Sunday Times 2
Horror in Harrow for Lankan accountant
A father arrived home to find his wife had killed their two young sons before apparently killing herself, police revealed yesterday.
Accountant Sakthivel Vageswaran, 36, found the bodies of five-year-old Anopan and eight-month-old Nathiban in black bin bags when he returned from work. Wife Jeyavani was also dead.
Tragic: Jeyavani Sakthivel (left) and her son Anopan — both of whom were found dead yesterday — pictured with Vageswaran Sakthivel
Mr. Sakthivel is said to be still ‘screaming for his babies’ and will not return to the family home in Harrow, North London.
Gowthamy Mahadeva, 49, who has known the couple for more than ten years, said: ‘I saw him just this morning and his eyes are empty. ‘He’s screaming and crying for his babies and says he can’t set foot in that house again. It’s desperately sad.’
Neighbours said the couple were struggling with their new baby and would argue, but Mrs. Mahadeva said there had been no mention of post-natal depression. ‘She had miscarried in 2011 she was a strong woman and she bounced back.
‘The morning of the tragedy she made her husband’s lunch before he went to work. When he came home his children were lying dead in a black bag. It’s hard to believe that such a gentle, maternal woman could do this.’
Mrs. Mahadeva said she and her friends had missed calls from Mrs. Sakthivel on Wednesday – the day before the bodies were found – which she now believes was a cry for help. ‘I’m never going to forget missing that call,’ she said.
‘She tried a few friends but when people called back on Thursday, there was no answer.’
Police revealed that they were not seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths and were investigating whether the mother had
Death: Anopan Sakthivel, aged 5, (left) and Nadaben, aged 8 months
been suffering from post-natal depression.
A post-mortem examination gave the woman’s cause of death as compression of the neck, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.
Post-mortem examinations will be carried out on the two children on Tuesday, he added.
Neighbours described the family as ‘happy and smiling’ but said the second baby had increased the strain on the couple. Tashma Brown, 34, said: ‘There was always shouting and arguing, three or four times in a month sometimes. Most of the time when they argued he would come outside to cool down.’
She added that she heard Mrs. Sakthivel getting upset the day before the killings about the baby crying in the house. ‘She was shouting but it was in her own language. She sounded upset,’ she said.
Another neighbour described the deaths as a terrible tragedy. ‘People cannot believe that those lovely little boys are dead,’ he said.
Another neighbour added: ‘She seemed like a good mother. She was on maternity leave from her job, but I don’t know what she did.
‘We were invited to their son’s fifth birthday party a couple of months ago and my mother commented on how clever the little boy was. He was a sweet boy.’
Probe: Officers were called to the property in north-west London at 5pm yesterday evening. A woman and her two sons were found dead
Mrs. Mahadeva said she last saw the couple on Christmas Day, when the friends celebrated a birthday.
‘She was her usual self – she was happy and smiling,’ she said.
‘Just last Sunday she was on the phone with my sister-in-law discussing when she could start to feed the baby different foods – she seemed happy as ever.’
Mr. Sakthivel, who was born in northern Sri Lanka, moved to the UK around ten years ago and studied at London’s South Bank University. He has spent the past three years running a firm called Vaasi Accountancy.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said Mrs. Sakthivel and her sons were pronounced dead at the scene. Police are not seeking anyone else in connection with the incident.
© Daily Mail, London