Two College Students From Fremont, CA Swept Out To Sea While Sleeping On The Beach

Two college students from Fremont, California are dead after the ocean swept them off a Santa Cruz County beach where they had apparently been sleeping.

Their names were Harshita Nair, 21, and Mahial Sran, 20. Both grew up in the same town and graduated from the same high school in 2023.

Rising tide and powerful surf pulled them into the water near the Keyhole, a narrow access point by Yellow Bank Beach. They were caught off guard, and the ocean carried them out.

The location is not a freak accident waiting to happen once a decade. Responders had already been warning people about that exact stretch of coast.

Fox News Digital reported on June 16 that the two students died after being dragged into the Pacific by incoming tides and heavy surf while they appeared to be napping near the dangerous beach access.

Fox identified the pair as Nair and Sran and placed the incident at the Keyhole near Yellow Bank Beach, where the tide can move in faster than beachgoers realize.

The local reporting fills in who these young women were.

Lookout Santa Cruz reported that Nair died Thursday and Sran died Saturday after both were swept into the water near Yellow Bank Beach the previous Wednesday, citing the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.

Both were Fremont residents and both graduated from Washington High School in 2023.

Sran was studying public health at San Jose State University. Nair was a legal studies major at UC Berkeley.

Both were on track to graduate in 2027.

Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Ashley Keehn told Lookout that the coroner had not yet officially determined the cause and manner of death.

The rescue itself was large and difficult.

SFGATE reported the response unfolded near Bonny Doon Beach after crews received reports of people in the water.

One patient was brought ashore at Yellow Bank Beach and the other at nearby Panther Beach.

Cal Fire’s Alma Helitack Copter 614 lifted one victim from the beach to waiting paramedics above, while the second was hoisted from Panther Beach in a Stokes basket and taken to a hospital by ambulance.

UC Berkeley student Harshita Nair and San Jose State student Mahial Sran both died after being swept into the ocean in Santa Cruz County last week, according to authorities and family members. The Santa Cruz Fire captain thinks a sneaker wave might have been responsible.

Read… pic.twitter.com/fq1BnvmByz

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) June 16, 2026

KSBW reported crews put rescue swimmers in the surf, with about eight responders in the water at one point.

Responders said the Keyhole is commonly used to reach Yellow Bank Beach, but people can quickly find themselves trapped when the tide comes in.

That is the hard lesson here. The danger is not exotic or obvious.

It is a popular stretch of coast, a beautiful beach, and a tide that does not care whether you are awake.

CAL FIRE CZU posted on X that this was the fifth rescue in a single month along a one-mile stretch from Yellow Bank Beach to Bonny Doon Beach.

The post included video of Santa Cruz County Volunteer Fire Captain Kyle Breton explaining the danger to anyone who will listen.

ABC7 Bay Area reported that a Santa Cruz fire captain believed a sneaker wave may have been responsible, the kind of sudden surge that pulls people off the sand before they can react.

20-year-old Mahial Sran and 21-year-old Harshita Nair were swept out into the ocean and died near a Santa Cruz County beach last week, officials confirmed Monday.

STORY: https://t.co/s4mZmdXWEF pic.twitter.com/rC2hQJ8sK8

— KRON4 News (@kron4news) June 16, 2026

KRON4 confirmed the names and ages and reported that officials confirmed Monday that both women died near a Santa Cruz County beach the week before.

Two families in Fremont are now planning funerals instead of graduations.

If you are on that coast, take the warnings from the people who keep pulling strangers out of the water at face value. The tide is patient, and it is not on your side.