After the search for 22-year-old Indian student Saketh Sreenivasaiah ended with local authorities recovering his body from a lake in California on Saturday, February 14, details emerged of the last two weeks before he went missing on February 9.
The body of Sreenivasaiah, who was a postgraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, was found in Lake Anza, located within the Tilden Regional Park near the Berkeley Hills.
The Indian Consulate in San Francisco confirmed the grim news via a post on X, extending “heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones during this profoundly difficult time”.
While the local police were yet to reveal the official cause of death, harrowing details have emerged from Sreenivasaiah’s final days, suggesting a period of withdrawal.
Missing for a week, then bag on a doorstep
Saketh Sreenivasaiah, who was from Tumakuru in Karnataka, was pursuing a Master of Science in the Product Development Programme at UC Berkeley. He was last seen on February 9, the same day his father also last spoke to him.
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Alarm was raised when he failed to return to his accommodation. Roommates initially searched all known locations before lodging a formal complaint with the Berkeley Police Department.
A clue emerged during the search when his backpack containing his passport and laptop was discovered on a doorstep in the Park Hills area.
On Saturday, the Indian mission in San Francisco expressed deep concern over his disappearance, noting they were in constant touch with both the family and local law enforcement. Less than 24 hours later, the mission confirmed that police had recovered his body from Lake Anza.
‘I’ve stopped caring,’ he said: Roommate’s account
Sreenivasaiah’s roommate Baneet Singh, also from India, shared a poignant and troubling account of the student’s final two weeks.
In a post on LinkedIn that he later made private, Baneet Singh revealed that while life as an international student is inherently tough, Saketh had shown specific signs of distress recently.
According to him, Sreenivasaiah had “started eating less and engaging less, only surviving on chips and cookies” over the last fortnight before he went missing.
He recalled a jarring interaction when he saw Saketh returning from class “wearing a red bathrobe”. When asked why he was wearing a robe to his lectures, Saketh is said to have replied: “I’ve stopped caring, man. I’m cold and don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I don’t care about anything”.
Baneet Singh admitted that he initially laughed at the remark, thinking his friend was “just being silly as usual”.
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Reflecting on the tragedy, the roommate wrote, “The opposite of life was never death. It was indifference. To stop caring, which led to him not caring for his own life, either”.
He also noted that Saketh had invited him to Lake Anza as early as January 21, but he had declined the invitation due to laziness.
IIT Madras to UC Berkeley
Saketh Sreenivasaiah was recognised as a high achiever with a promising academic career. Before moving to the United States for his master’s degree, he graduated from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, where he completed a Bachelor of Technology in chemical engineering.
His sudden death has sent shockwaves through both his alma mater in India and the UC Berkeley campus. His parents, desperate for news, had written to Karnataka chief secretary Shalini Rajneesh on February 13, seeking the state government’s intervention. Following this, the Karnataka government requested the Indian ministry of external affairs (MEA) to extend all possible assistance through the Consulate General in San Francisco.
The Indian consulate has since assured the family that it is providing all necessary assistance to navigate the legal and logistical formalities required in the aftermath of the death, for the repatriation of his mortal remains.
Roommate Baneet Singh also mentioned that he is working with authorities to help fly Saketh’s family to America on an emergency visa. In his message, Baneet Singh urged others to take this tragedy as a reminder to check on their friends and loved ones.
“I didn’t expect this from a friend who lived, ate, travelled, laughed and joked with me. It hurts,” he added.