On the day after Christmas, a group of people were trying to take a photo on a frozen lake near Payson, Arizona, when the ice broke.
Police reported that two men and a woman lost their lives after walking on the frozen Woods Canyon Lake.
The Sheriff’s office spokesman Jon Paxton told ABC News that the victims were 25 to 35 yards away from the shore and were with a group including five other people, including children.
There was an attempt by some In the group to rescue the victims, but they too fell through the ice. Two children and a woman who tried to help managed to get to the surface and get out. They then struggled with getting a cell signal after getting out of the water so they could reach emergency personnel.
The first victim found on Monday was Haritha Muddana. Emergency workers were unable to save her.
A search ensued and the other victims were found and identified on Tuesday. The two other victims were identified as Narayana Muddana and Gokul Mediseti.
The three were living in Chandler, Arizona, but were originally from India.
Narayana and Haritha Muddana had two young daughters. Narayana’s brother-in-law Naresh Babu Chimmineni told the local Indian outlet, The Hindu, that the children are now residing with their neighbor.
Chimmineni said that US immigration officials informed him that the girls can only return to India if they have a blood relative there, since they are still minors. This means that the children’s grandparents, either the paternal or the maternal, who reside in India, must come to the US to bring the children back to India.