Interpol issues global alert in search for missing college student Sudiksha Konanki
Editor's note: This page summarizes the developments in the case of missing student Sudiksha Konanki for Thursday, March 13. For the latest news on Konanki's disappearance in the Dominican Republic, visit USA TODAY's story for Friday, March 14.
Authorities issued an international alert for the missing University of Pittsburgh student who disappeared one week ago while on spring break with friends in the Dominican Republic.
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, was last seen in the early morning hours of March 6 heading to a beach close to the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana with a group of friends. Police say Konanki allegedly stayed behind with a man named Joshua Riibe who she met on the island. Surveillance video shows Riibe, a person of interest in the case, leaving the beach area hours later with Konanki. Riibe is not considered a suspect.
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.
The Dominican Republic National Police is working closely with authorities from the U.S. Department of State, FBI, DEA, Homeland Security Investigations and the University of Pittsburgh police to investigate. Quinn said two Loudoun County detectives are in the Dominican Republic assisting with the investigation but noted that the FBI is the lead agency from the U.S. working on the case.
The Dominican Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday said they were "exploring all possible options, accidental and intentional" for the investigation. Konanki’s father, Subbarayudu Konanki, urged authorities earlier in the week to pivot from the assumption that his daughter drowned and consider other options, including kidnapping.
“We are using all available resources to conduct a thorough investigation into the disappearance of Konanki" Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso said in a statement. "As with any disappearance under similar circumstances, we are implementing a thorough investigative protocol that considers all possible factors."
When did Sudiksha Konanki go missing?
Konanki arrived in Punta Cana with five friends on March 3. The Dominican National Police said they were alerted to her disappearance on Friday, March 7.
The Riu Republica, where Konanki was staying, experienced a 25-hour power outage in some areas of the hotel before her disappearance. Electricity was restored before she was last seen, the company said in a statement Wednesday.
Konanki and a group of five women and two men were seen drinking in the hotel lobby before walking to the beach around 4:15 a.m. with five women and two men on March 6. Police say surveillance footage captured later that morning before sunrise showed five women and one man leaving the beach. Konanki apparently stayed behind with the other man, who police have identified as Riibe.
The Dominican news outlet El Nacional previously reported that a man told authorities he and Konanki went into the water, he returned to the beach and passed out and when he awoke, she was missing. Some of Konanki's clothes were found on a beach chair, the outlet reported.
However, CNN reported the man told police different versions of the story. The man told local authorities that they both went to the ocean but he felt sick and got out of the water and fell asleep on a lawn chair, according to the outlet. He alleged that Konanki may have been swept away by the waves or could have left when he got out of the water.
The man also said he saw Konanki walking along the beach with the water up to her knees in the direction of where she had left her clothes, the source said.
Authorities have launched an all-out search for Konanki using drones, helicopters, divers, boats, canine units, and human personnel and other technologies on land and water.
Who is Sudiksha Konanki?
Konanki is a native of India whose family lives in Loudoun County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
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.
Missing person posters describe Konanki as 5 feet 3 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a brown bikini, big round earrings, a metal designer anklet on her right leg, yellow and steel bracelets on her right wrist and a multicolored beaded bracelet on her left wrist, according to the posters.
Who is Joshua Riibe?
Riibe is originally from Rock Rapids, Iowa, and has been a student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota since 2023, according to university spokesperson Zach Dwyer. Dwyer said Riibe is a senior majoring in land surveying and mapping sciences.
Quinn, the spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, said Riibe is a person of interest in the case but is not a suspect. Quinn said Riibe was not part of the group that Konanki traveled with to the island. The pair are believed to have met in Punta Cana.
Is traveling to the Dominican Republic safe?
The U.S. Department of State in a June 2024 travel advisory urged Americans to exercise “increased caution in the Dominican Republic due to crime.” It notes that forms of violent crime, including armed robbery, homicide and sexual assault, remain a concern throughout the country but that 911 systems, particularly in tourist areas like Punta Cana, are better policed.
Many college students with plans to spring break in Punta Cana appear undeterred by Konanki’s disappearance.
Jake Jacobsen, vice president of STS Travel, an agency that books between 5,000 and 10,000 spring break trips for students, told USA TODAY he has fielded calls from nervous parents but “very few” students have canceled travel plans in the days since Konanki disappeared.
He advises parents and students to read about the ongoing investigation and safety of the area to decide for themselves whether to travel. Jacobsen also said he doesn't believe the hotel or destination should be blamed for Konanki vanishing.
“Right now, there's thousands of college students down there having a good time. That's pretty much what we tell them,” Jacobsen said.
Echoes of Natalee Holloway
The early details about Konanki's case are similar to the disappearance of another American teenager almost twenty years ago in Aruba. Natalee Holloway vanished on May 30, 2005, after a night out drinking with friends on her high school graduation trip. Her case went unsolved for more than a decade.
Holloway was seen leaving a local bar the night before with a group of men, including a Dutch teenager named Joran van der Sloot. Van der Sloot initially denied wrongdoing in the case but in a confession tape made public in 2023 he said he killed Holloway with a cinder block after she rejected his sexual advances while the two were alone on the beach. Her body was never found.
Holloway's mom, Beth Holloway, told Fox News that she hoped the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic would help Konanki's family find answers.
"The family is so fortunate to have an American embassy there to work with. I did not have that in Aruba," Holloway said. "Surely they are checking cameras from hotel, gas stations, traffic lights, store fronts and wherever they had dinner, any casinos they visited, the beach areas."
Safety tips for spring break travel
The Department of State published tips Tuesday for how students traveling on spring break abroad can stay safe this spring. The agency recommended students extensively research their destinations ahead of time, avoid dangerous areas, save U.S. embassy contact details on their phones, and be wary of using dating apps abroad, among other suggestions.
Jacobsen, with STS Travel, told USA TODAY that his organization encourages students to use a “buddy system” with friends and never travel alone. Jacobsen said students staying at a resort should stay on the property for the duration of their trip.