California Teacher Stabbed to Death ... Daughter Fighting for Her Life

Published April 21, 2026 8:24 AM PDT | Updated April 21, 2026 9:18 AM PDT

8:35 AM PT -- Burbank Police just announced a suspect was arrested Monday night … 30-year-old Sergio Fraire was taken into custody by a SWAT team serving a search warrant. Police say evidence related to the stabbings was recovered at the residence where he was detained. Fraire had been identified as a person of interest by investigators earlier Monday.

He was booked for murder and attempted murder. Police were working to determine a motive for the crime and the relationship between the suspect and the victims. The residence where Fraire was detained is about 2.5 miles from the scene of the crime.

Meera was listed in stable condition Tuesday morning.

A first-grade teacher in California has been killed and her daughter was critically injured in a stabbing early Monday morning ... and police are still looking for the suspect.

Burbank Police say officers got a call around 6 AM about a stabbing in a single-family home ... and found two women had been attacked at the scene.

Police later identified 59-year-old Arti Varma as the woman who was killed ... neighbors told news outlets her 25-year-old daughter Meera is the other victim.

BPD said they were taken to a nearby hospital, where one woman died from her injuries and the other remains hospitalized.

Neighbors told news Arti was a public school educator, and she's listed as a first-grade teacher on the Bret Harte Elementary School website.

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Meera is a mental health activist who has worked alongside Oprah Winfrey, former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and more ... according to her website.

Neighbor Christina Strattan told KTLA that Arti's husband and Meera's father is "not in the U.S. right now," saying ... "He may be in India, that’s kind of the understanding."

Another neighbor, Victor Goli, told ABC7 Arti's husband was inconsolable over the news, saying ... "He couldn't even speak right ... he was crying."