NEW DELHI -- A Northern California machinist and his girlfriend said the pink-haired woman who fell to her death in Yosemite National Park accidentally appeared in two of their selfie photos taken shortly before the 30-year-old woman and her husband plummeted from a popular overlook.
Sean Matteson said Meenakshi Moorthy and her pink hair stood out from the crowd enjoying the sunset atop Taft Point last week. He 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.
Park rangers recovered the bodies of Moorthy and 29-year-old Vishnu Viswanath on Thursday about 800 feet (245 meters) below Taft Point.
Matteson said Moorthy's pink-haired visage appears in the corner of two photos he snapped of himself and his girlfriend Drea Rose Laguillo. He said Laguillo noticed the photos on Monday after photos of the two victims were published.
Matteson said he doesn't recall noticing Viswanath.
The Indian couple studied engineering together.
Dr. Nisha Kuruvilla, a professor at the College of Engineering, Chengannur in Alapuzha district in Kerala state, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that 29-year-old Vishnu Viswanath and 30-year-old Meekakshi Moorthy were her students and had married at a Hindu temple in Kerala four years ago.
Kuruvilla described them as "very good students" and "fond of traveling."
Park rangers recovered their bodies Thursday from about 800 feet (245 meters) below Taft Point, a vertigo-inducing granite ledge that doesn't have a railing. (AP)
Yosemite spokeswoman Jamie Richards said in a statement that park officials were investigating the deaths and that could take several days. (AP)