The Acton teen accused of killing his mother and younger brother after first working out his violent fantasies through chats with the AI bot ChatGPT was ordered held without bail.
“Wait, when Adrian kills parents I could see him luring one to convo in basement as they have always forced him to do but what excuse would he use to take their phone,” Arjun Aravind, on summer break between his junior and senior years of high school, allegedly asked ChatGPT at 7:53 a.m. on Tuesday.
That evening, police would discover the bodies of his younger brother, Siddharth Aravind, 14, at the top of the stairs to the basement of the family home at 1 Martha Lane in Acton. At the bottom of the basement stairs, as spoken about with the chatbot, was the body of his mother, Sudha Venkatesan, 45.
Arjun Aravind, 17, was formally charged with two counts each of murder, assault and battery on a household or family member, and assault and battery, as well as single counts of use of a vehicle without authority and theft of a motor vehicle.
Aravind, described in the police report as 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, did not speak during his appearance in Concord District Court Thursday morning, where he stood shackled in the dock and accompanied by court guards. Not guilty pleas were entered on Aravind’s behalf on each charge.
Aravind was initially arraigned Wednesday morning at Lowell Juvenile Court. Because the primary charge is murder, his case was moved to the standard trial court system.
Acton Police received a well-being call a little before 6:40 p.m. Tuesday directing them to the home. The caller was the defendant’s father, who reported that a tutor who was scheduled for the day reported that nobody was answering at the home and that he also couldn’t reach his family, according to prosecutor Suzanne Wiseman’s telling of the allegations in court.
At the family home, police found the garage door open and the mother’s car, a 2014 green Honda Accord sedan, missing. Going deeper inside, they found the bodies of the two victims at either end of the basement stairs, according to their report. The younger brother was observed by household surveillance entering the home around noon, which is “the last time that either the female or the child were observed or known to be alive.”
Both names were redacted from the report but were released by authorities on Wednesday.
Prosecutor Wiseman, an experienced assistant district attorney who was named chief of the Middlesex DA’s office’s expanded cold case unit last year, on Thursday said that evidence at the scene indicated “a violent struggle” featuring “blunt force trauma” to both bodies.
The police report sketches “significant biological evidence … around the bodies,” as well as further evidence of struggle, including “dried blood on the edge of the bathtub,” as well as blood drop stains on the bathroom floor and a smeared mirror. Police also say they found “bloody men’s clothes” discarded on the upper floor and “bloody footprints throughout.”
Wiseman requested that the defendant be held without bail due to the severity of the charges.
Defense attorney Debra DeWitt didn’t challenge the request but asked that it be imposed without prejudice, meaning that he could be granted bail later.
DeWitt, speaking to media following the arraignment, emphasized her client’s age and maturity level while leaving open the possibility of an insanity defense — but didn’t want to call it that or commit to it.
“I don’t like the term insanity defense. There’s an issue about a lack of criminal responsibility, maybe. That’s an issue,” she said. “Do I know for certain? Not until I get a full evaluation.”
She said that her client told her “he did not even know when he left the house that they were dead. There was an incident inside the house that occurred and when he left the house he didn’t even realize his mother was dead.”
DeWitt requested and was granted a psychological evaluation for Arjun Aravind, who the police report notes “has been diagnosed with Autism and was having behavioral issues.” The report further notes that the father expressed concerns about his son’s use of ChatGPT “to make disturbing searches that included theoretical ideas or fantasies regarding killing his family.”
“That’s why it’s so tragic. You have a father who is mourning his wife and son but he also has a son who is being charged,” DeWitt said. “I can tell you that the father wants his son to get help.”
She confirmed the family had moved to Acton around a year ago from elsewhere in Massachusetts for better educational opportunities for the family and for greater support.
“He was a young man who had some emotional issues. The family was working very hard to keep him on a straight path,” she said.
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