Missing Pete student Sudiksha Konanki's parents ask Dominican Republic police to announce her death
A police spokesman said Monday that the missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki family has asked police in the Dominican Republic to declare dead.
The Dominican Republic National Police spokesman Diego Pesqueira said Konanki's family had sent a letter to the agency asking for the pronouncement of death.
When he disappeared earlier on March 6, Konanki, now 20, was on spring break with friends in the Caribbean island country. Despite extensive searches, no body was found.
Sudiksha Konanki.
The Konanki family did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday night.
Konanki is a junior in biology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is from Loudon County, Virginia where her family lives.
Konanki met for the last time after going to the beach with friends.
After her friend left the beach, she was with someone she met during her trip. After 4:15 am that day, she disappeared.
The last person believed to have met Konanki was identified as 22-year-old Joshua Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Rock Rapids, Iowa.
His lawyer told NBC News that Dominican authorities confiscated Ribe's passport on Friday.
NBC News found Riibe with investigators and his lawyers on the beach in Punta Cana earlier Sunday. He was seen pointing to the sea and a group of security officials kept people away from the area.
“I just wanted to help them,” Riibe said, adding: “The ocean is a dangerous place.”
Riibe “has been limited to hotels since the inquiry began. He was accompanied by police everywhere. So no, he was not free to leave,” the law firm representing him said in an email Saturday.
National Police spokesman Pesqueira said there were no signs of violence on the beach.
A hotel spokesman said the red flag showed that “the sea has strong tides and very high waves” were flying.
Riibe said in an interview with Dominican investigators last week that he was on the beach shortly before his disappearance.
He said they were “in the deep water, talking and kissing a little” according to interview records obtained by NBC News. The tide crashed, taking both of them away “out to sea”, quoted him.
“I kept trying to make her breath, but that didn't keep me breathing, and I swallowed a lot of water.”
Ribe said he brought Concarney back to the shore before he disappeared.
“The last time I saw her, I asked her if she was OK,” he said. “I looked around and saw no one.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic say no one is considered a suspect in the disappearance of Concarney.
U.S. authorities say this is a case of missing persons, not a criminal matter.
This article was originally published on nbcnews.com.
