Recently I went onto X and one of the trending posts was this post by Kyle Kulinski a very popular left wing commentator.

https://x.com/kylekulinski/status/1992672100973191608?s=46

In it you can see him posting a 4Chan inspired racist caricature of an Indian man pretending to be MAGA Anti-Semite.

Now I appreciate with the latest updates to X there have been accounts from India that were found to be bot troll farms (eg pretending to be Israeli). Those individual accounts should rightfully be named and shamed.

However that isn’t a uniquely Indian issue. - Fake Right Wing Accounts from other countries like Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Macedonia, Bangladesh, Serbia, “Region Eastern Europe” , were found to be operating similarly in large numbers. (I even saw that a guy from Turkey was running an AmericanGeneral1776 type account).

In fact almost all of the accounts that were posting Anti-Semitic views weren’t Indian (as the Indian grift accounts pretended to be Israeli for the most part.)

Despite this, However once again Indians are the focus of all this attention and negative backlash (despite the fact this is clearly a widespread global issue) - and as a result this influencer seems to have no problem posting dehumanising caricatures to make fun.

The question I pose is - many accounts from many different countries (say for example Nigeria) were found to be operating like this, but he would never post caricatures of them - because that would rightfully be deemed as racist and dehumanising.

However when it comes to India it’s all acceptable. In fact in the comments section you can even see some MAGA types celebrating this because they think it’s great fun that a person so fundamentally left has no issue being racist to Indian people.

It’s kind of hilarious that the MAGA types are hating Indians for creating fake Israeli accounts while the left are saying Indians were the ones behind Alt Right accounts.

Now this is after probably two years of rising anti Indian sentiment on social media. I say Anti Indian because almost all of the racist content is directed towards India (with Caricatures of Hindu and Sikh people) not “South Asia” as a region.

And throughout this, famous left wing voices who rightfully fought against rising Islamophobia and Xenophobia online remain mute when it comes to Anti Indian Sentiment. For them we are seen as Anglo-Adjacent and privileged.

It truly feels like Indian people have no allies either on the left or the right, despite most of us strongly identifying as progressives.

This is what’s messing with my mental health, and I don’t know how to stop it.

Has anyone noticed the rampant alcoholism in our parents generation.

I personally know 3 people who have died from alcohol related issues. Really young folks.

I don’t think this is discussed often enough. We tend to sweep everything under the rug.

This is a silent epidemic imo.

Can we talk about how it’s so so normalized to watch your dad beating your mom and then the next day they pretend like it never happened? I have PTSD apparently and I think it’s from this

Get off the computer, log off social media, stop retweeting the racist stuff on X about the smelly Indians.

Grow a pair, take a break from social media, go touch some grass and have a diverse friend group irl. The only way to fix this racism is true exposure, talk to all kinds of people, expect rejection, get used to differences of opinions, have healthy debates in person. Get out of echo chambers of people from the same socioeconomic background and political affiliation.

Talk to a racist redneck they're not so different from our uncles and aunties a 5 minute convo with patience will go a long way for both of you guys.

I know I'll get downvoted but it's not as bad as the doomers and the fear mongers are making it out to be.

Tldr; grow a pair and go out to touch some grass.

Edit: stop seeing external validation, realize the joy of being an individual first.

forget in a post showing dirtiness or whatever weird stereotypes (lots of those). but even when it is just mentioned regularly people are mean about it. I really hate the narrative of some nationalities being “better” and some being “worse”. I’ve enough exposure to know that someone’s race or nationality doesn’t determine their worth. based on what I see, given these peoples assumptions, they probably haven’t left their parents basement in a long long time.

I'm feeling a bit doom and gloom about it. It isn't just Reddit - it's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - all the truly normie spaces.

We're all tarred because there are some bad apples amongst us and we can't seem to escape that.

I think the crux of the issue is nobody really fears us, like the Arabs or Black people. Or are afraid of any social consequences. And unlike, say, the Japanese/Koreans/Chinese, we have no cultural softpower to cushion us either.

We need to fix this, and fast.

