GILA COUNTY, Ariz. — Two Valley men drowned Wednesday night after they entered the water at the Fossil Creek waterfalls and did not resurface, according to the Gila County Sheriff's Office.
Officials say Rakesh Lakkireddy, 23, and Rohith Repala, 25, both of Tempe, had just graduated from ASU's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering days prior.
They were on a trip to Fossil Creek with 16 other recent graduates.
The Gila County Sherriff's Office said the group arrived Wednesday afternoon and hiked about four miles to the lower falls area. They got there just before 6 p.m.
“A few of the folks involved out of the group of 18 got in the water," said Sgt. Cole Labonte. "Probably around five or six of them got in the water.”
Labonte said the group did not intend on swimming there, though they did have a few life jackets. Three of the men in the group in the water who were not strong swimmers, including Lakkireddy and Repala, slipped in at the same time.
“There's some ledges along the sides and what we believe is they were kind of in the water near those ledges and either misjudged the depth of the next step or misjudged how strong their footing was," Labonte said. "It's an inverted triangle. It's not really something where you can kind of get in and then get back out by climbing out of the water.”
Despite a friend with a life jacket trying to help, the two never surfaced.
Chaos ensued as friends tried to contact 911 with little to no cell phone service.
“From what we understand, there was some folks in the group that were kind of hiking up the canyon to try to get better service because we were getting a lot of 911 calls and they were dropping," Labonte said.
Eventually, texts to 911 started coming through to both Yavapai and Gila counties which led to a massive response. It included multiple fire departments and a DPS helicopter.
“It was determined that they'd been underwater for quite some time. So it it went from trying to recover somebody that had been involved in a drowning to a recovery of two individuals," Labonte said.
A search and rescue team remained on scene through the night and the bodies of the two men were recovered by divers on May 9, the sheriff's office said. Labonte was one of the divers.
"We knew that we were dealing with a couple of folks that didn't have family nearby, and it was going to be really important for us to do a complete investigation and recover those remains for the family," Labonte said.
Both victims' families live in India and officials said many relatives had just gotten home after traveling to Arizona to celebrate their graduations.
Detectives worked with the Indian consulate to notify them of the deaths.
“We get a lot of visitors there, and we're happy to have them. But the clarity of the water is not what most people are used to," Labonte said. "This particular area is very, very blue.”
“It can be deceiving because you could, in a lot of places, you could see the bottom, but that bottom could be well over your head. And where you know, that just doesn't exist in a lot of places. So I again, I just can't stress enough not to exceed your abilities and not to take chances, because this is remote," said Gila County Sheriff Adam Shepherd.
Kyle Squires, dean of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, sent this statement to 12News:
We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss of two of our very recent graduates who were preparing for the next steps in their promising lives. Our sincere condolences go out to the families and friends of Rakesh and Rohith.
UP TO SPEED
What is the Valley?:
“The Valley” is what locals call the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is considered the largest metropolitan area in the Southwest.
The Valley is made up of various major cities other than Phoenix, including:
- Mesa
- Chandler
- Scottsdale
- Tempe
- Glendale
- Surprise
- Peoria
- Gilbert
- El Mirage
- Avondale
- Litchfield Park
- Goodyear
- Buckeye
Whether a city is in the “East Valley” or “West Valley” depends on where it is in relation to Phoenix.
The cities of the Valley have a combined population of 4,845,832 people, according to the 2020 United States Census. This makes it the 11th largest metropolitan area in the country right behind the Boston and Atlanta areas.
How big is Maricopa County?
Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.
The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).
One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.
The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.
The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.