Vikram Mubayi, an Indian student at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), has been found dead after going missing during a solo hiking trip in California’s Big Pine Lakes area over the weekend. His body was found in the Inyo National Forest, according to student publication Daily Nexus.
Mubayi was a PhD student in UCSB’s Department of Chemical Engineering. He last contacted his family at around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 1, sharing his GPS coordinates while on the trail. When he failed to return to his designated outpost as scheduled or make further contact with his family, they reported him missing, prompting a search operation involving Inyo County Search and Rescue and the California Highway Patrol.
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Mubayi’s sibling had also shared a post on Reddit asking for help in locating him. The post said, “My brother Vikram is 6’3″, 170 lbs, has dark hair, and has been out of contact since 8:30 p.m. yesterday in the Big Pine Lakes area in the Eastern Sierra, specifically around Agassiz Col.” It added that his last update came from coordinates 37.10942° N, 118.52428° W at 8:37 p.m. PST. He was found dead on the evening of Aug. 3.
While investigators have not released details about how he died, there has been no indication of foul play. The circumstances of death remain under investigation.
Mubayi was born and raised in Hong Kong. His family described him as a “fairly experienced hiker.” In a biography he wrote for Illini 4000, a student-led non-profit, Mubayi described himself as someone who enjoyed sports and “being outdoors.”
He said his mother introduced him to hiking and tennis “pretty much as soon as I learned how to walk.” His bio also noted that he was an experienced cyclist, according to First Post.
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Before attending UCSB, Mubayi graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering. At UIUC, he worked as an undergraduate research assistant at the Burke Laboratory and also as a teaching assistant.
At UCSB, Mubayi conducted research on bacteria and biological methods for breaking down plant waste and plastics, with the goal of developing sustainable alternatives to petroleum, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A similar incident took place in March, when Indian American teenager Gautham Rajanikanth, a 17-year-old high school student from South Fayette Township near Pittsburgh was found dead after he went missing.