An Indian-origin high school student in North Carolina has been arrested for matricide.
Cary police arrested 17-year-old Arnav Uppalapati, one year after his mother 51-year-old Nalini Tellaprolu, was strangled to death at their home in Wake County.
Police has not discussed a motive, neither showed what evidence led investigators to the teenager, but throughout the investigations for a year, they maintained that he was a person of interest in the case.
Arnav was only 16-year-old, when the incident occurred. He called 911 on December 17, 2015 and said that he had arrived home from school and found that his mother was lying dead on the garage floor of their home. His father was away on a business trip, was trying to reach her over the phone all day without success and had asked him to go home from school and check on his mother.
Police found Nalini strangled with a plastic bag over her head. Her feet were in the back seat of a car.
Arnav said that he last saw his mother alive was the night before the incident at around 10:30 p.m., when they had dinner together.
Next day he woke at 6:50 a.m., had breakfast and left for school at 7 a.m. without seeing her, before he returned home at 3:20 p.m. to check on her on instruction from his father, Babu Uppalapati.
Medical examiners found Nalini’s body covered with bruises and scratches and a facture cartilage in the neck. Police ruled the death as a homicide. Further investigations showed that there was no sign of forcible entry and the home alarm system, which Nalini switched on meticulously every night, was not activated on the night of her death.
The Indian community, including Telugu association in North Carolina, where Nalini was very active, is in shock. “It is very devastating”, said Indian-origin Satish Garimella, a Morrisville town councilman. "There's never been an incident where a son has taken the life of his own biological mother."
Arnav would be tried on a class B1 felony charge, which is punishable by a maximum life sentence in prison without parole.
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