Story highlights Two bodies presumed to be of University of South Florida exchange students

Car plunged off a cliff into the fast-moving Kings River on July 26

(CNN) Search-and-rescue teams in California retrieved the bodies of two people missing for weeks after a car swerved off a road in the Sierra Nevada and plunged into a raging river, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said.

The two are presumed to be Pakapol Chairatnathrongporn, 28, and Thiwadee Saengsuriyarit, 24 -- both exchange students at the University of South Florida.

The car went through a guardrail and crashed 500 feet off a cliff into the Kings River on July 26. The red 2016 Hyundai Sonata rented by the students had been "stuck against a rock," the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post.

Authorities used aerial photography to confirm that two people were dead in the car. Unsafe conditions in the raging river delayed the rescue operation.

Crews retrieved the bodies Friday in a recovery operation after they determined that conditions were safe to do so, the sheriff's office said.

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