Overview
- Rescuers recovered the women after a late-afternoon water rescue on Wednesday, June 10, near Yellow Bank/Panther Beach where tides overtook a pocket beach under the Keyhole.
- The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as 21-year-old Harshita Nair and 20-year-old Mahial Sran, both from Fremont, and confirmed both later died after hospital transport.
- Multiple agencies deployed about eight rescue swimmers, a Stokes basket and CAL FIRE’s Copter 614 hoist during the June 10 operation, but one woman died soon after the rescue and the other died days later in hospital.
- CAL FIRE says the June 10 recovery was the fifth water rescue in roughly a month along a one-mile stretch between Yellow Bank and Bonny Doon, a pattern officials link to a powerful southerly swell producing sneaker waves and strong rip currents.
- Officials are warning people to check tide charts and avoid caves, pocket beaches and the Keyhole entrance where rising tides can cut off escape routes, and responders say the repeated incidents have strained local rescue resources.