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The Cornell Daily Sun
Friday, Jan. 2, 2026

Grad Student Found Dead

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A body was found at the bottom of the Fall Creek gorge at around 1:30 pm on August 14th, according to the Ithaca Police Department and eyewitnesses. The body has been identified as Aravind Lakshmanan, a 23-year-old graduate student, according to the Ithaca Police Department. Investigators are continuing to work to discover the cause of death. Lakshmanan’s death is the third gorge-related death this month. Lakshmanan was a Ph.D candidate in the field of Applied Physics. Last year Dan Pirfo ’08, then a freshman, was found dead by three individuals fishing in a spot near where this body was found. The Ithaca Journal reported that just one week earlier a 28-year old man from California drowned after swimming in a popular gorge.


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