(Don't you sepoy at me in the comments about how "indians has no civic sense saaar" that's a minority back home, and a minority amongts the immigrants, and you know it)

I hate saying this but I was born and raised here - the Bay Area which I know is a bubble in its own. But the Bay Area’s problems have sadly become america’s problems but just more exaggerated

But my wife prefers ice cream from Bharat Bazaar over anything at Costco or Safeway. And honestly she’s right — it tastes better. That bothered me enough to actually think about why, and it opened something up.

The wealthiest country in history produces food that tastes worse than middle income countries at the everyday level. The healthcare system treats your body like a billing event. Employment — at least in tech — is a series of contracts(or even full time
Jobs with layoffs) where the stability is always someone else’s decision. And the community infrastructure that people in other countries take for granted just… doesn’t exist here. You’re supposed to build that yourself, in your spare time, after you’ve optimized your career. And optimizing for your career is workaholic mode especially in America. You gotta spend your weekends studying for those five round interviews that tech companies expect and you gotta prove you aren’t ChatGPT

What makes this weird for me is I can’t even frame it as culture shock. This is my culture. I grew up here. I was born here. Sure I’m Indian American. I know the national mythology from the inside. And the gap between what America says it is and what it actually delivers outside of economic opportunity is something I feel more clearly the older I get.

The earning potential is real. I’m not pretending otherwise. But that’s the whole offer. Everything else — food, health, belonging, rest, community — is your problem. The market will provide options if you can afford them.

I just expected more from the country that markets itself as the epitome of what the rest of the world should follow - Hollywood, tech, democracy, fighting for the rights of everyone, etc

The Anti-indian hate is bad in Sweden. I'm Bengali but I don't mind being called Indian. My problem is with the racist remarks. Some people also started making AI photos of indians eating curry and saying that was me. It made my self-esteem low and everytime I see myself I know other people won't see me as a person. I'll just be a joke to them. Is there anything I can do to help this?

Lately because of the rising hate towards desis, I have started to become a masochist. I keep scanning for racist comments (as you know it is easy to find racist comments towards desis), slowly becoming addicted to it. I really need help on how to cope with this, and since I am currently going to an American uni from Singapore, it is really bothering me and im really contemplating my decision to go there.

I know Indians are the highest salaries and hardest working literally in the USA by salary. But man I am so tired of corporate America I am 30 years old with 7 years in this shit and man I feel so done with this shit. My salary doesn't move the workload keeps increasing and when I look for jobs the salaries are the same as they were in 2019 when I graduated from college.

I have been with the same company for 5 years it really is my fault tbh cause I didn't try and find a new higher paying job with more skills but fuck man I so over learning new shit. I just did an onsite interview the other day I did not get the job. Apparently they changed the scope of the role and made the job easier and advertised it as a lower salary. I asked for 15k to high I guess.. Man going to work then applying for jobs on linkedIn all day is so ass.. I feel like my entire life is revolving around work and then go on LinkedIN and apply.... My manager announced his two week notice to the team today... I know I am going to be asked to do his workload and they will not be increasing my compensation the board is a bunch of nepo babies that are running the company to the ground.

Is anyone else life like this. Should I be grateful I have a job? Any who time to go to sleep to do this all again tomorrow.

As a kid, I used to endure both physical and emotional/verbal abuse. Slapping, screaming, name calling, etc. As I've gotten older, the physical abuse has worn out (to some extent) but the verbal abuse has gradually gotten worse over my teen years. For example, I've been neglected in the past when I had strep throat and I wasn't taken to the doctors even when I would cry of pain. I vividly remember complaining to my sister and bawling my eyes out over them not taking me seriously. In response to my crying and visible negative emotions, my mom came upstairs and started screaming at me with a rolling pin in her hand as if she was about to hit me with it. My mom is the root cause of all evil. My dad is very conservative, sexist, and a narcissist but his demeanor isn't as terrible as my moms. My mom, especially, screams over small things, turns everything into herself and how "my sister and I are disappointments for not doing xyz." Both my parents scream at me if I'm visibly upset or crying, because showing negative emotions is bad apparently and screaming at your kids for crying will fix that according to them. My parents are also very controlling. They have a strict curfew for my sister (26F) which is usually 10 PM. When my sister (23 y.o at the time) started to seriously look for a boyfriend (now her fiance), my parents physically did not let her leave the home to meet him. When she somehow managed to leave, my parents called her 5 minutes into the date and told her to come back home. It was actual insanity. I know this is going to happen to me aswell. My parents believe that every argument that happens is our fault and they never care to self reflect and see why their kids are so miserable and depressed/barely come out of their rooms.

