Josh and Ankur Singh look and sound like typical teenaged brothers, bantering about things like life in high school. But they are haunted by a question few of us can imagine: "Who killed our parents?"
"I mean it has been four years," said Josh, 17. "We don't know who did it. We don't know why it happened."
Jaspal and Geeta Singh were found shot to death in their Syosset, Long Island home in January, 2007. The boys discovered their parents' bodies when they returned home from school. Josh was just 13 and Ankur was 12. Their family and their world had been shattered in an instant.
"It wasn't real," said Ankur, now 16. "I just kept hoping , all right, maybe I will wake up and this will all be fake."
Last month, the boys marked both the fourth anniversary of their parents' murders and what would have been their dad's 50th birthday.
"Even now there are sleepless nights that you stay up thinking about it," said Josh. Hopefully, someone can come forward and take that away from us."
That's why the brothers are speaking out to NBCNewYork about their ordeal. They are praying someone will help answer the gut wrenching question that hangs over their lives.
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"It still eats at me," said Ankur.
Nassau police are also asking for the public's help.
"Somebody out there knows something," said homicide detective Bill Brosnan. "Maybe you are afraid to come forward; maybe you can't. But we are looking for any information that might help."
The Singhs were killed in an apparent robbery, said Brosnan. They knew their killers, he added, and were comfortable enough to have let them into their home. The answers, Brosnan stressed, may lie in the local Indian community of which the Singhs were a part.
"That community has been very cooperative," the detective said. But, so far, any possible leads have turned cold.
Despite the tragedy in their lives, the Singh brothers have never lost the love of family. Since their parents' murders, they have lived with their aunt, uncle and three young cousins.
"My dream right now is to make my brother's dream come true," said the boys' uncle, Jay Singh. "He wanted them to have a good life."
Jaspal Singh owned a gas station with his brother and managed a futon furniture store in Manhattan. His business dealings have provided no link to the murders, according to police.
"Every year, it's another year they don't find anything," said Ankur Singh. "I am losing hope; but I still want to believe they can find who did it."
If you have information on the Singh murders, call Nassau county police at 1-800-244-TIPS. All calls will remain confidential.