The family of a University of Pittsburgh student who vanished on vacation in the Dominican Republic has asked authorities there to declare her dead.
National Police spokesperson Diego Pesqueira said Sudiksha Konanki’s family sent a letter to his department requesting the declaration, NBC News reported.
Konanki, 20, disappeared on March 6 from the beach in front of the hotel where she and five friends were staying for spring break, as CrimeOnline reported.
Sources said that the group went out drinking and dancing to a nightclub then went to the beach at about 4 a.m. that morning. The other women in the group were seen on video returning to their hotel rooms just before 6, without Konanki, who reportedly stayed behind with a man, believed to be Joshua Riibe, a 22-year-old student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. He was also vacationing at the hotel but was not traveling with Konanki’s group.
Riibe’s attorneys have requested a habeus corpus hearing on Tuesday, claiming he’s being held illegally with his passport confiscated, according to NBC. Dominican authorities have said that they believe Konanki drowned accidentally, but Riibe has been surveilled at his hotel and questioned extensively since the weekend.
Her body has not been found.
Riibe, who is from Iowa, “has been confined to the hotel since the investigation began. He is permanently escorted by the police anywhere he goes. So no, he is not free to leave,” the law firm representing him said in an email on Saturday.
Sources told ABC News that Riibe is being questioned only as a witness and is cooperating with investigators.
Sources told ABC that Konanki’s family said in their letter to Dominican authorities that they trust the investigation and acknowledge there is no evidence of foul play. The family said they understand certain legal procedures must be followed and said they are prepared to comply with whatever authorities say is necessary. They also reportedly acknowledged that Riibe is cooperating.
The hotel told NBC News that the water by the hotel was in red flag condition when Konanki disappeared, meaning “the the sea had a strong current and very high waves.”
Riibe reportedly told investigators that after Konanki’s friends left, the two of them were “in waist-deep water, talking and kissing a little,” when they were hit by a wave that carried them both out to deeper water, according to a transcript of his interview with authorities obtained by NBC.
“I kept trying to get her to breathe, but that didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water,” he said.
“When I finally touched the sand, I put her in front of me. Then she got up to go get her stuff since the ocean had moved us,” Riibe told the prosecutor, according to WPVI. “She was not out of the water since it was up to her knee. She was walking at an angle in the water.”
“The last time I saw her, I asked her if she was OK. I didn’t hear her response because I began to vomit with all the water I had swallowed,” he said. “After vomiting, I looked around and I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had taken her things and left.”
Riibe said he passed out in a beach chair and later woke up and went back to his room.
Investigators found her belongings still on the beach.
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[Featured image: Sudiksha Konanki/Loudon County Sherifff’s Office]