Who was Harshavardhana S Kikkeri? Indian techie who killed wife, son in US in a murder-suicide

In a shocking incident, an Indian-origin techie was found dead along with his wife and son in Washington's Newcastle last week. The 57-year-old was identified as Harshavardhana S Kikkeri, CEO of HoloWorld, a robotics company headquartered in Mysuru.

Following a 911 call, police found blood on a window, a bullet in the street and the three bodies, King County sheriff’s spokesperson Brandyn Hull told the Seattle Times. While the motive behind the crime has not been revealed yet, the incident which happened on April 24 has been ruled a murder-suicide by authorities.

According to the medical examiner’s office, the deaths of Kikkeri’s wife and co-founder, Shwetha Panyam, 44, and their 14-year-old son were classified as homicides while the techie died by suicide, reported the Seattle Times.

According to the neighbours, the family of four kept to themselves and lived in the townhouse. The couple’s younger son, 7, is the only survivor.

Hailing from Kikkeri village in Karnataka’s Mandya district, tech entrepreneur Harshavardhana Kikkeri studied in Mysuru and the US, reported Deccan Herald. He completed his master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University and had worked with Microsoft, specialising in robotics.

The techie returned to India in 2017 and co-founded HoloWorld with his wife, Shwetha. According to the Indian Express, the company ended its operations in 2022, but its social media accounts were last updated in November 2023.

In 2022, the family went back to the US. Kikkeri gained recognition for creating HoloSuit – an AI enabled full body motion capture suit which acts as a virtual trainer for your body.

According to the TedX talk by him on YouTube, Kikkeri has won several leadership awards, including Gold Star from Microsoft, Excellence Award from Infosys, Bharat Petroleum Scholarship and several chess tournaments.

He held 44 international patents from the US, Europe, China, Japan, among others.