College students Mahial Sran and Harshita Nair have been identified as the deceased after they were swept into the ocean off Santa Cruz last week. Photos: ABC7//Screenshot
A pair of college students from the Bay Area who died after they were swept into the ocean off Santa Cruz County last week have been identified.
According to early reports, 20-year-old Mahial Sran, who attended San Jose State University, and Harshita Nair, a student at UC Berkeley, may have been sleeping on the beach when they were pulled into the sea. Now, though, a witness said that’s not what happened. Sran’s father told reporters on Monday that his daughter’s phone and bag were found but weren’t wet, which leads him to believe that they were in or near the water when a wave pulled them in.
Soon after the women were reported missing, rescue crews went into search mode. “We put eight rescue swimmers in the water, and we had a number of people up on the banks observing and helping to point out where the people were and assist with efforts,” said Santa Cruz County Fire Capt. Kyle Breton.
Breton went on to explain what may have happened. “So the tide had definitely come in, and one of the problems here is that,” he said. “Panther and Yellow Bank Beach are separated by what we call the keyhole. And as soon as the tide comes in or gets high, the keyhole is inaccessible. And so, what happens is people go through the keyhole, thinking they’re gonna have a great day at the beach, and then all of a sudden, they get cut off, and options run out very, very quickly. And so that’s sort of what happened that day.”
It’s been a hazardous week along the California coast with the big south swell, with multiple rescues occurring.
“Within a one-mile stretch of beach here, we’ve run five rescues in the past month. And comparatively, we run about six to eight ocean rescues a year along this section of beach,” Breton said.
