Before he was accused of killing a local elementary school teacher and critically injuring her adult daughter, Sergio Fraire was known by his former classmates at Burbank High as a dedicated student and track athlete.
A former student says he ran middle distances, cross-country, and acted a role model for younger runners until he graduated in 2013.
But that image of Fraire was shattered this week, after a SWAT team descended on his second-story apartmentand arrested him on suspicion of fatally stabbing a beloved teacher on Monday and nearly killing her daughter, an accomplished mental health advocate and public speaker.
Fraire, 30, is charged with special circumstances murder, attempted murder and first-degree residential burglary after prosecutors say he fatally stabbed 59-year-old Arti Varma and critically injured her 25-year-old daughter early Monday inside their home on North Brighton Street in Burbank.
He pleaded not guilty inside a Pasadena courtroom on Thursday and is being held without bail. His lawyer, Mayda Lissette Flores-Medrano, declined to speak to a Los Angeles Times reporter.
Varma, a first-grade teacher at Bret Harte Elementary School, died of her injuries Monday. Her daughter, Meera Varma, is recovering in a hospital.
A connection between Fraire and his alleged victims was not immediately clear, but there is overlap within their families in the world of education.
Fraire’s older sister is a special education teacher for transitional kindergarten through first-grade students at Bret Harte Elementary — the same school where the older Varma spent the last 15 years of her career, according to interviews and public records. But it is not clear whether Fraire knew the Varma family. Calls to several of Fraire’s relatives went unreturned.
“Detectives continue to investigate the relationship, if any, between the suspect and the victims, as well as the motive,” Lt. Brent Fekety, a spokesperson for the Burbank Police Department, told The Times.
Arti Varma was known as a teacher who was happy and positive and would push her students to do their best. She emigrated from India after spending her childhood there “with a loving, extended family” and had two children, according to the school website.
Meera Varma is a nationally recognized mental health activist who became passionate about youth mental health after enduring her own struggles in high school, according to a 2022 L.A. Times article. She became the youngest speaker in TED x UCLA history in 2023 and participated in a mental health summit at UCLA with media mogul Oprah Winfrey. She was invited to the White House to speak about the youth mental health crisis and policy, according to her website.
Investigators identified Fraire as their suspect after interviewing witnesses and reviewing footage from home cameras in the neighborhood.
Fekety said surveillance video showed Fraire walking roughly three miles between his home on East Palm Avenue and the Varma residence before the stabbing.
Prosecutors allege Fraire entered the Varma family’s home between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. Monday as they were sleeping.
If convicted of all charges, Fraire faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors have not yet determined whether they will seek the death penalty in the case.
The violence rattled the tight-knit community, particularly at Bret Harte Elementary, where students and staff had recently endured the loss of a kindergarten teacher who was also killed in her home.
“Arti was a fantastic teacher and sweet lady. The community feels her loss especially at Bret Harte Elementary,” said neighbor Emma Strattan, who attended school with Meera Varma.
The case has prompted concern and rampant speculation as investigators search for answers.
As a teen, Fraire spent three years on the Burbank High School track team as a middle distance runner and four years on the school’s cross-country team, frequently ranking in top spots during meets.
He was named the most outstanding freshman, a top sophomore and 1st team all-area his junior year for cross-country. He also has a black belt in martial arts and was part of the school’s Spanish club, according to his college recruiting profile.
He could run a 1500 meter in 4 minutes and 20 seconds and a 5K in 14 minutes and 50 seconds, his page said.
Among those who ran with Fraire was Andres Pulgarin, who was a year behind Fraire at Burbank High and saw him as a role model for student athletes looking to improve.
“I had only positive experiences with him,” Pulgarin said. “He was always a person who would cheer teammates on — both on and off the field. He was a high achieving student who took Advanced Placement classes all of high school.”
So when Pulgarin saw his former teammate’s mug shot online in connection with a double stabbing, he was stunned.
Fraire looked completely different than the kid he’d remembered from his high school years. Pulgarin hadn’t kept up with him after Fraire graduated, aside from one Burbank track meet that Fraire attended as a college freshman to support his former team.
“He was arrested late in the day, so I imagine he was up the entire night, but that mug shot just looked so different from the pictures I had in high school,” Pulgarin said. “He looks disheveled.”
Fraire attended school in San Diego after graduating from Burbank, Pulgarin said. The Times could not independently confirm those details.
By 2019, Fraire was employed at World Market in Burbank and working toward a psychology degree at Glendale Community College with the goal of eventually becoming a psychologist, according to court records and interviews.
In February of that year, a co-worker accused of him sexual assault, according to her application for a temporary restraining order filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
In his own filing contesting the restraining order application, Fraire denied there was an assault, and said any sexual activity was consensual. He also offered a letter of recommendation from two of his instructors at Glendale Community College.
One letter was written by Richard Kamei, a sociology professor at the school, and in it, Fraire is described as someone who “takes his education seriously.”
“It is apparent that he has a sincere interest in understanding the subject matter in order to be able to better understand the complexities of the world in which he lives in order to play a role in effectuating positive change,” Kamei wrote. He also said that Fraire did volunteer work with the college’s Students Talk About Race program. Kamei did not respond to a request for comment from The Times.
A second letter from another instructor was included in the court filing and simply affirmed that Fraire had attended every class while enrolled in his Psychology 101 course.
A judge granted a temporary restraining order in February 2019, but less than three months later, Fraire and the woman reached an agreement to have it withdrawn. Both parties agreed to stay away from each other, according to court records.
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