UPDATE: Body Found Monday On Strawberry Beach Identified

UPDATE 12:50 PM-

SANTA CRUZ - A body found at a Santa Cruz County beach Monday evening has been identified as a Palo Alto woman missing since last week, a sheriff’s spokesman said Tuesday.

Shireen Agha Ahsan, 19, had been missing since she was swept into the water at Bonny Doon Beach on Jan. 18 and was found by a bicyclist at Strawberry Beach around 5:30 p.m. Monday, Sheriff’s Lt. Bob Payne said.

The bicyclist was riding along the 2600 block of Coast Road near agricultural fields and saw the body on the beach near the surf line at Wilder Ranch State Park, Payne said.

The Santa Cruz County coroner’s office was also called to the scene and worked with deputies to recover the body, he said.

Solaiman Nourzaie, 25, of San Jose, was also taken out into the water with Ahsan on Jan. 18, according to Payne. Crews are continuing to search for Nourzaie by water and air along the coast, Payne said.

Ahsan and Nourzaie were both sophomores at UCSC, according to university officials.

A program to remember Ahsan is scheduled for 7 p.m. today at the university’s Namaste Lounge at College 9/10 in Santa Cruz.

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(original story)

-Bay City News Service

SANTA CRUZ - Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputies retrieved a body at Strawberry Beach on Monday evening, a sheriff’s spokesman said today.

A bicyclist riding along the 2600 block of Coast Road/Highway 1 near agricultural fields saw a body on the beach at Wilder Ranch State Park and notified deputies around 5:30 p.m., sheriff’s Lt. Bob Payne said.

Wilder Ranch State Park is about half way between Santa Cruz and Davenport.

The Santa Cruz County coroner’s office was also called to the scene and worked with deputies to recover the body, he said.

Investigators are working to confirm the identity of the deceased and notify their next of kin, Payne said.

There is a possibility the body may be one of two missing University of California at Santa Cruz students, who were swept into the waters at Bonny Doon Beach on Jan. 18.

The students were 19-year-old Shireen Agha Ahsan of Palo Alto and 25-year-old Solaiman Nourzaie of San Jose, university officials said.

A program to remember Ahsan is scheduled for 6 p.m. today at the university’s Namaste Lounge at College 9/10 in Santa Cruz.

-Bay City News Service; image via Grey3k and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.