Google Cloud manager arrested and faces murder charge after his wife, a Microsoft employee, is found dead on Hawaii beach

Sonam Saxena, a Google Cloud manager, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife during a vacation in Hawaii with their children. Hawaii police on Wednesday arrested Harvard-educated Saxena, of Bellevue, Washington following the disappearance of his wife a day earlier. The arrest came after police found what they believe is the body of Smriti Saxena. She was 41 years old. Before her death, Smriti was a business program manager at Microsoft. Google declined to respond to a request for a statement.

It all started when the couple were on vacation with their two daughters aged 13 and eight to celebrate their eldest child’s birthday – a trip they are said to make every year. Then Sonam Saxena, 43, reported his wife Smriti missing on Tuesday evening saying she vanished after an asthma attack during a stroll on a secluded beach south of Anaehoomalu Bay, in South Kohala. Smriti disappeared while he went to get her inhaler from their room at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort.

Smriti Saxena

“Sonam Saxena (M-43 of Bellevue, Washington) had been arrested on the count of Murder in the second- degree as detectives with the Area II Criminal Investigation Section are continuing this investigation. An autopsy is scheduled to determine the exact cause of death, Hawaii police said in a statement.

Before the body was found and prior to his arrest, Saxena told West Hawaii Today that he loved his wife and pleaded with the public to help find his wife. Saxena said he last saw his wife on the shoreline south of the bay. The couple had been drinking at the Lava Lava Beach Club before deciding to take a stroll.

“She got an asthma attack right there on the beach and she was feeling weak and she didn’t want to walk all the way back because it’s almost a 20-minute walk back from that beach to our room,” Saxena explained. “So I said, ‘Hey, you know what? You stay here, you have your phone with you and I’ll just go to the room, grab your inhaler and pump and come back.”