Special Tribute: A moving message from a prominent...

Harshita Nair; Mahial Sran.Credit : Linkedin; Mahial Sran/Instagram

New details have emerged about the two women who died after being swept out to sea while napping on a California beach last week, days after their identities were confirmed to PEOPLE.

Harshita Nair, 21, and 20-year-old Mahial Sran, both Bay Area college students from Fremont, were on Panther Beach in Santa Cruz on Wednesday, June 10, when the tide came up quickly and caught them off guard, Santa Cruz County Volunteer Fire Capt. Kyle Breton said in a statement shared by Cal Fire.

Responders pulled both women from the water, one near Panther Beach and the other at Yellow Bank Beach just north. However, on Monday, June 15, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to PEOPLE that both women had died.

The same day, Nair’s father, Ashok Nair, told the New York Post that he didn’t know what happened and was “still in shock.”

In his daughter’s obituary, she was described as “truly full of life—radiating energy, warmth, and joy wherever she went,” while it said that she “always found a way to lift others up, to brighten their day, and to make them feel seen and valued.”

Both women went to high school together, graduating from Washington High School, part of the Fremont Unified School District, in 2023, and then attending college.

Nair was a legal studies student at the University of California, Berkeley, while Sran was a public health student at San Jose State University and worked part-time as a cashier for the Michael Kors Outlet at Great Mall in Milpitas, per the Post.

“It is with immense sadness that we have learned that a UC Berkeley student, Harshita Nair, has passed away,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Adam Ratliff, via CBS News. “We wish to extend our condolences to this student’s family and friends.”

UC Berkeley Student Body President Abigail Verino told ABC7 News that Nair was an “incredible person” who “always made the effort to show up” in a tribute. “I would say she is someone that embodies what it means to be part of a community larger than yourself,” she said.

Per CBS News, San Jose State spokesperson Michelle Smith McDonald said of Sran, “We extend our deepest sympathies to everyone affected by this tragic loss. Our entire SJSU community shares in the grief felt by those who loved and cared for her.”

Raj Salwan, the mayor of Fremont, also paid tribute to Nair and Sran “whose young lives were filled with promise,” he wrote on Facebook. “My deepest condolences are with their families, friends, classmates, and everyone grieving this unimaginable loss.”