Police: Pa. baby abducted after grandmother killed

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) — Authorities searched Tuesday for a 10-month-old girl who was declared missing after her grandmother was found slain inside an apartment in a Philadelphia suburb.

Investigators are focusing on reuniting Saanvi Venna with her parents in two probes that are “intricately connected,” Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.

Investigators did not immediately release details on the death of the girl’s grandmother, 61-year-old Satyavathi Venna. Ferman would not say how the woman was killed or whether there were any suspects in the case.

“All of our resources are focused on finding Saanvi and reuniting her with her parents,” Ferman said in an interview. “The search for the child is intricately connected to the homicide investigation.”

Police issued an Amber alert for Saanvi on Monday following the discovery of her paternal grandmother’s body at the Marquis Apartments in King of Prussia. Later in the night, the girl’s father issued a tearful plea for his baby’s return.

Upper Merion Township police said the girl’s father, Venkata Konda Siva Venna, and mother, Chenchu Latha Punuru, immigrated to the U.S. from India in February 2007. The couple lived in San Antonio, Cleveland and Troy, Mich., before moving to the Philadelphia-area apartment complex in June.

The grandmother who was killed had arrived in July and had been scheduled to return home in January, police said.

Family members speaking on behalf of the missing girl’s parents pleaded for her return.

“We’re all devastated right now,” said Madhukar Sanikommu, 42, of Warren, N.J., a cousin of Saanvi’s father.

The FBI is assisting in the investigation, said Frank Burton, a spokesman for the agency’s Philadelphia office.