Narayana Rao Muddana, his wife Haritha, and daughters Pujitha and Harshitha. File image
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Bodies of Narayana Rao Muddana and his wife Haritha are being returned to India, Naresh Babu Chimmineni, brother-in-law of Narayana Rao told The Hindu on Saturday. He said that the bodies probably will be returned to Hyderabad by Monday (January 2) evening and to Guntur by Tuesday (January 3) morning. As soon as they will receive the bodies, they will perform the funeral rites as per the Hindu religion, he maintained. 

At the same time, Mr. Naresh said that the children of Narayana Rao, including Pujitha (11) and Harshitha (7) are also coming to India, with the help of an NRI from the same village in Guntur. He said that Narayana Rao’s employer was helping in returning the kids, apart from TANA. 

The Hindu published about the tragedy in its previous columns. Haritha and Narayana Rao were husband and wife and they belonged to Guntur district, while Gokul Mediseti is their family friend from Visakhapatnam. All these three people died in a frozen lake on December 26 in Arizona, United States of America. At the time of the incident, both Narayana Rao and Gokul families were spending weekend time at the tourist spot and walked over the frozen lake for photo capture. 

Mr. Naresh said that Gokul’s wife will be bringing back his body to Vizag in a separate plane.

He said that they got the death certificates and almost completed all other formalities to bring back the bodies.  

Incident happened at around 3.35 p.m.: Coconino County Sheriff

Reacting on the deaths of three Telugu persons, the concerned police officials from the United States of America informed over mail that, “The missing men have been located deceased and have been identified as Narayana Muddana, (49) and Gokul Mediseti (47). The female victim has been identified as Haritha Muddana (age unknown)”. 

Office of Jim Driscoll, Sheriff, Coconino County, Arizona (AZ), in an official communication with The Hindu explained that “The three victims resided in Chandler, Arizona and are originally from India”. 

Stating that the rescue operation to trace the missing people started immediately, the police explained that on December 12, 2022 at 3:35 p.m., Coconino County Deputies from the Forest Lakes Substation responded to Woods Canyon Lake for the report of 3 individuals, two males and one female who were walking on the frozen lake and fell through the ice. 

Responding Deputies and Fire units were able to pull the female from the water and administer life-saving measures but were unsuccessful, according to the Sheriff’s office. Later, the search continued for the 2 male individuals. To locate the two missing men, the Deputies were able to acquire a boat from the boat rental at the lake and conduct an expanded search of the area. Additional units responding to the area are the Forest Lakes Fire Department, Gila County Sheriff’s Office Dive Units with cold water gear, the Department of Public Safety Air Rescue with a cold-water diver, Tonto Rim Search and Rescue, and Coconino County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue with boats and cold-water search gear.