There is yet no closure in the case of the missing 20-year old Indian national and resident in Virginia state, Sukhadi Konanki, who had traveled to Punta Cana for her spring break vacation on 3 March 2025. She is registered as a premed student at the University of Pittsburgh.
Her whereabouts are unknown as of 6 March 2025. The Dominican government has invested millions in an unprecedented multi-agency search for evidence to resolve the case. The story continues to be headline news in the DR and has made major media in the United States.
Konanki was reported missing to the Police at around 4pm on 6 March, after not returning to her hotel room from a sojourn on the beach with fellow tourist US citizen 24-year old Joshua Steven Riibe at around 5am on that Thursday. Riibe has been described as a person of interest in the case. Statements published regarding the interrogations are incoherent and have led to much speculation.
Dominican law says that a person cannot be detained for more than 48 hours without charges. Riibe apparently has been instructed to remain in his hotel room and has said he has spent the time answering to interrogations.
The interrogations have included those by the La Altagracia prosecutor, the FBI, Police, and on Saturday, 15 March 2025 by the newly appointed attorney general Yeni Berenice Reynoso, who traveled to Punta Cana to personally speak to Riibe at his hotel room at Riu Republica. Noticias SIN reported that Reynoso would leave the hotel on Sunday, 16 March at around 3am, shortly after the Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Agustín Morillo Rodríguez Mulillo did so, too.
Konanki and her five girlfriends had been partying at the hotel and then she and two other girl friends were seen on surveillance footage walking to the beach early on 6 March, Thursday morning. According to her father, Subbarayudu Konanki she was last seen at approximately 4:50am on the beach at the Riu Republica Resort.”
Since then the local investigation has focused in and around the water, “Using helicopters, drones, scuba diving, (surf) boards, jet skies — and they used sniffer dogs,” said the father.
A mega search has been unfolded, especially at sea, with the theory she had drowned given that Riibe said both had been for a dip in the ocean of the hotel and were swept by a wave.
Nevertheless, her parents Subbarayudu Konanki and Streedevi Konanki traveled to the Dominican Republic have urged the authorities to widen the investigation beyond the search in the coastal waters.
Incoherent, incomplete and conflicting statements by the last person to be seen with her, Riibe, also has news analysts urging the authorities to look deeper into the evidence. Riibe recently contracted the law firm of Guzman Ariza and following legal advice, refused to answer several of the questions that were posed to him by the La Altagracia prosecutor. His father Albert Riibe traveled to the DR and argued that his son is detained in irregular conditions.
CBS News reports that the National Police in the Dominican Republic has named a high-level committee to participate in the investigations. Dominican police said they are re-interviewing people who were with Konanki before she vanished in the pre-dawn hours of March 6 at the hotel beach.
The Dominican Republic National Police has formed a new high-level commission to oversee the case of missing University of Pittsburgh student.
What is new in the reporting on the case is that additional surveillance video has surfaced showing what are believed to be the among the last known images of the college student before she disappeared. Investigators are reviewing the footage and telephones for insights into what happened.
The investigation also includes the nation’s Attorney General’s Office, the FBI and the International Liaison of the US and India embassies.
Dominican police said they are re-interviewing people who were with Konanki before she vanished in the pre-dawn hours of 6 March at the beach in front of the Riu República resort.
“As part of this process, the [National Police] are re-interviewing targeted individuals who were in the victim’s proximity at the time of her disappearance,” police investigators said in a news release. “This includes hotel employees where Konanki and her companions were staying, with the goal of gathering information to corroborate her movements, interactions, and any relevant details for the investigation.”
The parents of Konanki have since returned to the United States.
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Noticias SIN
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17 March 2025