BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Indiana Department of Natural Resources confirmed Indiana conservation officers located and recovered the bodies of two missing IU students in Lake Monroe Tuesday morning.
Officers found the bodies of 19-year-old Siddhant Shah and 20-year-old Aryan Vaidya shortly before 11:30 a.m. in 18 feet of water near the Paynetown Marina.
The students disappeared in the water Saturday, not far from the Paynetown boat launch.
Windy weather made the effort to find them much more difficult over the weekend and on Monday. Three boats with divers were fighting the elements in their search to find the missing students.
Shah and Vaidya went underwater Saturday while swimming and never resurfaced.
"It's been a challenge with this one," said Lt. Angela Goldman, conservation officer with the Indiana DNR. "You can see around me, obviously the wind is very strong today, 20-25 mile an hour wind, which is causing incredibly rough waters. A lot of our high-tech equipment, the sonar equipment, needs a smoother water surface and so the constant agitation of the boat skews that sonar and so that's proving very difficult to use in those conditions."
Both men were students in the IU Kelley School of Business and spent Saturday on the lake with friends.
DNR said a big group of friends from IU had rented a double-decker boat, but when they anchored and started to swim, not everyone was wearing a life jacket.
One of the students started to struggle.
"And so, a couple other people jumped in to help until there were several people in and then ultimately, that gentleman, plus one of the guys that jumped in to help, they didn't make it back to the boat," Goldman explained.
One victim was a strong swimmer and even played water polo. But rescuers suspect the combination of wind, cold water and no life jacket led to danger.
"It is a tough reminder, and I wish we could get that message out more and more and just let people know that it's OK to wear your life jacket. We want you to wear your life jacket," Goldman said. "Every summer, we're out here looking for a drowning victim, and sometimes, they are strong swimmers, so it can happen to anyone. It doesn't take long and ... just wear that life jacket. Also now, this family is very adamant about how do we spread that message about wearing that life jacket that would have saved two lives."
More than a dozen family members and friends spent all day Monday lined up on the dock, watching the search and praying for a miracle in what's now most likely a recovery mission.
13News communicated with Vaidya's mom in Ohio, who told us they're leaning on faith and God right now. She asked everyone to surround their family in prayer.