17-year-old suspected of murdering his mother and brother: "He created stories on ChatGPT about killing the family"
Arjun Aravind was arrested in Massachusetts after police found him in his mother's car. The prosecution claims that before the deaths, he used ChatGPT to create stories "in the style of a gothic novel" about murdering his family members.
A 17-year-old teenager from Massachusetts is accused of murdering his mother and younger brother after, according to police, he used ChatGPT to create fantasy stories about murdering his family members. According to a report in the New York Post, Arjun Aravind is suspected of murdering his mother, 45-year-old Sudha Venkatesan, and his 14-year-old brother Siddharth Aravind, who were found dead in the family home in Acton on Tuesday evening.
"This is a tragedy that cannot be described in words," said Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.
According to her, before the murders, Aravind, a student at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, had recently exhibited alarming behavior — including asking the chatbot to draft theoretical ideas or fantasy stories regarding the killing of his family. Ryan also said that he asked ChatGPT to help him generate twisted stories in the style of a gothic novel.
According to authorities, Aravind's father contacted the police after a private tutor was unable to enter the house. The father said he had last spoken to his wife earlier that morning before leaving for work, while Siddharth was last seen around noon. When officers arrived for a welfare check around 6:30 PM, they found the 14-year-old dead on the first floor and the mother in the basement.
Afterward, according to police, Aravind fled the house in his mother's green 2014 Honda Accord. An alert was immediately issued to law enforcement agencies in the area, and on Wednesday morning, officers in the nearby town of Wayland, who had arrived for an unrelated call, located the vehicle outside a business and found him inside. He was arrested without incident.
The official cause of death for the mother and son will be determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Police did not state whether he used a gun or another weapon. Aravind was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of assault and battery on a family or household member, two counts of assault and battery, use of a motor vehicle without authority, and larceny of a motor vehicle. He was arraigned on the vehicle charges in Lowell Juvenile Court on Wednesday afternoon and is expected to be arraigned on the murder charges on Thursday at Concord District Court.
