What roommate said about Indian student found dead in US: ‘Stopped caring, ate less, survived on chips, cookies’

What happened in last two weeks? Roommate recalls behaviour of Indian student found dead in US

• Missing Indian student in US found dead at Lake Anza, California
• Death treated as suicide; campus community left in shock
• Consulate aiding family with travel and repatriation arrangements

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A 22-year-old Indian student from Karnataka, Saketh Sreenivasaiah, who had been missing in the United States since February 9, was found dead at Lake Anza in California on Saturday. He was pursuing postgraduate studies at University of California, Berkeley.

Authorities informed his roommate, Baneet Singh, that the death is being treated as a suicide. In a detailed LinkedIn post, Singh described the incident as having left the campus community “shocked to the core” and said there were no obvious warning signs until the last two weeks.

According to Singh, the student had begun withdrawing socially and physically. “There were no signs of anything until the last 2 weeks, when he started eating less and engaging less, only surviving on chips and cookies,” he wrote. He added that Sreenivasaiah had once invited him to visit Lake Anza weeks earlier but he declined, later realising the significance of the place.

Singh also recalled their last conversation after Sreenivasaiah returned from class wearing a red bathrobe.

“I asked him ‘why are you wearing a robe to class’, with a smirk on my face,” he wrote.

“He said, ‘I've stopped caring man. I'm cold and don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I don’t care about anything.’”

Reflecting on the moment, Singh said he initially thought his friend was joking but later understood the seriousness of the remark.

“Now I know that he really meant it. 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 urged people to check on friends and loved ones and support one another, “Take this news as a way to bring together love with friends, instead of sitting in sorrow… Saketh would have wanted that for you all.”

The Indian Consulate in San Francisco confirmed recovery of the body and said it is assisting the family with emergency travel arrangements and repatriation of the mortal remains to India. Authorities have not released further details while the investigation continues.