Massachusetts teen accused of killing mother, brother with help from ChatGPT

A suburban Boston teenager murdered his mother and brother after using artificial intelligence to search “for theoretical ideas or fantasy stories regarding the killing of his family,” authorities said Wednesday. Arjun Aravind, 17, of the affluent bedroom community of Acton, was charged with two counts of murder in the slayings of Sudha Venkatesan, 45, and Siddharth Aravind, 14, according to a statement from Middlesex County prosecutors. The suspect’s tutor, who had an appointment at the family home on Tuesday, “was unable to make contact with residents upon arrival,” prosecutors said. That’s when the suspect’s father — who last spoken with his wife when he left for work in the morning — called police and officers “located the two victims dead inside,” the district attorney said. The body of the suspect’s brother was found on the first floor and the body of the mother in the basement, officials said. “The investigation has so far shown that Arjun had recently been demonstrating some concerning behavior, including using the internet and ChatGPT to make searches for theoretical ideas or fantasy stories regarding the killing of his family,” Middlesex County County DA Marian Ryan told reporters. The suspect planned out the death of family members as fantasy fiction, Ryan said. “He was engaged in the use of ChatGPT in creating fantasy stories, kind of the gothic novel kind of stories, asking questions, creating characters, asking what about this if this happened to that, and they seem to appear to relate to threats to his family,” she added. The suspect and his mother’s car, a 2014 green Honda Accord, were missing from the home when the bodies were found, officials said. An alarm was tripped at a parking lot, about 13 miles away in Wayland early Wednesday morning, officials said. Responding officers “recognized that license plate and Arjun was inside that car,” Ryan said. “He was taken into custody by police without incident,” she added. The teen has been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of assault and battery on a household or family member, two counts of assault and battery, use of a vehicle without authority and theft of a motor vehicle. Local law enforcement knew the family after the suspect was briefly reported missing last year. “It was more of a runaway reported missing child at the time and there there wasn’t much involvement after that,” said Acton Police Chief Douglas Sturniolo, adding that there had been no threats of violence in that previous matter. It was not immediately clear on Thursday whether Arjun Aravind had hired or been assigned a criminal defense lawyer to speak on his behalf.