The man who had killed a woman last week, kidnapped her daughter and then shot himself to death has been identified by police in Georgia as an Indian American.
He has been identified as Hitesh Kumar Joshi.
Police suspect that he killed the girl's mother, Vassana Sritavong, 31, at the Atlanta suburb of Norcross, Gwinnett County on Friday evening and then kidnapped her four-year-old daughter Katherine Soutavila, according to reports.
The 49-year-old man was reportedly an ex-boyfriend of the murder victim.
A report in the Gwinnett Daily Post website quoted Georgia police officer Darren Moloney as saying that fire-fighters initially responded to a medical call at Sritavong's Norcross home about 7 pm last Friday.
According to Moloney, Joshi took the girl after allegedly committing the murder.
Police then issued a 'Levi's Call' for the missing girl.
The Levi's Call is Georgia's equivalent of the AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert used in the other states of the US when a child goes missing.
A citizen then called 911 when he spotted the red Ford Explorer, which the police had said the suspect was driving, on Buford Highway in Norcross.
{{/usCountry}}A citizen then called 911 when he spotted the red Ford Explorer, which the police had said the suspect was driving, on Buford Highway in Norcross.
{{/usCountry}}Joshi then shot himself to death early Saturday with a handgun when police gave him verbal commands to exit the vehicle after stopping it.
The girl was unharmed and reunited with her family.