New Delhi:
Teachers and classmates of an 18-year-old Indian-origin teen who was found dead along with her parents in Massachusetts remember her as a brilliant student and an amazing singer.
The teen Arianna Kamal, and her parents Rakesh Kamal and Teena Kamal were found dead in their $5 million Dover mansion in an apparent domestic violence incident.
Dover is 32 km from downtown Boston, the capital of the US state of Massachusetts.
Arianna was a student of Middlebury College. The college in a statement said she was participating in a first-year seminar, Mindfulness in Education, taught by Melissa Hammerle, the visiting assistant professor of education studies.
Arianna was also involved in an organisation for students with an interest in foraging, and with the Women in Computer Science student organisation, the college said.
“She loved singing and was interested in going to Italy with the college opera group,” Ms Melissa, who taught the Indian-origin teen, said in the statement.
“Aria was beloved by the college choir,” added music teacher Jeffrey Buettner. “She loved singing together, and her choir community was deeply meaningful to her in her first semester.”
The college said once it returns from the break, it will work with Aria’s friends and possibly with her extended family to plan an appropriate remembrance.
“We know that this news will be difficult for those who knew Aria, those with experiences of domestic violence, those grieving other losses, and for our whole community, especially as most of us are apart from our Middlebury campus community during winter break,” the college said.
Arianna had graduated from the prestigious Milton Academy this summer. The school in a statement said she “was a sweet, smart, kind young woman who was just beginning to realize her full potential.”
Her mother, Teena, was involved in the school as well.
“Milton Academy is heartbroken to learn of the death of Arianna Kamal, a recent graduate of the class of 2023, as well as the deaths of her parents, Rakesh Kamal and Teena Kamal. Our thoughts are with all members of the Kamal family, their friends and our entire school community,” the full statement said.
Teena and her husband, who also went by Rick, had previously run a now-defunct education systems company called EduNova.
The Kamals had purchased the 19,000-square-foot estate – which boasts 11 bedrooms – for $4 million in 2019, according to media reports. The family members were the only ones living in the mansion at the time in the area, one of the richest in the state.
Their company was launched in 2016 but was dissolved in December 2021, state records show. Teena was listed on EduNova’s website as the chief operating officer of the company, describing her as an alum of Harvard University and Delhi University.