Amazon Engineer Yadessa Aga Drowns in Lake Tahoe While Visiting Nevada Conference

Yadessa Emiru Aga, a 32-year-old software engineer for Amazon from Austin, Texas, was found unresponsive in Lake Tahoe on Monday evening after swimming near North Sand Harbor. He had traveled to Nevada to attend a church conference and spend time with close friends before the incident. Witnesses pulled him ashore and sheriff’s deputies attempted resuscitation, but he was declared dead at the scene.

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office is treating the case as an accidental drowning and the investigation remains open, with the official cause of death pending. Friends and family have created a GoFundMe page to assist with repatriation and funeral arrangements in both the United States and Ethiopia. The tragedy follows a similar fatality near Sand Harbor that occurred in June.