Dominican and U.S. authorities are expanding their search for a University of Pittsburgh student who went missing in Punta Cana last week, as questions swirl over what happened to 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki and who may have seen her last.
- Konanki, a student from Chantilly, Virginia, is an Indian citizen and U.S. permanent resident, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
- She was last seen on a beach in the popular resort town of Punta Cana in the early morning on Thursday.
- Authorities have identified a “person of interest” in the case, a U.S. citizen who was vacationing in Punta Cana but was not part of Konanki’s group.
- Investigators initially feared she had drowned, but a spokesman for the Dominican Civil Defense said “that is being investigated.”
Konanki is a junior at the University of Pittsburgh whose family lives in Loudoun County. She graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She and five female friends traveled to the resort, on the easternmost tip of the Dominican Republic, on March 3. It was their spring break, her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told WTOP. He and his wife flew there from Virginia after learning of her disappearance.
Konanki was last seen at about 4:15 a.m. Thursday, when surveillance cameras captured her and others entering a beach in front of the Riu República Hotel, where she and her friends were staying, according to a statement from the Dominican National Police. A male friend, who entered the water, “is under investigation,” the statement said.
“According to the boy who was with her, the waves swept her away, but that is under police investigation,” Jensen Sánchez, a Civil Defense spokesman, told the Associated Press.
“We are concerned,” Dominican President Luis Abinader told reporters Monday. “The latest information we have from one of them, from the last person who was with the young woman, what he says according to the reports is that a wave, while on the beach, crashed into them,” he added.
Thomas A. Julia, a spokesman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, said a U.S. citizen who was vacationing in Punta Cana but was not part of Konanki’s group is a “person of interest” in the case but is not a suspect. The agency has been working with Dominican authorities.
Multiple guests had headed to the beach at around the time of Konanki’s disappearance because of a power outage, the AP reported, citing a statement from the hotel.
Konanki’s father and a family friend filed a record of complaint Sunday, calling on investigators to widen the search and consider other possibilities apart from accidental drowning, including foul play, WTOP reported. The complaint said Konanki left her phone and other personal belongings with her friends, “which is unusual because she always carried her phone with her,” according to WTOP.
After being alerted Friday morning to Konanki’s disappearance by the U.S. Embassy, authorities in the Dominican Republic launched a search by land, air and sea, including boats, helicopters, drones, police dogs and divers, according to the National Police.
The National Police said late Monday that a “high-level task force” had significantly expanded the search, with enhanced participation from “the FBI and the [U.S.] embassy liaison” and an “exhaustive analysis” of security-camera footage taken since Konanki and her friends arrived in the country.
Police are also reinterviewing everyone “who was previously with the missing person,” including hotel staff, the statement said.
The FBI declined to detail its involvement in the case, saying only that the bureau “may devote resources to investigations in foreign countries when an American citizen is missing, may be victimized, or when American interests are targeted or suspected to be.”