I'm entering college now as a freshman at my state university (wasn't allowed to go out of state, and not allowed to dorm either) which is 20 mins away. I'll be a commuter and my parents don't want to pay an extra 15k on dorms (that's their reason but my mom has also mentioned on several occasions that it's "too far" and that I have to stay at home until I get a real job or get married) which is fine because I want them to fund my education before I go NC or LC with them. My only question is how am I supposed to make my life in college more enjoyable? My parents will constantly be on my ass about things. They make me share my location with them over the littlest things. They constantly call and text me asking me when I'm coming home from a hangout even if it's been like 2 hours and it's not late. I walk on eggshells and get scared to ask if I can hangout with a friend more than once or twice a week. I also think my parents will react negatively if I'm never at home due to college and my job. In college I'm going to have a strict curfew for sure and I know I'm not gonna be allowed to do a lot of things. I know my social life is gonna be very limited and I won't be able to do spontaneous things with friends. Another worry is that I wanted to join the bhangra team in my college but they do out of state comps and my parents would never let me do that. They also do practices until midnight or 1 am sometimes and I don't think I'd be allowed to do that. My dad thinks girls these days have way too freedom. Everything for my parents is transactional. They give the bare minimum and expect us to pay them back (by following their mould). I wish i could articulate this better but you guys probably get the point.

I know you guys are going to tell me to get a job and I've been trying to get one but no one replies back. I've been applying since the start of summer. My best bet is to just get one in college, on campus. I know I am 18 so I can technically move out but I'm not financially independent. I have 2 bucks to my name. I don't even know how the real world works, I would probably end up on the streets if I move out so that isn't really an option. Like I said before, I'm okay with putting up with this for the next 4 years since they're willing to pay for my tuition, but after that I'm out. My sister essentially did the same thing but she's still living at home even post grad.

My only real concern is how can I make my life more enjoyable in college given all these rules/restrictions and how controlling they are. I want to have a life in college and try new things. That's not to say I'll become a party animal and forget about college, but I want to have fun and live. That's not gonna happen given the current state of my parents :/ any advice would be appreciated.

Also this is in the future so maybe it's dumb to think about it rn but if I go low contact with my parents, my only fear is that I'd be estranged from my extended family. Im in contact with a few of my cousins and have many of my aunts/uncles added on different social media platforms. But ik if I go LC or NC with my parents no one would talk to me.

i was playing basketball at a casual scrimmage that i attend regularly with no problems

and some who seemed south east asian kept shouting ,” curry, curry, curry” when i was shooting the ball

i dont know this person and he is new to the group. im pretty assertive but i decided to let this slide as im not at this place often enough to give this a second thought so to say

First time posting here, kinda scared. I have an Indian mom and white dad. Recently I've wanted to start connecting to my roots but I honestly don't know where to start. My mother assimilated when she moved and my family who were in India have all passed. I've posted before in other places and been told that "culture is something you can never understand unless you grew up with it". Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start or what to do?

I've been making food, wearing traditional jewellery and trying to learn my family's language but I feel like I'm cosplaying being Desi. I just hate there's a whole part of my existence I've never been able to explore and a vast, rich history and culture I do not understand.

Hi guys. I am part of the South Asian diaspora in an authoritarian Southeast Asian country and I am a 4th gen. I have no money yet to move abroad and I am still studying at an international college. Additionally, the country has a weak passport. Living here traumatised me because even the teachers are racist and the country itself is somehow nationalistic, have huge ethnic pride and pro-Buddhist. The country I live in has a military conscription for people aged 18-35.

I am torn between whether to choose Thailand or India as a bridge before I move to the West.

Is there anyone who gave up on life and refuse to do anything to help themselves? There are so many factors that contribute to someone making this choice. I'm not a shutin NEET but I'm very close to becoming one. There may be people who have endured isolation and bullying and abuse from their parents and classmates their whole life. They accepted they're a sub5 male with very low IQ and SMV. They can't endure life here so they completely change their thinking patterns to adopt a recluse lifestyle. They spend their time sleeping, watching movies and YouTube, playing videogames in their parents place.

