Andhra techie and his 3-year-old drown in pool, US friends crowdfund to send body home
Synopsis
Nagavaju Surepalli and his 3-year-old son drowned in a pool in Navi, Michigan, United States. His friends created a GoFundMe page to raise funds to ship the bodies home. The page has gone viral Surepalli is survived by his wife Bindu and hails from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.
Nagavaju Surepalli originally hailed from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Three years ago he shifted to the United States under an H1-B visa, eventually settling in Novi - a city in Oakland County, Michigan. He lived there, in an apartment complex, with his wife and three-year-old son and worked as a software engineer in a tech company.
However, things took a horrifically tragic turn when a couple and their child spotted a body floating in a pool in the apartment complex. They immediately alerted staff in the complex, who pulled out two bodies and called the police, reported ClickonDetroit.
According to the Oakland Press, Novi police later guessed that that Nagavaju and his son Ananth were playing the pool when the child accidentally fell into the pool. A tricycle discovered at the bottom of the pool led the police to that conclusion. Police said it appears like Nagavaju dived into the shallow pool to save his son, but accidentally drowned himself. The pool was only five-feet deep.
Police also added that they believe neither of the two were experienced swimmers. Nagavaju's wife, Bindu, is now the lone survivor of the family. However, Nagavaju's friends have rallied together to ensure that the funeral expenses, including the hefty bill for transporting the bodies back to Guntur, is met.
Some friends have created a GoFundMe page, through which they have been seeking donations, for a total of $150,000 dollars (Rs 96 lakh). In the page, those requesting the funds are named as - "Naveen, Sukarna, Ramesh, Bhasker, Adi, Ajay, Ramu and Sridhar". Asking for funds, the donation description says -
"Everyone who knows Naga would agree that he is one of the most jovial, honest, friendly person you would ever meet and always smiling. In the midst of this tragedy, We've set up this fund to help them with the funeral expenses and other ongoing grief/recovery support costs."
The page promises that all the collected funds to Bindu. The request has since gone viral, getting over 3800 donations. At the time of publishing, the page was only $5000 short of the $150,000 goal.