Two California college students died after being swept into the ocean in Santa Cruz County last week, and officials say shifting tide conditions may have helped turn a day at the coast into a fatal emergency. Rescue swimmers pulled both Mahial Sran and Harshita Nair back to shore, but neither survived.

The deaths are drawing fresh attention because a Beach Hazard Statement remains in effect and the warning comes after an unusually busy month for rescues in the same stretch of coast. Santa Cruz County Fire Capt. Kyle Breton said crews had already run five rescues in the past month within a one-mile stretch of beach, far above the usual six to eight ocean rescues a year in that section.

Sran was 20 and a student at San Jose State University. Nair attended UC Berkeley, and UC Berkeley Student Body President Abigail Verino described her as someone who showed up for others and built her work around marginalized communities of color. Verino said Nair “was such an incredible person,” adding that she embodied what it means to be part of a community larger than yourself.

Breton said eight rescue swimmers were sent into the water as the situation unfolded along the coast. He said the area has a dangerous pressure point called the keyhole, a passage between Panther and Yellow Bank Beach that becomes inaccessible once the tide comes in or gets high. In his account, people can move through it expecting an ordinary beach day and then find themselves cut off fast, with escape routes vanishing before they realize the risk.

That detail matters because the exact sequence that sent the students into the water is still not fully settled. Early reports suggested the two may have been sleeping along the beach when they were pulled in, but a witness told authorities that was not the case. Sran’s father also said his daughter’s bag and phone never got wet, adding another sign that the scene may not match the first version that circulated after the deaths.

Breton said a sneaker wave may have been responsible, and he said the tide had already come in by the time crews were trying to reach the students. That is the part that makes this case more than a tragic one-off: the beach is already under warning, rescue crews have been busy there, and the combination of tide, access, and sudden surf can leave even brief exposure to the water with no margin for error.

For now, officials are urging caution along the coast while the Beach Hazard Statement stays in place. What remains unanswered is the simplest and most important question in the case: whether the students were caught by a sudden wave at the keyhole, or whether some other movement along the shore put them in the water before help could reach them.