LUCKNOW, July 2 -- "No one helps. Everyone is selfish." These words, found in a suicide note, believed to be penned by the woman, who died along with her husband and teenage daughter in Lucknow's Chowk area on Monday, have brought into focus a haunting story of emotional isolation and financial distress.

The family of three, a 48-year-old cloth merchant, his 45-year-old wife, and their 16-year-old daughter, was cremated on Tuesday at Gulala Ghat, even as police deepened their investigation into what initially appeared to be a suicide pact.

According to the police, the handwritten note points to a painful mix of strained family ties, unresolved grief, and mounting debt. Police say the letter is now central to their probe. The woman wrote...