A 30-year-old man has been arrested in the brutal stabbings of a 25-year-old mental health activist and her mother.
Police nabbed Sergio Fraire at an address two miles away from where Arti Varma and her daughter Meera Varma were attacked at home in Burbank. He is charged with murder and attempted murder.
Fraire allegedly stabbed both of the victims. The mother later died from her injuries while the young mental health activist has been hospitalized in stable condition, Burbank officials said.
Cops said: “Investigators conducted a comprehensive investigation, which included interviewing witnesses, canvassing for evidence, and collecting and reviewing surveillance video.
“Through the investigation, detectives identified 30-year-old Sergio Fraire as a person of interest.”
A SWAT team raided the address house on Monday night to serve a search warrant and took Fraire into custody without incident. Police also recovered evidence within the home, they said.
Meera is prominent mental health activist who has worked with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Oprah Winfrey on mental-health initiatives.
She was a vocal advocate for suicide prevention and gave a Tedx talk on the subject in 2023. She spoke in extremely personal terms on suicide, noting that she contemplated suicide in April 2018.
“We may think that we have six degrees of separation between ourselves and a person who has been affected by suicide,” she said.
“But I can guarantee that you all have only one degree of separation between yourself and a person who almost died by suicide. And that someone is me.”
Meera said her mother, Arti, comforted her as she lay crying on her bedroom floor that April day.
“My mom squeezed me even tighter, looked me directly in the eyes and said, ‘I love you. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here. I’m here,’” she said.
Her mother was a a second-grade teacher at Bret Harte Elementary School in the Burbank school district.
She’s the second teacher from the school to be killed in recent years. Her friends mourned her death, and called her a “bright” and “joyful” figure.
“She was an amazing teacher, and she loved being a teacher,” the victim’s friend Cristina Strattan told ABC 7. “She was such a bright light. She was always so joyful, so proud of her kids.”
The suspect’s motive is still under investigation and remains unclear. Meera’s father and Arti’s husband was in India at the time of the stabbing.
