Two 24-year-old friends, Navam Kaul and Malaika Chitre, were killed by a New York subway train early on Sunday morning after Chitre appeared to follow Kaul onto the tracks in an apparent attempt to save him. Footage filmed by shocked onlookers showed the pair sitting together on the tracks at Canal Street station moments before a Number 4 train struck them, and while speculation initially suggested a suicide pact between a couple, police believe the two were simply close university friends and that Chitre had gone after Kaul once he ended up on the tracks.

Kaul, who grew up in Sayreville, New Jersey, and worked as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg, and Chitre, a Rutgers graduate working at Acadia Pharmaceuticals who had just begun a pharmacy doctorate at Temple University, met while studying at Rutgers. Police are investigating whether alcohol or drugs left them unaware of the danger, and say Kaul may have fallen or climbed onto the tracks before Chitre tried to pull him clear; the train driver's emergency brake attempt came too late. No suicide note has been found, and the deaths come just a week after an MTA worker, Moet McCullum, 41, was killed by a train at Yankee Stadium station, a case now under separate federal and transit safety investigation.