Pallavi Guha was heading to her temple on Jan. 1 when she spotted a call for help circulating online among Howard County’s Indian community.

Columbia resident Nikitha Godishala, 27, had been missing since New Year’s Eve. Those looking for her needed “more eyes on the ground,” one social media post said. Just as groups on WhatsApp began talking about her, Guha recalled, Howard police announced that Godishala had been found dead with several stab wounds.

More tragedy would follow. On Jan. 4, Venkata Asha Appana, 48, and Krishna Kishore Kotikalapudi, 49, a North Carolina couple who had just returned to the U.S. after celebrating the new year in Dubai, were killed near Laurel in a head-on collision on Interstate 95. Two other passengers, said to be the couple’s son and daughter, were taken to a trauma center with serious injuries.

Little more than a week into 2026, the back-to-back tragedies have stunned Howard County’s growing Indian community, which has more than doubled since 2009 and accounts for 6.7% of the jurisdiction’s total population.

“There was too much happening,” said Guha, who lives in Ellicott City. “It was overwhelming.”

Details of the cases ricocheted across the internet and generated international media attention. Locally, Howard’s Indian Cultural Association pushed out updates to its 13,000 Facebook followers.

“People are in shock,” said association president Sanjay Srivastava. “There’s a general sense of disbelief that something like this could happen.”

Howard County’s tight-knit community, he said, adheres to the principles that “we’re one family and lend a hand where we can.”

Following the fatal collision on I-95, the association circulated an online fundraiser that as of Friday had raised more than $600,000 for the couple’s 16-year-old son Suchay and 21-year-old daughter Shivani. Family members who organized the fundraiser did not respond to a request for comment. An update on the platform said both underwent major surgeries and were out of intensive care.

Maryland State Police have charged Michael Coupet, 34, of Baltimore with four counts of vehicular manslaughter and four counts of homicide by motor vehicle while under the influence of and impaired by alcohol. An attorney was not listed in court records as representing Coupet.

Authorities said he was driving a Toyota Sequoia the wrong way on I-95 in Howard County when it struck the North Carolina family’s Chrysler Pacifica shortly before 2:45 a.m.

In Godishala’s case, Howard County police suspect the man who reported her missing, whom they initially identified as an ex-boyfriend.

An international manhunt was underway for Arjun Sharma, 26, of Columbia, who reported to authorities that he last saw Godishala on New Year’s Eve in his apartment in the 10100 block of Twin Rivers Road near The Mall in Columbia. Police said Sharma made the report and flew to India on Jan. 2. The next day they found Godishala dead in Sharma’s apartment.

Sharma faces first-and second-degree murder charges in Howard County.

On Jan. 5, some Indian news outlets circulated misinformation that he had been arrested in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Howard County police said they couldn’t confirm the arrest.

An Instagram account claiming to belong to Godishala’s family in Hyderabad, India, posted a statement calling the arrest reports “false and baseless.” Another post on the account states that Sharma landed in India on Jan. 4.

The Times of India reported Godishala’s father Anand told news media that Sharma was not his daughter’s ex-boyfriend as Howard County police said. They were former housemates, he said, living in a flat shared by four people until Godishala moved out. Sharma owed her money, and Godishala went to his home to collect it, family members told The Times.

A Howard police spokesman said Godishala and Sharma’s relationship status came from numerous sources during the investigation.

Godishala’s LinkedIn account states that she earned a doctorate in pharmacy in 2021 from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad. She completed her master’s degree in health information technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2023.

In 2025, she worked in Columbia as a data and strategy analyst for Vheda Health. The company gave her their “All-In” award in December for her contributions.

The company has not responded to requests for comment.

The Indian Embassy is working with Godishala’s family to repatriate her body to India. She was the family’s eldest daughter.

News of Godishala’s death prompted Guha to have a conversation about safety with her own 16-year-old daughter, who is already passionate about ending intimate-partner violence.

Guha wondered, “Do we talk about this enough?”

These days, it seems people are quick to move on after tragedy, she said.

“We need space to reflect.”