Search efforts pressed on into their second week for Sudiksha Konanki, a university scholar on the College of Pittsburgh who went lacking earlier this month throughout a visit to the Dominican Republic resort city Punta Cana.
Particulars surrounding Konanki’s disappearance have begun to emerge because the worldwide investigation continues. Here is what we all know thus far about her case.
Konanki seen on video strolling to seaside
Konanki, 20, is from Chantilly, Virginia, a Washington, D.C., suburb, and attends school in Pittsburgh. She has everlasting residency in the USA in addition to citizenship in India. She arrived within the Dominican Republic for spring break on March 3 and was vacationing with a bunch of mates, 5 different girls, in accordance with investigators and her mother and father.
She has been missing since Thursday, March 6, after surveillance video confirmed her, three of her mates and two different American males walk toward the beach area exterior the Riu República resort. The video was from round 4:15 a.m., investigators within the Dominican Republic mentioned.
Energy outages on the resort could have prompted visitors to maneuver open air round that point, the resort mentioned in an announcement. An earlier surveillance video confirmed Konanki and certainly one of her mates hugging on the resort bar.
Defensa Civil Dominicana
One of many males within the group strolling to the seaside has been recognized as 22-year-old Joshua Riibe, an American school scholar. Within the footage, Konanki and Riibe are seen strolling with their arms round one another.
Video reveals the opposite 4 people later returning to the resort, however Konanki and Riibe stayed behind on the seaside, a police supply mentioned.
Riibe instructed police he and Konanki have been swept into the ocean by a big wave and each struggled towards tough seas. He mentioned he believed Konanki bought out of the water however was not sure, in accordance with an individual with direct data of Riibe’s statements to U.S. investigators.
He’s presumed to be the final one who noticed Konanki alive.
Konanki’s disappearance is thus far being investigated as a lacking individuals case, not a felony investigation.
The Dominican Republic’s legal professional common mentioned investigators have been exploring whether or not Konanki drowned, however not ruling out the potential for foul play.
Riibe faces questioning, says he’s cooperating
Riibe has been in Punta Cana for questioning for the reason that investigation bought underway.
Authorities confiscated his passport, his legal professional Guzmán Ariza mentioned Saturday, noting his shopper is confined to a resort with police escorts anyplace he goes. Yeni Berenice Reynoso, the Dominican legal professional common, was interrogating Riibe straight, Ariza instructed CBS Information.
Riibe and his mother and father, Tina and Albert Riibe, prolonged “deep sorrow and solidarity” with Konanski’s household in an announcement launched by his legal professional.
“Above all, we want to contribute to the search efforts and perceive the anguish and uncertainty they’re going by and we share the hope that Sudiksha will likely be discovered as quickly as potential,” the assertion mentioned. “Joshua Riibe is deeply dismayed by her disappearance and has absolutely cooperated within the search and clarification of the info from the very starting.”
Initially from Iowa, Riibe is a university senior at St. Cloud State College in Minnesota, the place he’s pursuing a level in land surveying.
His household of their assertion described him as “a beloved son, brother, and pal, recognized for his variety nature, humorousness, and dedication to his neighborhood.”
In addition they shared issues concerning the “irregular circumstances” of his detainment in Punta Cana, the place, they mentioned, he had been “subjected to in depth questioning with out the presence of official translators or authorized counsel till Wednesday, March 12.” The household retained a lawyer “to provoke authorized actions making certain his security and the safety of his rights all through this course of,” in accordance with the assertion.
Intensifying search efforts
Greater than 300 police and different officers, with assist from the FBI, are looking the air, sea and land to find her, Dominican President Luis Abinader mentioned. The Dominican Republic Nationwide Police mentioned they’ve assembled a brand new “high-level fee” to supervise the case, and Interpol has issued a global police alert on the request of investigators.
“We’re involved,” Abinader mentioned at a information convention on March 10. “All authorities businesses are looking … as a result of the most recent data we now have from certainly one of them, from the final one who was with the younger girl, what he says in accordance with the studies is {that a} wave, whereas on the seaside, crashed into them.”
Dominican Republic Nationwide Police mentioned in an announcement March 11 that they have been “re-interviewing focused people who have been within the sufferer’s proximity on the time of her disappearance.” Investigators mentioned the people included “resort staff the place Konanki and her companions have been staying, with the objective of gathering data to corroborate her actions, interactions, and any related particulars for the investigation.”
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