An Indian-origin IT professional based in the UK surfed the Internet on how to murder his family and then committed suicide, authorities have said.
Jitendra Lad, 49, stabbed his wife Dukshaben, 44, and two teenage daughters Trisha, 19, and Nisha, 16, to death in the northern England city of Bradford before hanging himself days later. Lad had researched depression and how to cut someone's throat on the Internet in the days leading up to the tragedy, an inquest into the deaths was told.
Recording a verdict of suicide on Lad and unlawful killing on the other members of his family, Bradford Coroner Martin Fleming described the discovery of the bodies in their family home last October as a "scene of unimaginable horror".
"We will never know for sure what was going through Jitendra's mind at that time," he concluded yesterday. Lad was found hanging and the other members of the family had all been stabbed in their beds with a scuba-diving knife.
A coroner was told how the daughters and their mother were probably killed in the early hours of the morning of Saturday October 25 but Lad was spotted by a number of people over that weekend. He probably killed himself on the Monday afternoon, two days later.
The hearing was also told how Lad had no medical history of mental illness, and relatives and friends said they appeared to be a normal, loving family. But Detective Sergeant Duncan Jackson told the hearing in Bradford that Lad had accessed the Internet on his phone in the weeks before his death.
{{/usCountry}}The hearing was also told how Lad had no medical history of mental illness, and relatives and friends said they appeared to be a normal, loving family. But Detective Sergeant Duncan Jackson told the hearing in Bradford that Lad had accessed the Internet on his phone in the weeks before his death.
{{/usCountry}}He said the searches indicated he had researched depression and, just days before the tragedy, he had made searches "related to how to cut someone's throat" and "executions".
The officer also told the hearing how the IT manager was stressed at work, feeling he had been over-promoted, and also how he had told a woman on holiday two months before his death about how unhappy he was with his life and imminently turning 50.
Pathologist Brian Rogers said Trisha had suffered 33 different wounds, including to her neck and chest, which indicated she had put up a "considerable fight" before she died.
Her sister, Nisha, suffered eight different wounds, while their mother suffered a total of five injuries, of which four were deep stab wounds that severed arteries in her neck and her chest.