India: Another house of horror? Skeletons of 5 family members found in Karnataka home

The skeletal remains of five members of the same family have been recovered from inside a house in the Chitradurga district of the south Indian state of Karnataka. What makes the development more shocking is that the family was last seen five years ago in July 2019.

The police learnt about the incident on Thursday (Dec 28) through local media, who were informed by a person in the locality. Over two months ago, locals had noticed that the main door was broken and that there had been repeated attempts of ransacking the place. However, the police were not notified until this week.

Upon arriving at the scene, the police found four skeletons, two on beds and two on the floor, in one of the rooms. The fifth skeleton was discovered in the other room.

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Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team from Devengere and Scene of Crime Officers (SOCOs) were quickly summoned to the scene and collected evidences as to what had transpired in the house.

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According to relatives of the deceased,the family members lived an entirely secluded life and had severe health issues. As per initial reports, the skeletons are of an elderly couple, retired government executive engineer Jagannath Reddy (85), his wife Prema (80), daughter Triveni (62), and sons Krishna (60) and Narendra (57).

"We visited the spot on Thursday evening and spoke to acquaintances and relatives of the family. All of them claimed that the family used to live a completely secluded life and was facing critical health issues," a senior police official was quoted as saying by NDTV.

"Whether they died by suicide or were killed by someone, details are not known. After an investigation and a forensic report, we will get to know. Until then, we can't say anything or come to any conclusion," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)