Police in North Carolina arrested a 17-year-old Indian-American student over the murder of his mother in December 2015.
Arnav Uppalapati was arrested on Friday for allegedly strangling his mother, Nalini Tellaprolu, a medical worker, on 17 December 2015.
The local Indian community is reportedly in a shock over the arrest.
“It’s very devastating. There’s never been an incident where a son has taken the life of his biological mother,” The News&Observer quoted Satish Garimella, a local community member as saying.
Arnav Uppalapati Source: The News&Observer
Police investigators took over a year to gather enough evidence to make the arrest over Nalini’s murder.
However, the motive and the evidence that led police to Arnav have not been disclosed so far.
The Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said he was a person of interest right from the beginning of the investigation. He said the most important clue was the absence of any signs of a forced entry into the family’s two-storey home where the deceased's body was found in the garage with a plastic bag over her head.
Arnav was 16 when he reported coming back from school and finding his mother’s body.
A medical examiner found Nalini’s body was covered with bruises and scratches on her face, neck, torso and arms and the cartilage in her neck was fractured.
Police said in a statement that Arnav would be tried on a class B1 felony charge, which is punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
