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A California man has been accused of murdering a beloved Burbank elementary school teacher and injuring her adult daughter.
Sergio Fraire, 30, was arrested this week after a SWAT team swarmed his Burbank home. He is accused of fatally stabbing Arti Varma, 59, and injuring her 25-year-old daughter, Meera, on Monday.
He has been charged with special circumstances murder, attempted murder, and first-degree residential burglary. Fraire pleaded not guilty on Thursday and is being held without bail, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Varma, a beloved teacher at Bret Harte Elementary School, died from her wounds on Monday. Her daughter is still recovering in the hospital.
Police have not announced a direct connection between Fraire and Varma outside of the alleged murder, but noted that Fraire’s sister worked in a program at the same school where Varma taught.
According to the paper, Fraire’s sister works as a special education teacher for transitional kindergarten and first-grade students at Bret Elementary School. It’s not clear if Fraire knew Varma or her daughter.
“Detectives continue to investigate the relationship, if any, between the suspect and the victims, as well as the motive,” Burbank Police Department Lieutenant Brent Fekety told the paper.
Meera, Varma’s daughter, is a prominent mental health activist, according to the LA Times. She has participated in a mental health conference with Oprah Winfrey and was invited to the White House during the Biden administration to speak about the youth mental health crisis.
Police spoke to witnesses near Varma’s home and reviewed security footage collected from her neighborhood, which eventually led them to identify Fraire as a suspect.
According to Fekety, surveillance video showed Fraire walking approximately three miles to reach Varma’s residence, after which he allegedly entered the home between 3am and 6am on Monday.
If he is convicted, Fraire faces possible life in prison without parole.
This is the second shocking tragedy to strike the Bret Harte Elementary School community in recent history. In 2024, a kindergarten teacher at the school, 57-year-old Karyn Lombardo, was murdered in her home, allegedly by her son, according to the LA Times.
Following Varma’s death, the community was left to mourn her passing.
“She was an amazing teacher, and she loved being a teacher,” Varma’s friend, Cristina Strattan, told ABC 7. “She was such a bright light. She was always so joyful, so proud of her kids.”
Those who knew Fraire in high school remember him as a star athlete and someone who worked to help younger teammates. They’re now stunned at the news that he’s suspected of murder.
Andres Pulgarin, who told the LA Times he used to look up to Fraire in high school, said the man he saw in a police mugshot “just looked so different from the pictures I had in high school,” adding that he “looks disheveled.”
According to court documents reviewed by the LA Times, Fraire was the subject of a temporary restraining order in 2019 that was brought against him by a co-worker who had accused him of sexual assault.
Fraire contested the order, insisting that any sexual activity between him and the woman was consensual.
Less than three months after the restraining order was initiated, Fraire and the woman reached an agreement to have it withdrawn, with both parties agreeing to stay away from each other.
A makeshift memorial of flowers has been slowly growing outside Bret Harte Elementary School in remembrance of Varma.
