Search efforts pressed on into their second week for Sudiksha Konanki, a college student at the University of Pittsburgh who went missing earlier this month during a trip to the Dominican Republic resort town Punta Cana.
Details surrounding Konanki’s disappearance have begun to emerge as the international investigation continues. Here’s what we know so far about her case.
Konanki seen on video walking to beach
Konanki, 20, is from Chantilly, Virginia, a Washington, D.C., suburb, and attends college in Pittsburgh. She has permanent residency in the United States as well as citizenship in India. She arrived in the Dominican Republic for spring break on March 3 and was vacationing with a group of friends, five other women, according to investigators and her parents.
She has been missing since Thursday, March 6, after surveillance video showed her, three of her friends and two other American men walk toward the beach area outside the Riu República hotel. The video was from around 4:15 a.m., investigators in the Dominican Republic said.
Power outages at the hotel may have prompted guests to move outdoors around that time, the hotel said in a statement. An earlier surveillance video showed Konanki and one of her friends hugging at the hotel bar.
Defensa Civil Dominicana
One of the men in the group walking to the beach has been identified as 22-year-old Joshua Riibe, an American college student. In the footage, Konanki and Riibe are seen walking with their arms around each other.
Video shows the other four individuals later returning to the hotel, but Konanki and Riibe stayed behind on the beach, a police source said.
Riibe told police he and Konanki were swept into the ocean by a large wave and both struggled against rough seas. He said he believed Konanki got out of the water but was not certain, according to a person with direct knowledge of Riibe’s statements to U.S. investigators.
He is presumed to be the last person who saw Konanki alive.
Konanki’s disappearance is so far being investigated as a missing persons case, not a criminal investigation.
The Dominican Republic’s attorney general said investigators were exploring whether Konanki drowned, but not ruling out the possibility of foul play.
Riibe faces questioning, says he is cooperating
Riibe has been in Punta Cana for questioning since the investigation got underway.
Authorities confiscated his passport, his attorney Guzmán Ariza said Saturday, noting his client is confined to a hotel with police escorts anywhere he goes. Yeni Berenice Reynoso, the Dominican attorney general, was interrogating Riibe directly, Ariza told CBS News.
Riibe and his parents, Tina and Albert Riibe, extended “deep sorrow and solidarity” with Konanski’s family in a statement released through his attorney.
“Above all, we wish to contribute to the search efforts and understand the anguish and uncertainty they are going through and we share the hope that Sudiksha will be found as soon as possible,” the statement said. “Joshua Riibe is deeply dismayed by her disappearance and has fully cooperated in the search and clarification of the facts from the very beginning.”
Originally from Iowa, Riibe is a college senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he is pursuing a degree in land surveying.
His family in their statement described him as “a beloved son, brother, and friend, known for his kind nature, sense of humor, and commitment to his community.”
They also shared concerns about the “irregular conditions” of his detainment in Punta Cana, where, they said, he had been “subjected to extensive questioning without the presence of official translators or legal counsel until Wednesday, March 12.” The family retained a lawyer “to initiate legal actions ensuring his safety and the protection of his rights throughout this process,” according to the statement.
Intensifying search efforts
More than 300 police and other officials, with support from the FBI, are searching the air, sea and land to locate her, Dominican President Luis Abinader said. The Dominican Republic National Police said they have assembled a new “high-level commission” to oversee the case, and Interpol has issued a global police alert at the request of investigators.
“We are concerned,” Abinader said at a news conference on March 10. “All government agencies are searching … because the latest information we have from one of them, from the last person who was with the young woman, what he says according to the reports is that a wave, while on the beach, crashed into them.”
Dominican Republic National Police said in a statement March 11 that they were “re-interviewing targeted individuals who were in the victim’s proximity at the time of her disappearance.” Investigators said the individuals included “hotel employees where Konanki and her companions were staying, with the goal of gathering information to corroborate her movements, interactions, and any relevant details for the investigation.”
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Manuel Bojorquez
contributed to this report.
