Vishnu Viswanath, Meenakshi Moorthy Deaths: Couple Dies In Yosemite National Park

The couple who died last week after falling from Taft Point in Yosemite National Park, California, was identified by the park officials Monday.

The couple was identified as 29-year-old Vishnu Viswanath and 30-year-old Meenakshi Moorthy from India, living and working in the United States. Their bodies were recovered by rangers Thursday, a day after visitors had spotted them.

“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,” park spokesman Jamie Richards said, San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Officials said the couple fell approximately 800 feet below Taft Point and the recovery operation involved park rangers using technical climbing and rappelling techniques. Helicopter support from the California Highway Patrol was also used during the operation, Los Angeles Times reported.

The couple had recently moved to California from New York after Viswanath took a job as a systems engineer at Cisco, based in San Jose. They ran a travel blog called “Holidays and Happily Ever Afters” in which they chronicled their adventures of traveling around the world. They also have an Instagram account with the same name.

Though it was unclear how the couple fell or what they were doing when the accident occurred, a friend of the couple said they were driving from New York and seeing scenic sights in California. As the investigation goes on, officials believe the blog might provide information about why the couple was near the edge.

In March, Moorthy posted a photo of herself sitting on a cliff at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with the caption, “A lot of us including yours truly is a fan of daredevilry attempts of standing at the edge of cliffs and skyscrapers, but did you know that wind gusts can be FATAL??? Is our life just worth one photo? When we squirm at another selfie attempt gone south from a skyscraper, let’s remember to save that in our core memory.”

The couple, married since 2014, were software engineers. According to their friends, the couple enjoyed traveling and taking photos of exotic locations.

Raj Katta, a friend of the two, said he got to know them while attending Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He said Viswanath was a good friend and mentor who helped him with his MBA application just a week ago.

“He was a thoughtful and amazing guy, very talented. They are a really happy couple. Very positive,” Katta said.

While describing Moorthy, he said, “She’s one of those girls who wants to explore the world and discover a deeper meaning in life.”

He added both of them were happy and he was certain it was a tragic accident that caused them to fall and not a suicide.

“They like to travel and take pictures. Probably they would have gone up to the cliffs to take a couple of pictures. They have thousands of pictures like that. They are really into this stuff,” he said.