Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old student at the University of Pittsburgh, went on spring break with a group of five other girls in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and was last seen on the early mornings of March 6 on surveillance footage. Konanki was last seen with 22-year-old Joshua Riibe, an Iowa resident, and student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
The five other girls Konanki was with went on an excursion earlier in the day and did not realize she was missing until 4 p.m. The U.S. embassy from the Dominican Republic contacted the Public Ministry of the Dominican Republic on March 7. Riibe was last seen on security camera footage at approximately 8:55 a.m. on the morning of March 6 heading back to his hotel room, making him a person of interest in the case.
Riibe was then kept in a hotel room under police surveillance for 10 days in the Dominican Republic for questioning but was released back to the U.S. on Tuesday, March 18. The holdup on his release back to the U.S. is due to Riibe’s passport being confiscated by authorities, and him having to obtain an entirely new passport. However, it is to be noted that Riibe was never a suspect, in custody, or was accused in the disappearance of Konanki, and was purely questioned and interviewed as a witness.
Konanki’s family requested that their daughter be determined dead as no foul play was suspected.
“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we are coming to the terms with the fact that our daughter has drowned,” Subbarayudu Konanki, Sudiksha’s father said in front of their family home, with Sudiksha’s mother, Sreedevi Konanki, crying next to him.
While it is uncertain if Sudiksha can be declared “dead” due to laws in the Dominican Republic that require a body to be found or a crime to have been committed; Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, (where the Konanki family resides) said in a press release that they would support the wishes of the family and help in any way possible. Subbarayudu asked for privacy for himself and his family and thanked everyone who helped in the search for his daughter.
