'Only One Person is Going to Survive,' Dad Told Daughter Before Killing Wife: Affidavit

A Bridgewater woman who was strangled by her estranged husband last week while their daughter was upstairs died over the weekend, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office said Monday.

Janaki Dantuluru, 43, died Saturday after she was revived Thursday night when Bridgewater police officers found her lying on the garage floor without a pulse and a rope wrapped around her neck, the prosecutor's office said.

Timma Kalidindi, 48, who was originally charged with attempted murder, now faces a first-degree murder charge and is being held on $1.5 million cash bail, the prosecutor's office said Monday.

Kalidindi was arrested shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday after police received a 911 call from the couple's 16-year-old daughter who said her parents were arguing inside the Francis Drive residence, according to an arrest affidavit.

Kalidindi surrendered when officers arrived and told them he "only wanted to talk to his wife"—but couldn't because of her screaming, according to the affidavit filed in court.

Kalidindi told police he had parked his car around a corner so his wife and daughter wouldn't know he was there and said Dantuluru began screaming as soon as she saw him in the house, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit said Kalidindi told police he pushed his wife down as the couple struggled in the residence's laundry room, and began choking her to stop her screams. He said he stopped when he heard banging on the front door, and dragged her to the garage of the residence—where police found her unconscious and without a pulse, according to the affidavit.

Police resuscitated Dantuluru and she was taken to a nearby medical center, where she later died, the prosecutor's office said.

Kalidindi's account conflicts with the statement made by his daughter, who said her dad told her "only one person is going to survive tonight," according to the affidavit.

She said he was in the house when she arrived home at about 6:30 p.m., and said he wanted to talk to her mother about their marriage difficulties, the affidavit said. She added he took her cell phone in order to prevent from calling her mother, according to the affidavit.

The couple's daughter wasn't able to call 911 until she found a phone Kalidindi left on the kitchen table as he fought with Dantuluru, according to the affidavit.