Teen Of Telugu Origin In North Carolina Arrested For Killing His Mother 

Cary, NC: A North Carolina teenager of Telugu origin has been charged with murder of his own mother his, months after the incident took place.

Arnav Uppalapati, now 17, called 911 on December 17, 2015 to report finding his 51-year-old mother Nalini Tellaprolu dead in their garage in the 2000 block of Roland Glen Road.

Nalini was getting ready to celebrate her 52nd birthday. She worked at Duke Medicine, her friends remember the woman as a fun-loving, caring and attentive mother.

After her death under mysterious circumstances, longtime friend Padma Tummala said Nalini often spoke fondly of her daughter, Avani, and son, Arnav. She said she remembered when Nalini told her how Arnav, who was attending Green Hope High School, stayed up late working on homework. She would stay up with him to ensure he had plenty of snacks.

"She took part in every way in their life – in their studies, in their activities," Tummala told the local media after the death. "She was a friend to them, and she was a guide to them. She supported them in every way."

Nalini moved to Cary from Detroit in 2008 with her husband, Mahesh, and Arnav to be closer to Avani, who was attending the NC School of Math and Science. After moving to Cary, Tellaprolu and Tummala often spent time together at parties, on walks, at the beach and other activities with their group of friends.

It was suspected to be a crime against Indians at the time. However, the investigation continued for months and now police say the son, 17-year-old Arnav Uppalapati, killed his mother. Police have not said how Nalini was killed, but the State Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled that her death is a homicide. Arnav faces a murder charge.

The boy's arrest on Friday on charges of strangling his mother sent shock waves through western Wake County’s Indian community, according to a Morrisville town councilman.

It took more than a year for investigators to gather enough evidence to make an arrest in the Dec. 17, 2015, death of Nalini Tellaprolu. Friends of the family were shocked when Cary police charged her son, Arnav Uppalapati, with her murder.

"It's very devastating," said Satish Garimella, a Morrisville town councilman of Indian descent. "There's never been an incident where a son has taken the life of his own biological mother."

Close family friends who were awaiting an arrest in the case echoed Garimella’s shock and disbelief that Tellaprolu’s son was accused in her death. One month after she died, her longtime friend Padma Tummala said the slain woman often spoke fondly of her daughter, Avani, and son, Arnav. She said she remembered when Tellaprolu told her how Arnav, who attended Green Hope High School, stayed up late working on homework and that she would stay up with him to ensure he had plenty of snacks.

"We’re shocked as a community," Tummala said Friday afternoon. "This was not something we expected to hear. She focused all of her energy on her kids."

Another family friend, Vijay Javvadi, said he was surprised to learn Nalini’s son was charged with her murder.

“I still don’t believe it,” he said. “This is completely out of the blue.”

Javvadi said he talked frequently with Tellaprolu’s family after her death and spoke with her husband, Babu Mahesh Uppalapati, on Friday morning.

“I’m pretty sure he’s in the same boat as the rest of us,” Javvadi said. “The way that it has affected us, I can only imagine what he’s going through.”

Cary police Capt. Randall Rhyne declined to discuss a motive, nor would he say what evidence led investigators to Arnav.

But Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Uppalapati was a person of interest throughout the investigation. One telling clue, Freeman said, were early reports that indicated there were no signs of a forced entry into the family’s two-story, $450,000 home at the Upchurch Farms subdivision.

The Son's Misleading Report

Arnav was 16 when he called 911 on the afternoon of Dec. 17, 2015, and told an emergency dispatcher that he had arrived home from school and found his 51-year-old mother lying dead on the garage floor of their home on Roland Glen Road. The teen led two uniformed officers to his mother’s body.

Nalini had been strangled, with a plastic bag over her head. Her feet were in the back seat of a car, according to an autopsy report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The teen told the officers that he had last seen his mother alive the night before at about 10:30 pm when the two of them ate dinner together. Arnav told police that he went upstairs to do his homework and later went to bed. He said he woke up the next morning about 6:50 a.m., ate breakfast and left for school at 7 a.m.

The boy told police that he did not see or talk to his mother before leaving out the front door. The teen said he returned home at 3:20 p.m. and saw her lying on the garage floor, according to a search warrant application from Cary police.

Nalini’s death was ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner’s Office. Her body was covered with bruises and scratches on her face, neck, torso and arms. There were minor blunt force injuries, and the cartilage in her neck was fractured, according to the report.

It did not appear the home was targeted for robbery. The alarm system had not been activated, and there were no signs of forced entry. Police say nothing had been removed from the home during the crime, according to search warrant applications.

In the days after Nalini’s death, investigators searched a 2013 Honda Civic she drove and the family home and reviewed the home’s alarm system records.

Investigators learned that Mahesh Babu Uppalapati was out of state on a business trip at the time of incident.

He told police that he had made several attempts to call and text his wife, without success. Mahesh told detectives he had called his son and told him to go home immediately after school and check on his mother because she was not answering her phone.

Detectives also learned that Nalini was adamant about activating the home security system each night before she went to bed. They discovered that on the night of Dec. 16 into the morning of Dec. 17, the home security system was never activated.

Nalini failed to show up for work on Dec. 17 at Duke University Health System, where she was a testing coordinator and quality assurance team leader.

She also served on the board of directors of the Triangle Area Telugu Association, a nonprofit that seeks to promote southeastern Indian culture.

Arnav's arrest marked the second time this month that a teen has been charged with killing his mother. On March 6, Franklin County sheriff's deputies charged Oscar Funez Machado, 18, with first-degree murder, after the sheriff said he decapitated his mother, Yesenia Funes Beatriz Machado, 35, at their home northeast of Zebulon.

"Total disbelief," Garimella said about Arnav’s arrest, “especially for a son to do that to his own biological mother. It really sends shock waves.”