Friend recalls his final conversation with Saketh; says he ate and engaged less over last two weeks

A friend reflects on Saketh's final days, revealing signs of distress before his tragic death in California.

A friend of Saketh Sreenivasaiah, from Bengaluru, who went missing in San Francisco on February 10 and found dead at Lake Anza near the Berkeley Hills in California in the U.S. on February 15, penned a sorrowful recollection of his friend on LinkedIn.

Sharing the news with grief, the friend, who requested privacy on LinkedIn in another post, said the revelation has shocked the entire community. He said that police have shared these details so far and that he was working with authorities to fly Saketh’s family from India to the U.S. on an emergency visa.

A view of the residence of Saketh Srinivasaiah at Srigandada Kaval in Bengaluru on Sunday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

He said that he never expected this to happen to a friend with whom he lived, ate, travelled, laughed and joked. “It hurts,” he said, thanking people for their love.

The post on LinkedIn also hints at what could have been signs of distress Saketh was going through over the past two weeks. The friend said that there were no clear signs until the last two weeks, when Saketh began eating less, engaging less, and surviving largely on chips and cookies.

The memory that now haunts him is their last conversation, said the friend. He recalled seeing Saketh return from class wearing a red bathrobe and asking, with a smirk, why he was dressed that way. “I’ve stopped caring, man. I’m cold and don’t care what anyone thinks of me.” “I don’t care about anything,” Saketh reportedly told his friend. At the time, the roommate laughed it off, believing Saketh was being silly, as he often was. “He was always up to something silly,” the friend wrote.