A group of people, including children, walked on a frozen lake on a sunny day after Christmas, near Payson, Arizona.
Three of them fell through the ice as they were taking photos on their phones.
Two men and a woman died in the icy waters of the frozen Woods Canyon Lake.
A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s office, Jon Paxton, told reporters that the victims were several yards from the shore while on the ice with the children.
When the three fell into the cold water, others tried to help them out, and also fell through the ice, but they managed to get out without saving the others.
When emergency personnel showed up, they recovered the body of Haritha Muddana on Monday.
The search continued and the other victims were found on Tuesday. They were identified as Narayana Muddana and Gokul Mediseti.
All three victims 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 he was told by US immigration officials that the girls, who are minors, may return to India if they have a blood relative there. The children’s grandparents must come to the US to bring them back to India.
