In a quiet Manassas Park, Virginia neighborhood, a tragedy unfolded that cut short the life of 8-year-old Shayna Pariyar, a female of Nepali descent. On the evening of June 5, 2025, police were called to conduct a welfare check at a downstairs apartment on Lanae Lane after the landlord was unable to get in touch with the tenants. What they discovered inside was a scene of unimaginable loss.
Shayna, her 2-year-old brother Om Singh Rana, and their parents, Santosh Pariyar, 38, and Anju Shrestha, 36, were all found deceased.
The cause of death for all four family members was determined to be apparent gunshot wounds, and a single gun was recovered at the scene. Investigators quickly began treating the case as a murder-suicide. The loss was deeply felt in the community, particularly at Manassas Park Elementary School where Shayna was a student. The school system reached out to families to offer mental health support in the wake of the devastating news.
The Pariyar family had moved to the United States from Nepal in 2017. News of the deaths sent shockwaves through the local Nepali community and left relatives in their home country desperate for answers. Family members in Nepal recounted speaking with Santosh and Shayna via video call just hours before they were found, with no indication of the horror to come. As of the initial reports, the police investigation was active and ongoing, with authorities yet to officially confirm the specific sequence of events or who was responsible for the shootings. The family in Nepal expressed their profound grief and the pain of not being able to have a final viewing of their loved ones.