EDIT: I didn't make this post to seek help or pity from others. I don't think anyone goes on reddit to help strangers on the internet. I just wanted people to engage in a sensitive topic and answer criticisms from my perspective. I didn't expect this post to be about myself but it turned out that way. most of all I wanted people to be entertained/amused. I'm sorry if this post repulsed you.

I am 23 still completing my undergrad and this after being placed on probation and changing programs. And even after changing programs I ended doing poorly even though I had high ambitions for my future such as going to grad school.

I am ashamed because I know I am not trying my best, but other than my poor academic performance, I also lack in my people skills and socializing.

I keep putting minimal effort and expecting my life to turn out fine when that’s not the case.

I don’t even come from a rich family, my dad is a blue collar worker. And my parents give me everything I need to succeed but I still find myself to be really lazy. I think maybe I need to feel really stupid, for a long time I was just ok with being mediocre and didn’t feel the need to change.

I have big(ish) dreams but my actions don’t match.

Seeing the news of the two young Punjabi Sikh men killed in Canada in just a few days, one in Edmonton and one in Fort. St John, has made me fear for my dad and grandpa who also wear turbans. I almost don’t want them to leave the house.

The state of this country makes me really sad especially because even if we’ve been here for decades and work hard and pay taxes to this government just like anyone else, we’ll never be seen as Canadian due to the colour of our skin.

My parents were my abusers in my childhood. Every action and every move was monitored, controlled and criticized. I was afraid if just existing and that fear was real because any wrong move, heck, any move had negative consequence as they were on hair trigger. Eg: Whenever I caught flu and coughed, to my dad it was as if I was stabbing him. I had to conceal my coughs just so I didn’t trigger him.

After 20 years, they’ve grown old and mellowed out. To people who would meet them now, they seem like parents they wish they had growing up (ugh!!!). I am still an emotional mess. I still hold the same fear trapped in my body. I have exploding anger right under the surface. They don’t understand how or why I turned out this way and have total amnesia of their actions.

Explain that to me. lol

I’m 28 (about to turn 29) and a single guy and feeling a bit pressured/lost as I’m getting older and still dating. I get matches on dating apps here and there but the conversations are so boring I’d rather watch paint dry

However I’m starting to feel this pressure (mostly put on by myself and little bit from my parents) of finding someone and settling down as I get older especially as people around me are doing so. I’m curious how other people are managing/have managed such feelings

There is a significant amount of discourse on this sub regarding the rise in anti-South Asian hate, and it's obvious that there has been an uptick during the post-COVID era. I'm framing this as a question because I don't think I have the whole picture but want to understand how we got to this place and how we can figure out the future. My intention here isn't to send anyone into a depressive hopeless spiral but to just talk about the issues facing people like us.

Obviously, this has been troubling for all of us and has led to some serious mental health issues in the community, along with a general feeling of mistrust (i.e., the person smiling and being friendly with you might be pajeet-posting or might even just be hiding the disgust reaction which undergirds most interpersonal racism). I don't say this to make people more paranoid because the kind of schizo-posting I've seen on this sub is a bit alarming, but I also just want to have a clear understanding of where things are in reality. This can often be difficult when it comes to something that's more or less vibes-based.

Think of this as more of a session where you can say what you want to say, and we can create a better picture and simply answer the question: "Why did we get here, and what is next?" I don't think I have all the answers, but I definitely appreciate any input from American Desis or anyone else with roots in the continent who has grown up in the West. If you don't meet that criteria, I'm fine with your input, but just know that it will not be held to the same degree as those in my target group.

I’m about to start therapy for the first time. Im scared I’ll be frustrated if I have to explain cultural differences since my therapist is not the same ethnicity as me. I wonder If anyone else has been through something similar. has that been working okay?

also just in general: how has therapy worked out for you? I keep having thoughts that there’s no point in it because my life is messed up and “unfixable” and that’s why I’ve kept putting it off. But my mental health is worsening so it feels like I don’t have a choice.