Authorities in the Dominican Republic are investigating the disappearance of 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki, who went missing last Thursday during a spring-break trip to Punta Cana with friends. ABC News reports that Konanki is believed to have died by drowning.
According to the sheriff’s office in Loudoun County, Virginia, where Konanki’s family lives, she and five other women from the University of Pittsburgh arrived in the Dominican Republic last Monday and reportedly attended a party at the Riu República Hotel on Wednesday night. Surveillance footage shows the group walking around the resort’s beach early Thursday morning accompanied by two men. “She went to the beach on March 6 early morning, around 4 a.m., with friends and some other guys they met at the resort,” Konanki’s father told CNN in a statement. The Dominican National Police say Konanki was last seen entering the resort’s beach around 4:15 a.m. on Thursday. Surveillance footage shows five women and one man leaving the beach about 5:55 a.m.; Konanki and another man are believed to have stayed behind. Konanki’s friends alerted authorities that she was missing that afternoon, after she failed to return to her room. “Her friends came back after some time and my daughter did not come back, did not show up from the beach,” her father said. The U.S. State Department is currently investigating alongside the Indian Embassy in the Dominican Republic. The agency has taken the lead in the search for Konanki, who is an Indian citizen and a legal permanent U.S. resident.
CNN reports that local police have interviewed the man who stayed back with Konanki and are also re-interviewing the others last seen with her, along with hotel employees, to help focus the maritime search. On Sunday, officials in the Dominican Republic told ABC News that Konanki and her companion went for a morning swim and were caught by a large wave, at which point they believe Konanki drowned in the water, with her clothes reportedly discovered on the beach. According to local police, Konanki’s companion said he and Konanki went into the ocean together, but that he felt sick, got out of the water, and fell asleep in a lounge chair. The man is being kept under police watch at a hotel as the investigation continues but is not officially detained.
A spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the office believes that the drowning ruling is premature: There’s “no evidence to support that conclusion at this time,” the spokesperson said. “The investigation is looking at everything from an accident to foul play, and interviews are ongoing, along with review of video and phone records. The best outcome is that she is found alive and well.” On Wednesday, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office confirmed that 24-year-old Joshua Riibe was a “person of interest” in the case, which they’re currently considering a missing-person investigation and not a criminal case.
Konanki’s parents have flown to Punta Cana to aid in the search for their daughter and have asked authorities to widen the investigation, per the Associated Press. “It’s four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore,” her father told the radio station WTOP-FM. “She’s not found, so we’re asking them to investigate multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.”
This post has been updated.