MISSING student Sudiksha Konanki was last seen by an American man who claimed they kissed at the beach before she disappeared in the Dominican Republic.
Joshua Riibe, 22, was caught on camera with the now missing University of Pittsburgh spring breaker as cops have failed to rule out the possibility of foul play being involved in her vanishing.
SinSudiksha Konanki was caught on camera with Joshua Riibe before her disappearance[/caption]
TikTok/sudikshakonankiKonanki, 20, was last seen on March 6[/caption]
Riibe was interviewed by local cops
SinSurveillance footage captured Konanki and a group of friends heading towards the beach at around 4:15 am on March 6[/caption]
Konanki was last seen in the early hours of March 6 near the Riu Republica resort in Punta Cana.
Riibe was left alone with the Pitt student after surveillance cameras captured five women and one man leaving the beach at around 4:55 am.
The 24-year-old from Iowa was interviewed by cops, but has not been named as a suspect in this case.
He told police they had just met and decided to go to the beach, according to a transcript of his interview from Noticias SIN.
Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, told police they kissed in the water.
He said: “We were in waist-deep water. We talked and kissed a bit.”
The senior also claimed he saved Konanki from drowning while in the water while explaining he was previously a lifeguard.
Riibe added: “A big wave came and hit us both. And when the water returned, it swept us out to sea.
“As soon as we were able to surface, we tried to call for help.”
He added: “It took me a long time to get her out. It was difficult. I was a lifeguard in a pool, not at sea.”
Riibe told cops he was able to pull Konanki until she was “knee-deep and walking at an angle out of the water”.
The senior said he called out to ask if the student was ok but didn’t hear a response before he was sick on the beach.
He added: “After vomiting, I looked around. I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left.”
Riibe claimed he passed out on a beach chair and was told the next day that the Pitt student was missing.
Hours later, video captured a shirtless, shoeless Riibe leaving the beach and returning to the resort at around 8:55 am.
The 24-year-old refused to answer eight questions from local cops, including whether Konanki could swim and what he told his friends.
To these questions he told authorities, “My lawyers advise me not to answer that question and I follow their advice.”
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, located in Konanki‘s hometown in Virginia, has named Riibe a person of interest in the case.
Timeline of Sudiskha Konanki’s disappearance
SUDISHKA Konanki, 20, disappeared during a spring break trip to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
Here’s a timeline of her last known movements.
On March 6 at 3 am, Konanki and her five friends were seen dancing at Riu Republica Resort’s disco
At around 4 am, surveillance captured the group leaving the resort with Joshua Steven Riibe, a 24-year-old from Iowa who they met on the trip
At around 5:50 am, Konanki’s friends left the beach and headed home, but the now-missing student and Ribe stayed
Riibe told cops that he passed out drunk on the beach at some point after that, and when he woke up, Konanki was gone
Konanki was reported missing at 4 pm later that evening by her friends
The sheriff’s office told The U.S. Sun they consider Riibe, who was also staying at the Riu hotel at the time, a person of interest because he may have been the last person to have seen Konanki.
However, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office stressed Riibe has not been charged with a crime and is not considered a suspect.
A sheriff’s official added: “We want to be clean, this is not a criminal case, it is a missing persons case.
“Person of interest does not mean suspect. It’s still an active investigation.”
A 300-person search team involving multiple police agencies are searching for Konanki on land and sea
ReutersThe 20-year-old was a student at the University of Pittsburgh[/caption]
Riu Republica – Adults OnlySudiksha Konank and five of her female friends were staying at the Riu República Hotel in Punta Cana[/caption]
The Dominican Republic’s national police said it believed Konaki might have drowned in the ocean.
Ginette Bournigal, a senator of Puerto Plata and the president of the Senate Tourism Commission, doubled down on the police’s early speculation, according to Su Mundo TV.
Bournigal said: “There were obviously a red flag on the beach. What were those young people looking for with a red flag at four in the morning on the beach.”
“A red flag means, everywhere in the world knows this, don’t enter the beach.”
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
