Research efforts continued in their second week to Sudiksha KonankiA student at the University of Pittsburgh who disappeared in early March during a trip to the Dominican seaside resort Punta Cana.
Details surrounding The disappearance of Konanki started to emerge as the international survey continues. Here is what we know so far on his case.
Konanki seen on video walking to the beach
Konanki, 20, is from Chantilly, Virginie, a Washington, DC, the suburbs, and frequents college in Pittsburgh. It has a permanent residence in the United States as well as citizenship in India. She arrived in the Dominican Republic for the spring holidays on March 3 and was on vacation with a group of friends, five other women, according to investigators and her parents.
She lacked Since Thursday, March 6, after the surveillance video showed it, three of his friends and two other American men Beach Outside the Riu República hotel. The video was from 4:15 a.m., investigators from the Dominican Republic said.
The hotel power outages may have encouraged customers to move outside at that time, the hotel said in a statement. An earlier surveillance video showed Konanki and one of her friends kissing at the hotel bar.
Dominicana Civil Defensa
One of the men in the beach group was identified as Joshua Riibe, 22, an American student. In the images, Konanki and Riibe are seen walking around each other.
The video shows the other four people later returning to the hotel, but Konanki and Riibe stayed on the beach, said a police source. The last observation of Konanki and Riibe in the water occurred around 4:50 am, according to the sheriff of the county of Loudon, Mike Chapman, whose office in Virginia is involved in the investigation.
Riibe told the police that he and Konanki had been swept away in the ocean by a large wave and both fought against the agitated seas. He said he believed that Konanki had come out of the water but was not certain, according to a person with direct knowledge of the Riobe declarations to American investigators.
He is presumed to be the last person who saw Konanki living.
Konanki’s disappearance has so far been surveyed as a matter of missing persons, not a criminal investigation.
The Dominican Public Prosecutor General said the investigators explored if Konanki was drowned, but did not eliminate the possibility of a unfair game.
Chapman said: “It is difficult to say” if there are indications the disappearance of Konanki was something other than an accident.
“We know that around 4:50 am was the last observation that we had in the water. We do not know what happened after that,” said Chapman in an interview “CBS Mornings”. “And we don’t know what happened between the moment when [Riibe] Affirmed to have come out of the water and the time he has left the beach, so it’s really difficult to say. It would be speculative on my part to suppose or assume anything at this stage. “”
Konanki’s family is looking for closure
The Sheriff’s Bureau of the county of Loudoun told CBS News that the Konanki family asked that she was declared deceasedexpressed his gratitude to investigators for their work and expressed a desire for closing after his disappearance in the Dominican Republic.
The family provided the request in writing to the sheriff’s office, according to spokesperson Thomas Julia. Julia said the family had made a similar request to the Dominican authorities.
Konanki’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comments. CBS News learned that their written request referred to the cooperation of Riibe with investigators and a lack of evidence collected to date which would suggest that the unfair game has been involved in the disappearance of Konanki.
Chapman said that the family had expressed their conviction that it has drowned.
“Although a final decision to make such a declaration is based on the authorities in the Dominican Republic, we will support the Konanki family in any way possible while we continue to review the evidence and information carried out at our disposal during this investigation,” he said.
RIIBE returns to us after having faced questions
Riibe was confined to a Punta Cana hotel for more than a week when he was faced with questions during the investigation, the police escorting him wherever he went. A judge in the Dominican Republic judged on March 18 that RIIBE should be released from police surveillance.
The law firm representing Riibe, Guzmán Ariza, had pushed legal documents for his freedom, given the absence of a criminal accusation, which led to the hearing. In court, Riobe made the judge that he had been inappropriately detained.
“I really want to go home and see my family,” said Riibe. “I understand that I’m here to help but it’s been 10 days.”
His lawyers declared earlier that the authorities had confiscated the Riibe passport. The decision of the judge on March 18 did not include an immediate decision on the issue of the return of Riibe’s passport, but the next day, his lawyers said that the Los Angeles prosecutor’s office informed Riibe that he was willing to return his passport.
“Although grateful to the prosecutor’s office, Joshua decided, for confidentiality reasons, to ask a new one from the United States consulate, which was issued to him urgently,” said the lawyers of Riibe.
He then returned home to the United States with his father, said his lawyers.
Riibe and her parents, Tina and Albert Riibe, extended “deep sadness and solidarity” with Konanski’s family in a statement published through his lawyers while still in Punta Cana.
“Above all, we want to contribute to research efforts and understand the anxiety and uncertainty they are going through and we share the hope that Sudiksha will be found as soon as possible,” said the press release. “Joshua Riibe is deeply dismayed by his disappearance and has fully cooperated in the research and clarification of the facts from the start.”
Chapman told “CBS Mornings” that Riibe was “very next” with the sheriff detectives who went to the Dominican Republic to speak to him, and did not seem to “hesitate to answer one of the questions we threw”.
Chapman noted that there was “nothing that would really make us feel as if there was something false coming from Joshua”.
Originally from Iowa, Riibe is a senior academic at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he pursues a diploma in land survey.
His family in their statement described him as “a beloved son, brother and friend, known for his kind nature, his sense of humor and his commitment to his community”.
They also shared concerns concerning the “irregular conditions” of his detention in Punta Cana, where, they said, he had been “subjected to an in-depth question without the presence of official translators or legal advisor until Wednesday March 12”. The family has retained a lawyer “to initiate legal actions ensuring its security and the protection of their rights throughout this process,” said the press release.
Intensification of research efforts
More than 300 police officers and other officials, with the support of the FBI, search the air, the sea and the land to locate it, said Dominican president Luis Abinader. The National Police of the Dominican Republic said they had gathered a new “high -level commission” to supervise the case, and Interpol has issued a world police alert at the request of investigators.
“We are worried,” said abinaded at a press conference on March 10. “All government agencies are looking for … because the latest information we have of one of them, the last person who was with the young woman, what he says according to the reports is that a wave, while on the beach, collapsed.”
The National Police of the Dominican Republic said in a statement on March 11 that they “re -examined targeted people who were near the victim at the time of his disappearance”. Investigators said people understood “employees of the hotel where Konanki and his companions remained, in order to collect information to corroborate his movements, his interactions and any detail relevant to the investigation”.
Anna Schecter,
And Manuel Bojorquez contributed to this report.
