UPPER MERION, Pa. -
Authorities say 10-month-old Saanvi Venna has been found dead, and a suspect has been charged with murdering both the baby and her grandmother.
The suspect, Ragunandan Yandamuri, faces charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, theft and abuse of a corpse, prosecutors said.
The baby's body was found at 4:30 a.m. hidden inside of a sauna in a bathroom in the basement gymnasium of one of the other buildings at the Marquis Apartments, authorities said.
The 10-month-old was abducted when her grandmother was slain earlier this week.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman said Friday afternoon that the case was a kidnapping and ransom attempt that went horribly wrong.
Ferman described the suspect, Ragunandan Yandamuri, as "a friend of the family; … someone known to them; someone you will see from the court documents … that placed himself here to support the family during the search for their child; someone who actually printed fliers and handed them out; someone who offered support, came to this police station during the course of the search – actually attended the vigil in memory of Mrs. Venna and looking for Saanvi."
A preliminary arraignment is set for 1 p.m. at the district magistrate's office in Bridgeport, FOX 29's Dave Schratwieser reported from the scene.
The announcement of the child's remains being found came Friday morning after a four-day search that had involved local and state law enforcement as well as the FBI.
The disappearance of Saavni Venna resulted in an Amber Alert on Monday when the baby was discovered missing after the murder of her grandmother.
Officials say Satyavathi Venna, who was visiting from India, was stabbed to death Monday while babysitting her 10-month-old granddaughter in the family's residence at the Marquis Apartments in King of Prussia.
It wasn't until Thursday that officials would even say how Venna had died, due to concern that releasing any information could hamper the search for the child.
Over the past week, the 10-month-old's family had been begging for
the safe return of their baby and for anyone with information to come
forward.
A $50,000 reward had been offered to anyone with information on the baby's whereabouts.
Ferman told reporters Friday, "What we have learned during the course of this investigation, and we only learned much of this over the past 24 hours, is that this individual had planned to kidnap Saanvi Venna, and he was going to hold her for ransom."
"Over the past few days, we had been very hopeful that Saanvi was still alive, and we were taking every step we could, making every effort we could to try to locate her," Ferman said. "Tragically, we've learned over the course of the last few hours that that was not the case. We learned from the defendant that he went to the home, he made an effort to kidnap the child, during the course of that event he took the life of her grandmother. He then left the apartment building with the child suffocated with a handkerchief and stuffed into a suitcase."
The D.A. said10 identical copies of a ransom note asking for $50,000 were found at the murder scene.
Ragunandan Yandamuri faces murder, kidnapping and related charges (Courtesy: Montgomery County DA's Office)
