Police confirm murder-suicide in San Mateo

The adults’ identities have been confirmed via fingerprints and the boys via familial visual identification, according to police.

Based on the shared investigation to date between police and the county’s crime lab and coroner, Anand Henry has been identified as the suspect. A 9 mm handgun legally registered to Henry was located on the bathroom floor where both adults’ bodies were located.

There is no history of violence at the home, and outside of the context of this incident, police only responded to the home since 2020 on reports of a mountain lion in the yard. The department was contacted after the family could not be contacted, according to police.

 The couple, originally from India, worked for successful technology firms, including Meta and Google, and previously lived in San Francisco before settling in San Mateo around 2020.

One immediate neighbor, a resident of the Sugarloaf Mountain neighborhood for over a decade, said she did not notice or hear disturbances from the house.

“The dad was more active in the backyard and with the kids in the front yard,” she said. “I had just seen the little twins on their fourth birthday, so it’s been really shocking.”

She said police came to her residence on Sunday evening around 11:30 p.m. in response to a welfare check made by a family member and asked for details about the family. The nanny had also received communication from the boys’ grandmother, who allegedly lives abroad but had recently visited, to check on the family. Officers returned Monday morning when they ultimately entered the home through an unlocked window and found the bodies. The neighbor added she had thought she heard a firework over the weekend, but realized it could have been a fatal gunshot.

“I feel a lot of guilt about it and wish I could’ve changed the trajectory,” she said. “For the most part, [the neighborhood] is pretty tightknit. We’ll say hi and help each other when we can. … I think we all want to make a bigger connection together since this because we don’t want people suffering in silence if there is something going on.”

Other neighbors affirmed Henry was frequently in the front yard playing with his sons and always seemed like a friendly and attentive neighbor and father. A 30-year resident of the neighborhood said she would often greet Henry when she’d walk past the house and let the boys play with her dog. 

The couple had filed for divorce in 2016 but did not follow through and remained married. According to their LinkedIn profiles, Henry had previously worked at Google and Meta as a software engineering manager, and had recently founded a generative AI company called Logits. Benziger’s page said she was a data science manager at Zillow, a real estate marketplace platform. They had both attended Carnegie Mellon University.

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 (En Español: (888) 628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: (800) 799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.