Sudiksha Konanki, an Indian citizen and permanent resident of the United States, who went on vacation with friends to the Dominican Republic, has been missing since last week. She was last ween at the Riu Republic Resort in Punta Cana.
According to edition.cnn.com, the 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student vanished at the beach on March 6. This sparked a frantic search by air, sea and land, involving authorities from the United States, the Dominican Republic and India, where her family is originally from.
“This is one of the largest operations we have carried out for the rescue of a person,” Agustín Morillo Rodríguez, general commander of the Dominican Republic Navy, told CNN this week.
"Video evidence points to additional people being on the beach around the time Konanki went missing, beyond a young man who’d told police he’d been with her there, the law enforcement officials assisting with the probe said," reported CNN.
They said investigators were trying to identify these people.
The Hindustantimes.com reported that Dominican president Luis Abinader said the last person known to be with her had said a wave crashed into them, while they were on the beach.
According to the dailymail.co.uk, the American man last seen with her claimed he saved her from drowning after they kissed.
Joshua Riibe, 24, a former high school wrestling champ, has not been named a suspect or a person of interest in the case, and is legally free to fly back to the US whenever he wanted, said the website.
"Riibe, a senior at St Cloud State University in Minnesota, claimed he had only just met the young woman when they decided to head to the beach, according to the transcript of his interview obtained by Noticias SIN. He revealed they had kissed in the ocean before they almost got swept away by a wave. He said he saved her from drowning while almost losing consciousness," reported the dailymail.co.uk
USA Today said Interpol, or the International Criminal Police Organization known for facilitating cooperation between police departments worldwide, issued a yellow notice to aid in the search for Konanki.
"The Loudoun County Sheriff's office in Virginia, where Konaki's family lives, issued the request for the yellow notice as 'another means' of assisting in the investigation, department spokesperson Chad Quinn confirmed in an email to USA TODAY. Yellow notices are typically issued in cases of unexplained disappearances, like Konanki's."
APnews.com reported that when her parents learned of her disappearance, her dad, Subbarayudu Konanki and his wife Sreedevi flew to Punta Cana with two family friends.
"He and a family friend filed a record of complaint... asking authorities to widen the investigation."
Konanki and five other female university students traveled to the Dominican Republic on March 3, according to her dad.
“She wanted to have a nice break with her friends in Punta Cana,” he had reportedly said.
According to Konanki's LinkedIn profile, she graduated from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia in 2022. She is enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh.