Roseville’s True Crime

Murder in the suburbs.

Shankar Hangud in the Placer County Superior Court for his hearing.

Renee C. Byer

Shankar Hangud in the Placer County Superior Court for his hearing.

Lindsey Snyder, Staff Writer

A man walked into Shasta County police department, 200 miles away from his home, and admitted to murdering people in his apartment in Roseville, California. 

In October 2019, Shankar Hangud drove from his home in Roseville to Shasta county police station. Before he arrived he investigators say he stopped at multiple different locations for unknown reasons. When he arrived at the police station he told officers that he had one of the victims in his vehicle at the time. After further investigation it was determined that it was his son’s body in his vehicle.

The officers investigated and did find one of the four victims in his car. After a more thorough investigation of his home, three more bodies were found in his apartment on the 1800th block of Junction Boulevard.

Police identified the man as Shankar Hangud, 53. The victims were his relatives that were suspected to be killed over a span of a few days. Two of the victims were adults and the other two were children. Information about the victims was not released until 2021 when, after further investigation, Shankur killed his wife Jyothi Shankar, 46. Along with his three children, Gauri Hangud,16, Nischal Hangud, 13, and Varum Shankar, 20. 

Investigators have not released the cause of death. Shankar confessed to killing them, his reasoning being that he could not provide for them financially. Prosecutors had said that Shankar had lost his IT job and that his marriage was falling apart.

Shankar pleaded guilty to one count of deliberately aiding his wife to die by suicide and three charges of first degree murder for his children. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.