Student found hanged in home

Suicide: Prasanna Kalahasthi had been living in United States six months when her husband died in WTC attack

By SPENCER MORGAN
Staff Writer
Shockwaves from the Sept. 11 attacks have claimed another victim, as a greiving widow whose husband was killed on American Airlines Flight 11, died in an apparent suicide near campus Friday afternoon.
Prasanna Kalahasthi, a USC graduate student in the International Student Program for Foreign-Trained Dentists, was found in her Catalina Street apartment Friday hanging from the chin-up bar of her home exercise machine. She was 25 years old.
"Everything there, everything we saw indicates a suicide," said Department of Public Safety Deputy Chief Bob Taylor. The case is classified as a probable suicide as authorities await the coroner's final report.
Los Angeles Police Department and DPS officials examined her body and the apartment for clues. There were no signs of trauma on the body except for to the neck, Taylor said.
On a desk in her apartment, officials found a receipt dated Oct. 15 for a length of rope. Near her body, they found a letter from New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani dated Oct. 12 inviting her to a memorial service scheduled Oct. 28 to mourn the death of her husband.
Kalahasthi's husband, Pendyala "Vamsi" Vamiskrishna, died onboard the first hijacked airliner that careened into the World Trade Center Sept. 11. Vamiskrishna, 30, worked for DTI Technologies and had been on a business trip in Boston for several weeks.
Known among co-workers for his impressive work ethic, he spent an extra day in Boston to finish the project that he was working on, missing his planned Monday departure.
On Sept. 11, Vamiskrishna boarded American Airlines Flight 11 and called his wife's voicemail to let her know that he was on his way home. That was the last time Kalahasthi heard her husband's voice.
Friends and classmates described Kalahasthi as a dedicated student with a pleasant personality.
"She loved dentistry and worked very hard," said Neena Mukkamala, a graduate student in dentistry and one of Kalahasthi's closest friends at USC. "Even though school was hard, we had fun. She was a really fun person."
Kalahasthi had been at the USC School of Dentistry since April. She and her husband were both from India. They had been married for 2 1/2 years and were planning to start a family in America.
The couple received their green cards and Kalahasthi was expecting her work permit to arrive in three months, Mukkamala said.
For the past six months, her life seemed to be divided between a demanding schoolwork schedule and spending time with her husband, who she was very close to. By all accounts, she was a content and determined person. Her husband's abrupt death left her devastated.
Kalahasthi was one of thousands grieving for their loved ones and suffering from depression after the attacks. The New York State Office of Mental Health reported that 1.5 million people will need psychological aid and the Coalition of Voluntary Mental Health Agencies Inc. put the number at 2.3 million. However, no major increase of suicides have been reported since last month's attacks.
Bradford King, director of student counseling services, said four students have gone to the Counseling Center as a direct result of the attacks. He emphasized that people who are suicidal usually postively respond to mental treatment. Student Affairs officials said Kalahasthi was in couseling.
"She was a very fun person and very, very strong," Mukkamala said. "We never saw tears in her eyes until the day of Sept. 11."
The couple lived in an apartment building five blocks south of campus.
"She was extremely depressed after his death," said Ismail Ozis, one of the neighbors in the complex.
After Vamiskrishna's death, Kalahasthi's parents visited from India, along with her brother, who had been working in the United States. Kalahasthi's brother had planned to move into the apartment and support her, Ozis said.
Their visit seemed to lift her spirits, Ozis said, who was shocked at the apparent suicide.
"She was very sad," Mukkamala said. "But I don't think she was angry. She wasn't that type of person."
Her tight-knit group of classmates said her presence will be missed.
"She was a friend, not just a classmate," said Rajiv Patel, president of the class of 2003 at the International Dentistry Program. "We are a close community here. We will definitely miss her."
The mood was somber in the program laboratory Monday. Spirits were low as graduate students toiled away at their individual stations with the drills, molds and other tools of their trade. Kalahasthi's station was empty except for a large piece of paper with a note that read, "Dearest Prasanna, We shall miss you a lot! Love, your friends and teachers."

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 144, No. 40 (Tuesday, October 23, 2001), beginning on page 1 and ending on page 11.