It is with heavy hearts that we announce that Hari Simran has been found. He appears to have fallen while hiking and sustained a fatal injury to the head. We believe he passed instantly and did not suffer. His family and friends are making the proper arrangements in Mexico. There will be a memorial vigil tonight in Virginia. Please send your love to his family, friends and our entire community and pray with his family tonight. Thank you to everyone – the local and national governments of Mexico, the United States Embassy, the Red Cross, all the volunteers, the media, and all of you for helping us #findharisimran. This journey has been a testament to the enormous amount of love and goodness he shared with us all during his time on earth. His last picture said ‘Looking down on you.’ We know he is an angel in the heavens now looking down on all of us.
We love you, Hari Simran
(January 2, 2015) On December 30, 2014 Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, a 25-year old man born in Brooklyn, NY, USA and currently residing in Leesburg, VA, USA, went missing after he went on a short day hike in the mountains around Tepoztlan, Mexico.
A massive search is underway, but red-tape has kept TMobile / TelCel from releasing GPS data from his cell phone to the family, even though that information would aid the search tremendously.
As the search moves into its fourth day, family and friends are asking everyone to put pressure on T-Mobile/TelCel to release the GPS data.
In addition, family and friends are desperately asking the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to provide more sophisticated equipment for the search but so far have not received any assistance.
They have asked the U.S. to provide military aircraft support with infrared technologies that can drop rescue teams to the top of the mountain. They are also requesting that US Embassy brings a highly skilled and trained search and rescue team such as the US Virginia Search and Rescue team who has been trained to find individuals in these conditions.
Right now, search parties have to hike 4 hours to get to the spot where they believe Khalsa was last located.
Khalsa, along with his wife Emily Smith, were on vacation at the Villa Maria Inmaculada retreat center in Tepozltan to take part in a spiritual retreat. On the afternoon of December 30, 2014, Khalsa took a hike in the mountains near the center.
Khalsa sent a text message to his wife at 12:30 pm on Tuesday with a photo and a message, “Looking down on you!” The next message Mrs. Smith received was at 2:20 pm, and said, “I accidentally summited another mountain. Looks like I’ll be a little later coming back :). Save me some lunch if you can”. She has not heard from him since and he has presumably lost communication capabilities.
The search began for him late on December 30, 2014 and has continued since. While helicopters search from the air, ground crews with dogs and local mountain guides search the ground. But the search is hampered by a lack of technology. The ground crews have no long distance radios with which to communicate. And even if the helicopter finds him, it is not equipped to pick him up.
Because of privacy laws with cell phones, the cell phone company in Tepozltan, TelCel, has refused to release GPS data from Khalsa’s last known texts. This legal bureaucratic obstacle has greatly hindered the search rescue operations. The family is seeking a court order for TelCel to release the data, in the hopes that it will aid the search. But every moment the data is not released contributes to the difficulties in finding Khalsa.
Hari Simran Singh Khalsa is 25 years old, 5’10 (178 cm) 170 lbs (85 kgs). He was last seen wearing tan shorts, a white t-shirt and a dark blue turban. Khalsa originally hails from Brooklyn and has been running the Raj Yoga Center in Sterling, Virginia along with his wife for the last several years. Khalsa is a long-time practitioner of Kundalini yoga, and earlier made headlines in New York for teaching Kundalini yoga and meditation to activists during the Occupy Wall Street campaign. He is an alum of Adelphi University in New York and the Miri Piri Academy in Amritsar, India. He is also a member of the Sikh American community, and wears a turban and beard.
The response from the police in Tepozltan, from the Red Cross and from community members in the area familiar with the mountains has been tremendous. On January 1st, 150 local police showed up to help with the search, including the Morelos Chief of Police. Search dogs are part of the rescue effort. The Proteccion Civil has also contributed to the search. 25 local climbers who know the mountains have also taken teams into the mountains.
However, every day that passes makes this situation more critical.
The family is requesting that the media cover this story. The most important objectives at this point in time are asking the US Embassy in Mexico City to contribute by bringing in more sophisticated equipment for the search. In addition, if international pressure can be put on TelCel to release the GPS data from Khalsa’s last known texts, that data could greatly improve the chances of finding him.
A missing persons report has been filed with local authorities in Tepoztlan. Khalsa’s family and friends have set up the website www.findharisimran.com to provide updates on the search effort, and are using #findharisimran for relevant posts on Twitter and Facebook. They are requesting that all media inquiries be directed to Mr. Shabd Singh Khalsa and Prabhjit Singh.
http://findharisimran.com and online Hashtag: #FindHariSimran
