Son of cybersecurity executive charged with her fatal stabbing
An accomplished cybersecurity executive who once consulted for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was reportedly killed in her Maryland home by her own son.
Andrew Beavers, 23, who lived with his mother, Juanita
Koilpillai, 58 at her house on Genoa Road in Tracys Landing, was arrested
Saturday in Leesburg, Virginia, and charged with first- and second-degree
murder, the Capital Gazette reported.
Sri Lanka-born Koilpillai — whom a close friend described as
a “certifiable genius” – was reported missing by her boyfriend on July 25 after
he found blood in her home, according to the news outlet.
Police later discovered her body hidden outside and her car
in Leesburg, Virginia, where the suspect’s father lives and where his mother
had another residence, the Gazette said.
When police interviewed Beavers a day after Koilpillai’s
body was found, they noticed he had a fresh cut on his right hand that he could
not explain.
The medical examiner has determined that the woman died from
multiple injuries from a sharp object. Beavers’ and Koilpillai’s DNA has been
found on a knife, according to the report.
Koilpillai, who created several successful cybersecurity
start-ups, moved to the waterfront home in Tracys Landing on the Chesapeake Bay
and was enjoying a new chapter in her life with her boyfriend, friends told the
outlet.
She was described her as a master gardener, a talented chef,
a charismatic hostess and a brilliant tech professional who flew planes and
produced community films with her ex-husband.
“I’ll say (she was) a certifiable genius,” Ron Martin, a
close friend and professor at Capitol Technology University, told the Capital
Gazette.
Koilpillai studied math at Women’s Christian College in
Madras, India, and earned a master’s in computer science and math at University
of Kansas, the outlet reported.
She worked in computer security and network management for
30 years, and contributed to the National Institute of Standards and
Technology.
Her best friend Connie Moore said Koilpillai also served as
a consultant to the SEC.
Koilpillai was a member of FEMA’s enterprise security
management team and served as a principal investigator for multiple Defense
Department initiatives, according to her bio for Cloud Security Alliance.
Along with her ex-husband, she created Cyberwolf, an
advanced automated attack warning system used by the government. They later
sold it to cybersecurity software giant Symantec, according to the Gazette.
“To grow a startup into a great company and then sell it to
a bigger technology company was an incredible accomplishment,” Moore told the
paper.
“But to do it as a woman, to do it as a as a person of
color, just speaks volumes about her tenacity, about her brilliance, about her
business acumen, about her technology expertise, it was extraordinary,” she
added. “Then, she did it again.”
Koilpillai then founded and was CEO of Waverley Labs and
started a new high-tech cybersecurity start-up “Resiliant” – and received a
Homeland Security grant to bring the software to the commercial market,
according to the report.
“The vision she had for Resiliant … she said all this time,
‘We’ve had these cybersecurity problems (such as ransomware attacks); I still
haven’t solved them. I’ve got something that can solve it,’” Peter Zawadzki, a
friend, partner and manager at Resiliant, told the Gazette.
Moore said Koilpillai “was just so happy” to be in Arundel
County, where she immersed herself in Chesapeake life, took sailing lessons and
photographed marina sunsets and wildlife.
“We never could understand how she did it all. Because her
friends were friends that did it all too, but we didn’t do it all at her
level,” he said. “She was off the charts, living a full life in every aspect.”
Her son has been held pending extradition back to Arundel
County.
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