Vishnu Viswanath, 29, and Meenakshi Moorthy, 30, plummeted 800 feet to their death in October 2018 all for the sake of the ultimate selfie. The tragedy occurred at Yosemite National Park in California where the bodies were found below Taft Point, a scenic overlook that has no protective railings.
The bodies were in no condition to be flown back to India, where the couple was originally from, and so were buried in the US.
Viswanath was a software engineer and his wife was an aspiring travel blogger. They were not new to daredevilry and even warned others about the risks as this chilling excerpt from Moorthy's Instagram with a photo of her sitting at the edge of the Grand Canyon demonstrates: “A lot of us including yours truly is a fan of daredevilry attempts of standing at the edge of cliffs and skyscrapers, but did you know that wind gusts can be FATAL??? Is our life just worth one photo?”
Per reports, the couple had set up their tripod at the edge of the vertigo-inducing drop the night before and visitors to the area notified the authorities about the camera that was just sitting there: "Park visitors the next morning saw the camera and alerted rangers, who “used high-powered binoculars to find them and used helicopters to airlift the bodies.”
An autopsy later revealed that the couple suffered grievous wounds to the head, neck, chest, and abdomen from the fall. It also revealed that the couple was drunk as this excerpt explains: "Both Moorthy and Viswanath were “intoxicated with ethyl alcohol prior to death,” but no drugs were present in their bodies according to the coroner’s report. Ethyl alcohol is found in alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine and hard liquor."
It is still not clear whether it was the alcohol or something else altogether that caused the horrific fall.
Comments / 114