Joshua Riibe Leaves Dominican Republic After Being Spotted With Missing Indian Student Sudiksha Konanki

Indian Student Sudiksha Konanki: The family of a missing University of Pittsburgh student has asked the Dominican Republic's national police that she be declared dead.

Sudiksha Konanki, 20, disappeared on spring break while in the Dominican Republic. She was last seen at a hotel in early March.

The Dominican Republic's police confirmed to the BBC that they had received the request from Ms Konanki's family, but did not provide additional details.Dominican authorities had confiscated Riibe’s passport during the investigation into Konanki’s disappearance, a source close to the investigation told CNN. On Wednesday, Riibe received a new passport from the US Embassy, his attorney Beatriz Santana said.

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“We are pleased to report that Joshua and his father are currently traveling back home to the United States,” Santana told CNN on Wednesday.

Riibe told prosecutors he and Konanki were hit by an intense wave and were swept out to sea when the water returned, according to Noticias SIN.

During an interview with prosecutors on March 12, Riibe described a harrowing attempt to save Konanki after they were jostled by the wave and she got tired of swimming, according to Noticias SIN, citing the interview transcript.

“It took me a long time to get her out. It was difficult,” Riibe said, according to Noticias SIN. He said he was trained as a lifeguard but worked at pools, not at the beach.

“I was trying to get her to breathe the whole time. That didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water. I could have lost consciousness several times. When I finally reached the ground on the beach, I held her in front of me.”

He said he last saw Konanki when she was walking in knee-deep water.

“The last time I saw her, I asked if she was OK. I didn’t hear her answer because I started vomiting up all the seawater I had swallowed.”

“After vomiting, I looked around, and I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left,” Riibe told prosecutors last week, according to Noticias SIN.

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“I felt very sick and tired. I lay down on a beach chair and fell asleep because I couldn’t go far.”

The sun and biting mosquitoes woke Riibe up, he said, and he went to his friend’s room to get his phone and then to his room to sleep.

“I was sleeping in the room and my friend asked me if I had seen her; I told him no, I thought she had gone to her room,” Riibe said. His friend told him Konanki never returned to her room, which Riibe said “surprised” him.

By Wednesday, Riibe had left the Riu República Hotel and was staying elsewhere.

Konanki’s parents asked authorities to declare her dead

On Tuesday, Konanki’s father, Subbarayudu Konanki, thanked everyone who helped search for their daughter and asked for privacy as he and his wife focus on healing and helping their two young children recover. He asked authorities to declare his beloved daughter deceased.

“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 told reporters while standing next to Konanki’s crying mother, Sreedevi Konanki, in front of their home. “This is incredibly difficult for us to process. We kindly ask you to keep our daughter in your prayers.”

It’s unclear whether the parents’ request can be granted. Typical practice for police in the Dominican Republic to declare someone deceased is to have found a body or evidence of a crime. In this case, investigators have neither, CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller said.

“Sudiksha’s family has expressed their belief that she drowned,” the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia said in a news release Tuesday. “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.”

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