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Rutendra
RAGHUNANDAN
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Parricide
- Revenge
Number of victims: 3
Date of murders:
September 15,
2003
Date of birth: 1971
Victims profile: Lolita Raghunandan, 32 (his estranged wife)
and their two sons, Akash, 10, and
Rene, 5
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Status:
Committed suicide
by shooting himself the same day
4 Dead In
Apparent Triple Murder-Suicide
Sep 16, 2003
-
US/Mountain
(News 4) - Coloraddo Springs, Colo.
Police in Colorado Springs are investigating what appears to be a
murder-suicide.
They believe a father shot and
killed his entire family, News 4 reports.
Officers believe the man shot his
estranged wife and their two sons before killing himself.
The boys were 5 and 10 years old.
The incident happened at the wife's
apartment in Cimarron Hills at 7135 Indendence Suare Pt. The couple was
separated.
Police said Rutendra Raghunandan
was arrested last Thursday for breaking into his wife's apartment, the
time at which the picture of Raghunandan above was taken.
He was released the next day.
The 32-year-old worked at the
Denver women's correctional facility.
Adults, Children
Found Dead Inside Apartment
Victims Of Apparent Murder-Suicide Identified
TheDenverChannel.com
September 16, 2003
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- El Paso County
authorities have identified the victims an apparent murder-suicide
on the eastern edge of Colorado Springs.
Sheriff's officials responded to an apartment
unit near East Constitution and Marksheffel Road just before 9 a.m.,
and discovered two adults and two children shot to death inside.
Deputies cordoned off the Cimarron Hills
apartment as a crime scene Tuesday while investigators worked the
case.
The victims were identified as Rutendra
Raghunandan, 32, Lolita Raghunandan, 32, Akash Raghunandan, 10, and
Rene Raghunandan, 5.
"It is believed that Mr. Raghunandan shot and
killed his wife and two sons, and then killed himself," a statement
from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said. A rifle was found
near the husband's body, according to reports.
"A neighbor actually called the maintenance
department of the complex here and said that they were concerned
because they had not seen the children outside," said Lt. Rodney
Gehrett, of the El Paso County Sheriff's Department. "The
maintenance person went to the apartment and knocked on the door and
there was no answer. He opened the door ... and could see the female
victim lying in the living room."
The husband and wife had separated, and she moved
into the apartment with the two boys less than a month ago, Gehrett
said.
It was not immediately known what might have
precipitated the shooting, but it was believed to have occurred in
the past two days, investigators said.
Neighbor Todd Anderson said he heard a scream and
what sounded like firecrackers between 11:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m.
Monday. He said he thought it was children playing.
Deputies were called to the address Friday night
when the husband allegedly broke into his wife's apartment and
assaulted her. He was charged with second-degree burglary, third-degree
assault, and domestic violence and was booked into the Criminal
Justice Center. He was released on $10,000 personal recognizance
bond the next day, according to the investigators
Rutendra Raghunandan worked as a guard for the
Colorado Department of Corrections and was to have been suspended
Monday over last week's arrest.
Prison guard
kills wife and two sons after unfaithful wife obtains protection order
Prison guard shoots estranged wife and her two sons,
then himself
The
Denver Post
Wednesday, September
17, 2003
Colorado Springs
— A Colorado Department of Corrections officer, whose wife
apparently left him for another man, shot and killed her and her two
sons, ages 5 and 10, before taking his own life, according to El
Paso County sheriff's officers.
At 11:50 PM Thursday, September 11
th , Rutendra Raghunandan went to his wife's apartment. Lolita
would not let him in but he managed to get inside through an open
door on the balcony, according to a court document. Once inside,
Raghunandan found another man in the apartment and asked him to
leave. The other man, who has not been identified, did.
Lolita told a sheriff's deputy that
her husband then grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the
bedroom, a court document shows. "Mr.
Raghunandan shoved Mrs. Raghunandan against a bedroom wall, grabbed
her hair and forcefully shoved her head into the wall causing pain.
Mr. Raghunandan also tore Mrs. Raghunandan's shirt," the deputy
wrote in the court document.
The deputy noted that a screwdriver
was embedded in a bedroom door and that a closet door had a hole in
it. Raghunandan told the deputy he caused the damage.
Raghunandan was arrested and booked
into the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center on suspicion of
third-degree assault, domestic violence and second- degree burglary.
A judge advised him of his rights Friday, and he was released on a
$10,000 personal recognizance bond with a
mandatory protection order at 7:23 PM on September 12
th . Raghunandan's supervisors at the Denver Women's
Correctional Facility, where he had worked as a correctional officer
since April 1, 1999, were notified of the arrest, and a DV
conviction would certainly have cost him his job.
On Friday, Lolita apparently also
went to TESSA, who helped her obtain a
civil protection order against her husband
as well. By now Rutendra had lost his wife, any children that might
have been his, and his job due to his wife's actions. And with only
the sketchiest of hearings and no trial, everything he owned or
loved was taken from him and the legal system left him among the
living dead. By Monday, he, his wife, and her sons were dead.
A neighbor, worried that she had not
seen the boys, asked a maintenance worker at the apartment complex
to check on the family Tuesday morning. The man opened the door, saw
Lolita's body and called the sheriff's office at 8:53 AM September
16, 2003.
Lolita Raghunandan, 32, was found in
the living room of her east Colorado Springs apartment, 7135
Independence Square Point, where she had moved less than a month ago
after separating from her husband. Sons Akash, 10, and Rene, 5, were
found in a bedroom with her husband, Rutendra Raghunandan. A 9 mm
gun was found near the father.
Lt. Rodney Gehrett, El Paso County
sheriff's spokesman, said detectives believe the shootings occurred
one or two days before the bodies were found. Neighbors gave
conflicting reports; some reported hearing shots late Sunday night,
and others said they heard them Monday morning.
Even under the draconian provisions
of current law, which negate virtually every Constitutional civil
liberty, clearly there was no effective protection available for
Lolita. Conversely, Lolita seems to have invoked at least three of
the five catalysts for violence tabulated
above. And note that while the newspaper referred to the children as
his, DNA paternity testing of children in other similar
relationships suggests there is at least a 30% chance that one or
both of her children may not have been Rutendra's. That suspicion is
reinforced as Lolita was apparently having an affair, since Rutendra
found another man in her apartment at midnight.
