In a harrowing incident that has sent shockwaves through the Bay Area's affluent community, Anand Sujith Henry, a former software engineering manager with stints at Meta and Google, is believed to have carried out a murder-suicide that claimed the lives of his wife, Alice Benziger, and their twin 4-year-old sons, Noah and Neithan, in their $2.1 million San Mateo residence. The tragedy unfolded in the quiet suburb, starkly contrasting the region's tech-driven vibrancy.
San Mateo Police Department, responding to a welfare check at the family's home Monday morning, discovered the bodies. The scene, described by officials, featured Henry and Benziger with gunshot wounds in a bathroom adjacent to a 9mm pistol and a loaded magazine, signaling a violent altercation that culminated in this devastating act. The young boys were found in one of the home's five bedrooms, their cause of death still under investigation, with authorities probing the possibility of smothering or a lethal drug dosage.
The case, initially misreported as a gas poisoning incident, has been officially classified as a murder-suicide by the police. "We are confident the person responsible was located within the home," the San Mateo Police Department stated, underlining the isolated nature of this incident and reassuring the public of no broader threat.
Henry, who had recently ventured into founding an AI company named Logits after leaving Meta in June, had a complex personal history, including a divorce filing in December 2016 that never fully materialized. His professional journey from Google to Meta and onto entrepreneurship painted a picture of a successful tech career that belied the turmoil within.
Neighbors and the broader community have been left reeling from the news, struggling to reconcile the family's outward success with the grim reality of their demise. "There's hardly any deaths in this area ever," remarked local resident Matthew Sheldon, encapsulating the area's general disbelief at the occurrence of such a tragedy in their midst.
The couple's roots trace back to India, where they both embarked on their engineering careers before moving to the United States. Their academic pursuits led them to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, after which Benziger specialized in data science, eventually securing a managerial position at Zillow.
As the investigation continues, law enforcement and the San Mateo County Coroner's office are working diligently to piece together the events leading up to this tragic incident, with the aim of providing closure to the families involved and the community at large. The loss of the Henry-Benziger family serves as a poignant reminder of the personal struggles that can lurk behind professional facades, even in Silicon Valley's high-flying tech circles.
