Indian-origin tech CEO Harshavardhana Kikkeri, wife and 14-year-old son found dead at Newcastle home
A 57-year-old Indian-origin tech entrepreneur from Mysuru was found dead along with his wife and son in Washington's Newcastle last week, Deccan Herald reported. CEO of HoloWorld, a robotics company headquartered in Mysuru, Harshavardhana S Kikkeri was found dead along with his wife and co-founder Shwetha Panyam, 44, and their 14-year-old son, identified as Dhruva Kikkeri by Seattle Times.
Police responded to a 911 call last week at a townhouse in King County where they found blood on a window and a bullet in the street along with three bodies, King County sheriff's spokesperson Brandyn Hull told Seattle Times.
Police have not revealed the motive behind the crime and refused to comment on whether it was a case of murder-suicide. However, the medical examiner's office classified Shwetha and Dhruva's death as homicides and stated that Harshavardhana died by suicide, according to Seattle Times.
Neighbours said the family of four kept to themselves and lived in the townhouse, with the couple's younger son 7, being the only survivor.
Tech entrepreneur Harshavardhana Kikkeri hailed from Manya's Kikkeri village and studied in Mysuru and US, Deccan Herald reported. He held a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University and had worked with Microsoft, specialising in robotics.
In 2017, he returned to India and co-founded HoloWorld with his wife Shwetha. The company ended operations in 2022, as per Indian Express, however, its social media accounts were last updated in November 2023.
Kikkeri and his family went back to US in 2022. He made headlines for creating HoloSuit – an AI enabled full body motion capture suit which acts as a virtual trainer for your body.
According to the description of a TedX talk by Kikkeri on YouTube, he won numerous leadership awards including Gold Star from Microsoft, Excellence Award from Infosys, Bharat Petroleum Scholarship and several chess tournaments.
The video description also claimed that he held 44 international patents from the US, Europe, China, Japan among others.
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