Angela Lin loved nature, swing dancing and singing. (Courtesy of Angela Lin's family)

On the afternoon of July 19, a 29-year-old Google software engineer named Angela Lin was doing one of the things she loved most - hiking in Yosemite National Park. With her boyfriend and two friends, Lin had been admiring giant sequoias along the paved trail through Tuolumne Grove, about a mile from the parking lot, when there was a loud cracking sound from above.

"Two to three seconds later, branches fell out of the sky," Lin's boyfriend David Hua told SFGATE. "One big branch struck Angela, and then there were a bunch of smaller ones directly behind me."

Hua had closed his eyes as the branches came down, and when he reopened them, he saw Lin on the ground face up, with blood pooling around her head. Hua called 911 and performed CPR until a park ranger arrived and took over, he said, and soon an ambulance showed up. But Lin was never placed inside. He said emergency personnel later told him that the falling branch likely killed his girlfriend instantly.

"It was just unimaginable that something like this could occur," Hua said, his voice unsteady over the phone. "On such a popular trail, too."

A hiking path runs through the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias via the Tuolumne Grove Trail, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

For about a week after Lin's death, the National Park Service closed Tuolumne Grove to visitors, and tour guides from Echo Adventure Cooperative observed plainclothes officers on the scene, according to Elisabeth Barton, a founding member of the co-op.

Although the grove has reopened, the park service hasn't issued a press release on Lin's death, and the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office could not be reached for comment. Yosemite public affairs officer Scott Gediman did provide a short statement.

"The incident remains under investigation," Gediman told SFGATE. "There is no further information available."

Lin's grieving loved ones haven't been able to learn much else from the park service, Hua said, and the frustrating lack of communication was what prompted him to reach out to the media.

"We are seeking more information from the park service regarding this incident, especially around trail safety, maintenance and awareness of problematic trees on popular trails, and future prevention of similar incidents," Hua wrote in an email.

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Bystanders, too, have been upset that no information about what happened to Lin has been made public until now. One user created a Reddit post titled "Tuolumne Grove Incident 7/19" last week in hopes of finding out if Lin survived.

"I am a tourist, but was on the scene of an extremely tragic freak accident in the area trying to provide [aid], and it has been haunting me," the distraught witness wrote. "I can't stop thinking about it and can't find any news articles updating about the situation."

Later in the thread, the same user commented, "It hits so so hard because they were doing nothing wrong or careless… Life can be so cruel."

Although it's rare that a visitor to Yosemite is struck and killed by a tree or its branches, it isn't unprecedented. On a gusty day in October last year, Australian hiker Harry Partington was crushed by a falling tree on the park's Four Mile trail, which connects Yosemite Valley and Glacier Point. A woman from Germany who was also injured was taken out by helicopter, the Union Democrat reported, but her condition was unknown.

At the time, Gediman advised that park visitors always "be aware of their surroundings."

Back in August 2015, two high school students were asleep in a tent in the Upper Pines Campground when an oak limb fell, killing them both. And in 2012, a concessions worker was killed when a tree fell on his tent cabin during a windstorm.

What happened to Lin, though, was even more random. She wasn't camped under a tree. And there was no wind on the day she died, Hua said. It was a perfectly clear and sunny afternoon.

"The sad thing is that Angela is the most cautious person you can be," he said. "She is super careful. She stays on trails. She never goes off trails. So, usually when you hear about these incidents, someone is doing something dangerous, like playing in water or near a cliff or something. There's nothing we could have done to predict or prevent this."

Another thing that's been hard for Hua is thinking about all the things Lin - a passionate person who loved singing, swing dancing and nature - won't get to do. "Losing Angela so suddenly and so young is a devastating loss for her family, friends and community, and no words can describe the shock and grief we are all experiencing," he said.

The pair had been close since they attended college together at UC Berkeley, where Lin was well liked by fellow students, friends said. In her freshman year, she met fellow Cal student Ian Cook in their dorm; they both ended up joining the school chorale, where they made faces to try to crack each other up while singing.

"She was one of my first and fastest friends in undergrad," Cook told SFGATE in a Facebook message. "In what was a stressful, fast-paced, and very new environment for all of us, what stood out to me about her was how she seemed to take it all in stride. Angela was obviously whip-smart, but she led with a simple and playful attitude. That mix of confidence and humility put folks around her at ease."

Google software engineer Angela Lin was killed July 19, 2025, by a falling branch in Yosemite National Park. (Courtesy of Angela Lin's family)

Research scientist Richard Zhang, who was in Lin's undergraduate lab, said she was a kind and diligent researcher. "I'll remember her warm presence, staying through the late nights before the paper deadline, creating beautiful and precise figures, while thoughtfully treating us to chocolate to keep our spirits up," he wrote in an email to SFGATE.

Lin went on to earn a Master of Science from University of Texas at Austin, and had been working in the Bay Area as an engineer for most of the last six years, first at Salesforce and later at Google. Her current employer also offered a tribute.

"We lost a loved and respected member of our team," Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini told SFGATE. "We're very saddened by this tragedy, and our hearts are with their family and loved ones."

SFGATE tech reporter Stephen Council contributed reporting for this story.

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