Note: This article will be continuously updated as information becomes available.
More than a month after junior biology and chemistry major Sudiksha Konanki went missing while on spring break in the Dominican Republic, she still has not been found.
On March 17, the Konanki family sent a letter to the Dominican National Police asking for their daughter to be declared legally dead, and the family has told authorities they believe she drowned in the Atlantic Ocean.
On March 18, a judge in the Dominican Republic granted a person of interest in the case, Joshua Riibe, leave to return to the U.S. There have been no new updates on Konanki’s disappearance since then.
Sheriff Michael Chapman with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office in Virginia — which has been assisting the Dominican National Police with the investigation — said in a statement on March 18 that the Konanki family “expressed their belief that she drowned.”
“While a final decision to make such a declaration rests with authorities in the Dominican Republic, we will support the Konanki family in every way possible as we continue to review the evidence and information made available to us in the course of this investigation,” Chapman said.
Konanki, a 20-year-old Pitt student, was last seen during the early morning hours of March 6. She was on spring break vacation with five friends in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
“I want my daughter back,” Konanki’s father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told The Pitt News. “She was very faithful to anybody. She never wanted to hurt anyone, and she’s also a second mother to my little ones, who are a boy and a girl of 15 years.”
According to a statement made by a university spokesperson on March 9, “University officials are in contact with Sudiksha Konanki’s family as well as authorities in Loudoun County, Virginia, and we have offered our full support in their efforts to find her and bring her home safely.”
Where the Investigation Stands
On March 18, the DNP said in an update translated by The Pitt News that “The authorities have been working without rest on the investigation with the active participation of the FBI and the constant presence of federal agents in the area.”
An earlier translated release from the DNP confirms that Konanki arrived in the Dominican Republic with five friends on March 3. She was last seen on March 6 at 4:15 a.m., when she and other vacationers were captured on video camera several meters from an entrance to the beach area near Hotel Riu República, where she was staying.
According to reporting by AP News, Konanki’s family said she left her phone and wallet with her friends, “although she’s known to always carry her phone.”
The DNP said it became aware of Konanki’s disappearance at 8 a.m. on March 7 after receiving a phone call from the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic.
Since then, “an exhaustive search was launched by sea, air and land throughout the outskirts and surrounding areas, using drones, helicopters, divers, boats, canine units and human resources, among other technologies.”
Konanki’s ”sarong-style cover-up” was found on a lounge chair on the beach, and there were no signs of violence found in the initial search, according to CNN.
The DNP stated the authorities are in the process of interviewing Konanki’s companions at the time of her disappearance “in order to determine the exact location and proximity of the maritime search.”
They have interviewed the man seen with Konanki in the video footage, who is thought to be the last person to see her alive. CNN reported the man questioned to be Joshua Steven Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud University in Minnesota.
“Investigators are expanding the investigation process to corroborate [Riibe’s] preliminary statement,” according to the DNP.
The DNP is collaborating with the FBI and the Homeland Security Investigations Office to investigate Konanki’s disappearance.
Units from the National Police, the Central Investigation Directorate, the Tourist Police (Politur), the Dominican Navy, the Dominican Air Force, the national Civil Defense and the fire department are assisting with the local search.
Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the regional police agency from Konanki’s hometown of Chantilly, Virginia, is also assisting federal law enforcement in the investigation.
“There has been considerable public speculation about what may have happened to Konanki and who may be involved,” the LCSO said in a statement on Wednesday. “We caution anyone from drawing any unsubstantiated conclusions and are committed to ensuring that a thorough investigation is conducted before any conclusions are reached.”
The LCSO has filed for a worldwide police alert for a missing person to be issued by INTERPOL.
Senior staff writer Anna Kuntz contributed to the reporting in this article.