Indian Couple Falls to Death in Yosemite National Park

By Little India Desk | October 31, 2018

An Indian origin couple died after falling 800 feet in an area with steep terrain in California’s Yosemite National Park last week. According to media reports, the tragedy occurred when the couple was taking a selfie.

The couple was identified as Vishnu Viswanath, 29, and Meenakshi Moorthy, 30. They fell to their deaths from Taft Point in the Yosemite National Park in California. They were both Indian expats living in California.

Fox News cited Vishnu’s brother Jishnu Viswanath as saying that the couple was apparently taking a selfie.  The popular viewpoint in the park does not have a railing to protect visitors from the ledge, NDTV reported.

Quoting Jishnu, news agency AP said that the couple set up their tripod near a ledge. Park rangers recovered their bodies last Thursday after other visitors reported seeing an unattended camera on a tripod, Jishnu said. Rangers “used high-powered binoculars to find them and used helicopters to airlift the bodies, ” NDTV said in its report.

The news agency said the couple liked life on the edge.  The couple chronicled their traveling adventures on social media and a travel blog—’Holidays and HappilyEverAfters’— that attracted thousands of followers.

NDTV said that just months before her death, Moorthy had warned of the dangers of taking photographs on the edge of cliffs and atop skyscrapers in an Instagram post.

In that post, Moorthy posted a picture of herself at the Grand Canyon and wrote a caption saying, “A lot of us including yours truly is a fan of daredevilry attempts of standing at the edge of cliffs. But did you know that wind gusts can be fatal? Is our life worth one photo?”

In a coincidence, Moorthy appears in the selfie of another tourist couple at Taft Point, minutes before she fell to her death.

In its report British newspaper, Daily Mail said that Moorthy was perched on the edge of Taft Point for hours with no backpack or camera on the night of fatal fall – and hikers saw no sign of her husband.

Moorthy appeared in the selfie taken by Drea Rose Laguillo and her boyfriend Sean Matteson, who were at Taft Point in Yosemite National Park at the time. The DailyMail.com quoted Laguillo as saying that during the hour she was in the place Meenakshi Moorthy was alone, and her husband Vishnu Viswanath was nowhere to be seen. The portal quoted Laguillo as saying that Moorthy was not wearing makeup, had no camera and was without a backpack, which seemed to suggest she was not planning to take any photos.

As they left, Laguillo and Sean Matteson took a final picture in which Moorthy is seen sitting motionless on the edge of the cliff.

Matteson said the woman made him a little nervous because he felt she was standing too close to the edge. But he said she appeared comfortable, NDTV said in its report.

NDTV cited Park spokesman Jamie Richards as saying earlier, “We still do not know what caused them to fall. We’re trying to understand what happened. We may never know, (but) from everything we see, this was a tragic fall.”

NDTV cited Richards as saying that this year 10 people have died in the park and six of those visitors fell to their deaths. In May, Asish Penugonda, a 29-year-old Indian national, fell to his death while ascending the park’s famous Half Dome trail.

“Yosemite is a wild and scenic place. If you are not paying attention to your footing, it is very easy to have a slip and fall,” Richards said.

The couple, both software engineers, had been married since 2014. The couple studied at College of Engineering, Chengannur in Kerala.

The college said both Vishwanath and Moorthy belonged to its BTech 2006-10 Computer Science and Engineering batch. In a Facebook post, the college said, “Our hearts go to the friends and family members of this lovely couple. May their souls rest in peace.”

Jishnu said the funeral will take place in the U.S. as the bodies were not in a condition to be flown back to India.