New evidence disclosed, but contents of note a mystery.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: The terrible tragedy of the Dhawan family in Frisco, Texas, is getting more and more perplexing, bizarre and mysterious as the Frisco Police Department, for reasons only best known to them, continue to filter information in bits and pieces to the public about how Pallavi, 39, and Sumeet Dhawan, 43, whose bodies were found at their house on September 3rd,, died.
The case has gripped the community in Frisco and the Collins County, with people blaming the local police for the slow pace of investigation, not disclosing the contents of a note found inside the house where Sumeet Dhawan’s body was found in a bedroom, with blunt force trauma on his head, and injuries to one of his hands. His wife Pallavi Dhawan’s body was found in the swimming pool on the grounds of the house. She didn’t have any trauma or injuries to her body.
Some others, however, back the Frisco police department’s earlier investigation which had tried to convict Pallavi Dhawan, for murder in the death of the couple’s only child, Arnav Dhawan, 10. They believe that Pallavi was the evil mother, who killed her son one fateful day in January – unable to cope with his constant ill-health, and then, hiding that secret for almost nine months, finally confessed to her husband, what she really did to her son, got into a fatal confrontation with him, killed him too, and then committed suicide in a terrible burst of remorse.
The Dhawans, however, before their demise, and their attorney David Finn had maintained all along that Arnav’s death was due to natural reasons – a fact corroborated by an official autopsy by the Collin County Medical Examiner’s Office. They said Pallavi had put Arnav’s body in a bathtub inside the house, layered with ice, to preserve his body so Sumeet Dhawan, who was away on a trip when the tragedy took place, could conduct last rites according to Hindu customs. The couple grew up in India. Arnav was born in the US.
Pallavi told her story ad nauseam to disbelieving authorities that she only made the egregious mistake of not reporting the death immediately for fear that the boy’s funeral would be conducted without his father being present. The police maintained that she had nodded her head to suggest a ‘yes’ when asked if she had murdered Arnav. There was no recorded statement of that, no video recording of that alleged nod of the head.
Read an earlier story done by The American Bazaar:
As the case dragged on interminably, months went by, the couple were subjected to what Sumeet Dhawan said, a “nightmare”. To the couple, the mere fact that Pallavi had to even prove her innocence was a travesty of justice. To be maybe found guilty of a crime she could not even begin to think of, forget about committing it, was anguish beyond belief, a shocking truth which perhaps they decided they could not endure any more, least of all face it if it came to that.
The invisible noose around them was tightening: a judge barred Pallavi Dhawan from traveling to India to attend a ceremony for her son, didn’t return her passport. The case was going to come up in front of a Grand Jury, a terrifying prospect for Pallavi – to testify to a bunch of strangers that she did not kill her son, after the police and prosecution didn’t believe her, behaved tough with her.
And finally, something did give. The couple were found dead, presumably of unnatural causes.
Arnav’s macabre death, his tragedy paled in comparison when the bodies of Pallavi and Sumeet Dhawan were discovered on September 3 by the police, after a relative of the Dhawans called to say he had found a body in the pool of the house.
And since then, the tragedy has stayed unravelled: the Frisco police have not yet revealed key pieces of evidence, but have kept a game of guessing going.
In new facts that have now emerged in the case, the Frisco police say they discovered a note and pills next to Sumeet Dhawan’s body, reported CBS. In the search warrant affidavit released Monday, Frisco police say they found Pallavi’s body floating face-up in the home’s pool, and her husband’s body in a downstairs bedroom. Next to Sumeet’s body were a note and pills, though police did not say what was in the note or what type of pills they were.
The CBS report said police eventually took dozens of items from the home, including a handwritten note, packages of drugs that included blood-pressure and thyroid medication and clothes.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the police also confiscated a hammer, rolling pins and numerous bottles of pills.
WFAA adds that police also confiscated blue fluid from a drinking glass, several items of clothing and electronics from the house.
When the relative who found the bodies had called the police, he had also said it appeared that someone had forced entry into the backdoor of the home in the 15,000 block of Mountain View Lane. Police have said they found no evidence of forced entry into the home. However, they have “discovered that forced entry appeared to have been made into a downstairs bedroom” where they discovered Sumeet Dhawan’s body, the affidavit stated, reported CBS.
And to add a twist to even that piece of evidence, WFAA reported that “several signs of forced entry were reported at the Frisco home of Sumeet and Pallavi Dhawan the day they were found dead on September 3,” according to the search warrant.
It added: “The reporting party advised to dispatch that it appeared someone had forced entry into the backdoor of the home,” the warrant read.
So what does all this new evidence add up to? More confusion for sure. The public are left with no choice, but only to keep guessing as to what really happened inside the house, what caused the death of two adults who seemingly loved each other very much, and were grieving the death of their only child; consoling each other for the legal labyrinth they were thrust into, suffocating in.
Or were the Dhawans murdered by somebody or group of people who forced his/her/their way into the house? Did the individual(s) force Sumeet Dhawan to drink that blue fluid found in the glass, and during the course of which he got the head trauma and injuries to one of his hands? And then threw Pallavi’s body into the pool? Or was it the other way around? That Pallavi was thrown into the pool, and then those individual(s) forced their way into the bedroom where Sumeet tried to hide, killed him.
Or did Sumeet throw Pallavi’s body into the pool, and then commit suicide? Or did Pallavi kill Sumeet, and then kill herself?
Or perhaps, the most plausible, that Sumeet found Pallavi had drowned herself, and then unable to bear that grief, banged his head and hand against the wall, sustained injuries in that process which would explain the trauma to his head, and then committed suicide?
Or is there something deeper than all this, a hideous truth, something which only the Frisco police know? Something that they don’t want to reveal?
What really happened?
Frisco police department, do the right thing. Please reveal to the public, and to all the grieving family members of the family: how did Pallavi and Sumeet Dhawan die.
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar)
8 Comments
What took them so long? open & shut case. The Psycho woman killed the boy & brutally murdered poor Dhawan. This was obvious… Dhawn relatives should have protected their man, RIP Dhawan.
What took them so long? open & shut case. The Psycho woman killed the boy & brutally murdered poor Dhawan. This was obvious… Dhawn relatives should have protected their man, RIP Dhawan.
FYI, Pallavi had a longstanding thyroid condition. The thyroid medication was likely hers.
Amen. You make excellent points. The Texas Rangers have told me that they will release the entire note/letter. The sooner the better.
@David Finn, Mr Finn please continue pressuring Frisco PD!
Mr. Finn, the note holds the key if it was written by Dhawans. We deserve to know what they wrote before they died.
“…and to all the grieving family members of the family…” Nice job, especially with the run-on sentences. That opening sentence/paragraph is a work of art. There are a couple of other gems, too, like “the Collins County.” Next time, proofreading might help.
Oh my God! Really?