On January 18, 2023, Dublin police officers discovered the bodies of 19-year-old Anish Rajan Rajaram, along with his parents, 54-year-old Rajan Rajaram and 51-year-old Santhalatha Rajan, in their home on the 7300 block of Balfoure Circle in Dublin, Ohio. The discovery was made around 2 a.m. after a friend of one of the residents requested a well-being check.
According to the police, all three family members died from gunshot wounds and had been deceased for several days before they were found. There were no signs of forced entry into the home, leading investigators to suspect a double murder-suicide. The Franklin County Coroner's office later released an autopsy report confirming that Rajan Rajaram, Anish's father, died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Anish Rajan Rajaram was a sophomore at Miami University, where he was pursuing an accounting major in the Farmer School of Business. He was an active member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and Pi Sigma Epsilon. Anish had graduated magna cum laude from Dublin Coffman High School in May 2021 before enrolling at Miami University.
The incident shocked the local community and the Indian American community at large. It was reported as the third violent incident involving an Indian American family in January 2023, following two other unrelated cases in California and Houston.
No arrests were made in connection with this case, as it was investigated as a murder-suicide. The police stated that there was no ongoing threat to the public related to this incident. The autopsies for Anish and his mother, Santhalatha Rajan, were not immediately released, but police initially stated that all three family members died by firearm.
