Indian-origin couple who went bankrupt after edtech biz, daughter found dead at US home

NEW YORK: A wealthy Indian-origin couple and their teenage daughter were found dead in their $5 million mansion in the US state of Massachusetts in an apparent domestic violence incident, according to media reports.

The bodies of Rakesh Kamal, 57, his wife, Teena, 54, and their 18-year-old daughter, Ariana, were found in their Dover mansion at about 7.30pm, Thursday, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said. Dover is about 32km southwest of downtown Boston, the capital of Massachusetts.

Teena and her husband, who also went by Rick had previously run a now-defunct education systems company called EduNova. The district attorney, who described the “terrible tragedy” as a “domestic violence situation,” said a gun was found near the husband’s body.

He declined to say whether all three family members were shot dead — and by whom, the New York Post reported. Morrissey said he was waiting for the medical examiner’s ruling, which was expected soon, before deciding whether to refer to the incident as a murder-suicide.

The couple appeared to have faced financial problems in recent years, records show. 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 Post. The Kamals had purchased the 19,000-square-foot estate – which boasts 11 bedrooms – for $4 million in 2019, according to the records.

Their company was launched in 2016 but was dissolved in Dec 2021. Teena was listed on EduNova’s website as the chief operating officer of the company, describing her as an alum of Harvard University and Delhi University.

According to his biography on the EduNova website, Kamal was an alumnus of Boston University and the MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as 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,” said The Boston Globe.

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

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.

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