The man set up to be robbed by a 23 year old Canton woman using an internet dating site is a native of India. His body is being shipped back there, and is expected to arrive sometime Tuesday.
35 year old Venkata Subba Reddy Cuttamanchi, a software engineer, had located the Canton woman in an on-line dating site. He had no way of knowing that the woman already had a boyfriend and that the date the two set up was a sham.
Certainly he would have seemed an almost ideal mark for the robbery scheme. He probably made good money, and may have been lonely and unfamiliar with the ways of the city. The woman would have had little trouble vetting him, and undoubtedly convinced him to bring some money along on their date.
The date itself began with a late night meeting at a Wendy's in Southfield last Wednesday, to be followed by a tryst at the Ez-Ee Rest Motel. In the motel's parking lot, the woman's boyfriend and three of his companions lay in wait. When the couple arrived, the boyfriend tried to rob Cuttamanchi and only then did he react unpredictably.
The Indian man refused to surrender his money and tried to escape. The boyfriend shot him twice, killing him.
There were witnesses who called the Southfield PD, which arrived before the conspirators left the motel parking lot. All five, the Canton woman, her Detroit boyfriend and his three accomplices were quickly arrested. Charges are pending, with felony murder likely at the head of the list.
Meanwhile, Cuttamanchi's body is even now making its way back to his homeland in India.
Cuttamanchi's demise is only the latest and deadliest of internet dating-robbery schemes. Similar crimes occurred recently in St. Clair Shores and Ferndale.
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