Murder of four at Nanthancode

Zombie Go Boom (ZGM), a violent video game in which young protagonists use sharp-edged weapons to kill the ‘evil undead, appeared to have inspired the methodical murders of four members of a family at their house at Nanthancode here early April.

Investigators said the 29-year-old suspect and scion of the wealthy family, Cadell Jeansen Raja, was a compulsive video gamer and recluse who spent much of his day cooped up in his room acting out dark digital fantasies on his computer screen.

The police said the murders, carried out with a ‘Stanley Camp Axe’ bought online, mimicked the killings in the grisly computer game. The blows were struck from behind and the victims caught unawares. And as in the game, the bodies were set afire.

Investigators, who are criminally profiling the accused, said they glimpsed in Cadell a loner who was not allowed to bring friends home as a school student.

The family wanted Raja to be a doctor while he aspired to study ancient history. He fled Ukraine as a medical student to escape white supremacist aggression against Asians. Cadell’s expensive sojourn in Australia later helped little to advance his academic prospects.

The youth returned home as a ‘failure’ in deep dread of parental disapproval. Violent role-playing video games were an escape. The cumulative effect of long-term exposure to the graphic violence prompted the suspect to actively contemplate murder, investigators believe.

They said Cadell had “attempted to murder his family by spiking their fish curry with pesticide”. The “ominous incident” was brushed aside as an instance of “food poisoning”.

Investigators said Cadell had ‘killed his parents in revenge and his sister and blind aunt to save them from the ordeal of a lonely life’. The suspect also often contemplated suicide and once actively pursued a bid by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. DCP Arul R.B. Krishna and ACP K. E. Baiju are investigating the case.