Domestic violence claims family
Officials: Gun found near father in Dover; mom, teen also dead
DOVER — A devastating act of domestic violence led to the deaths of an 18-year-old college student, her mother, and her father, who was found with a gun near him inside the family’s mansion on a private way, officials said Friday.
Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey said Dover police officers were called to the home at 8 Wilson’s Way just before 7:25 p.m. Thursday after a relative of the victims had gone to the residence to check on them.
Teena Kamal, 54, daughter Arianna Kamal, a student at Middlebury College, and Rakesh Kamal, 57, were all found dead at the scene, Morrissey said. There were no signs of a break-in, Morrissey said, citing one of the factors that has led investigators to conclude that no one else was involved in the slayings.
“This is very unfortunate, and our heart goes out to the entire Kamal family over this terrible tragedy,” Morrissey said. The state medical examiner’s office will determine the cause and manner of death of each person.
Local police had no prior interactions with the family, according to Morrissey, who declined to specify where in the home the victims were found or who the gun was registered to.
“There’s been no police reports, there’s been no problems, no domestic issues, no nothing at that house or in the entire neighborhood that I’m aware of,” he said.
Wilson’s Way is a gated community on a tree-lined, secluded road with just a few handsomely maintained estates on it.
Rakesh and Teena Kamal had been listed on the website of EduNova, an education technology company, as the firm’s president and chief operating officer, respectively. The Marlboroughbased company marketed a “student success system” designed to improve the grades of students in middle school, high school, and college.
The company was launched in 2016
and involuntarily dissolved in December 2021, according to data posted to the website of Secretary of State William F. Galvin’s office. Involuntary dissolution occurs when a business fails for two or more years to file annual reports with Galvin’s office, file tax returns with the state Commissioner of Revenue, or pay requisite taxes, or “if the Director is satisfied that a corporation has become inactive and that its dissolution would be in the public interest,” state records show.
Despite the dissolution, EduNova’s website was still active as of at least Aug. 1, 2023, according to publicly available internet archives.
Its business activities are unclear, and when an employee listed on the website was contacted by the Globe on Friday, she said she never did any work for them.
“This is bizarre,” Edith Webber, 77, said from her home in Arizona.
She recalled someone from the company reaching out to her years ago to ask her to take on the content director role, which she said she agreed to. They also asked her to send in her resume, part of which appeared on the EduNova website.
After that, she said, she “really never heard anything back.”
The Kamal family had apparently been facing financial difficulties in late 2022.
Teena Kamal filed for bankruptcy in September 2022 in federal court in Massachusetts, listing both her assets and liabilities to be in the $1 million to $10 million range, according to legal filings. The bankruptcy filing was dismissed the following month, records show.
Rakesh Kamal’s biography on the EduNova website lists him as an alumnus of Boston University and the MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as Stanford University, and says that before working at EduNova, he “held many executive positions in the education-consulting field.” He also went by “Rick.”
Teena Kamal’s biography said she led the “development of major consumer advice, guidance and education product” for Boston-based Fidelity Investments and made contributions to Aegis Software Corp. and EMC Corporation prior to her work at EduNova. It said she was a graduate of Harvard and Delhi University in India.
The Globe could not independently confirm the couple’s educational backgrounds.
Their online biographies also noted that they had consulted with Harvard University.
Rakesh Kamal was previously the managing director and chief technology officer for Harvard Business School Online from 2015 to 2019, a Harvard spokesperson said. Kamal has not worked for the university since then.
Arianna Kamal was a firstyear student at Middlebury College, where she joined the Women in Computer Science student organization, as well as a group organized for students interested in foraging, according to a statement issued by the Vermont college.
She also sang in the college choir and recently read at Middlebury’s Lessons and Carols service, the statement said.
“Aria was beloved by the College Choir,” Jeffrey Buettner, a music professor and director of choral activities, said in the statement. “She loved singing together, and her choir community was deeply meaningful to her in her first semester.”
Another professor, Melissa Hammerle, who had Arianna in her Mindfulness in Education seminar, said she was “a brilliant student and an amazing singer.”
“She was connected and engaged in class, and passionate about everything she did,” Hammerle said in the college’s statement. “She was a beautiful writer and always did things 110 percent. She was a deeply spiritual person and dove into the material in the first-year seminar course.”
Arianna Kamal graduated from Milton Academy in June, with an award for distinctive academic achievement, according to the school’s website. While enrolled at the private school, she presented at the International Youth Neuroscience Association conference, sharing results of an experiment measuring the effect of different noises on a person’s stress levels, a conference agenda said.
During her time at Milton Academy, Arianna tutored freshman and sophomore students in writing and organized a Red Cross blood drive, according to her LinkedIn profile. Outside of school, she tutored immigrant children and interned at Mass General Brigham. Arianna attended elementary school at Cornerstone Academy in Northborough, according to the school’s website.
She attended middle school at the Meadowbrook School in Weston from 2016 to 2019, according to Pam Scafati, director of communications for the private school.
“All of us at Meadowbrook are grieving this terrible tragedy, and our hearts go out to her family and friends,” Scafati wrote in an e-mail Friday.
Ryan Tahmaseb, a former Meadowbrook teacher, said he had Arianna in his sixth-grade honors English class.
Tahmaseb said he met Rakesh and Teena Kamal several times for parent teacher conferences.
“They were just very kind and cordial,” he said. “Nothing stands out in my memory about them, other than just being kind and polite adults.”
In a statement, Milton Academy said its community was “heartbroken” and described Arianna Kamal as a “sweet, smart, kind young woman who was just beginning to realize her full potential.” The school said Teena Kamal served as president of Milton Academy’s Upper School Parents’ Association and was “a committed and caring advocate for both parents and students at Milton.”
“This is a devastating loss to our community. We are making counseling and grief support available to students, parents and faculty who may need support as they process this incredibly sad news,” the school said.
Online Dover assessing records say the 27-room property and land at 8 Wilson’s Way has an assessed value of $6.79 million. The current owner is listed as an LLC that foreclosed on the property in November 2022, according to Norfolk County Registry of Deeds documents.
The street is nestled in a corner of the affluent town, a private way studded with stately homes sporting three-car garages and well-kept lawns.
The neighborhood was quiet Friday morning as a light drizzle fell. One neighbor declined to comment, and other door knocks weren’t answered.
The entrance to 8 Wilson’s Way was flanked by two lion statues and a sign welcoming people to “Enchanted Acres.” Beyond a police cruiser parked in front of the home, stone walls were visible that led to a sprawling property with white siding accented by green shutters. In the distance, more statues could be seen.
Sadie Hyde lives around the corner from Wilson’s Way and on Friday described the neighborhood as quiet.
“Shocked,” she said, when asked about her reaction to the family violence.
As Hyde walked her two Australian shepherds, she said she did not know the family but was saddened to learn of the tragedy.
Nirav Boreld, owner of New Dover Market in the town’s center, wondered about the motive behind the bloodshed.
“Dover is a very nice community where people know everyone by name,” he said.
It’s the type of place where such violence isn’t typically known to occur, he agreed.
“Absolutely,” he said. “But it happened.”
The National Domestic Violence hot line (800-799-7233) and the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence hot line (877785-2020) are available to connect people with services, including legal assistance, medical care, and counseling. A separate crisis hot line can be reached by dialing 988.