The Dominican Republic’s authorities have received a tragic plea from the family of missing American student Sudiksha Konanki, asking them to proclaim her dead.
On March 6, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student from Loudoun County, Virginia, went missing while on vacation at the Riu Republic Resort in Punta Cana town.
According to sources, Konanki spent spring break with five female pals in the Dominican Republic. She disappeared three days later.
With few hints to explain her abrupt absence, what was supposed to be a leisurely vacation devolved into a chilling mystery.
Her absence has left many shocked and perplexed. She was last seen on the beach with Joshua Steven Riibe, another visitor, at approximately 5:50 am.
Authorities from the Dominican Republic, the United States, and India—the home nation of Sudiksha’s family—joined the frenzied air, sea, and land search that was triggered by it.
“This is one of the largest operations we have carried out for the rescue of a person,” Agustín Morillo Rodríguez, general commander of the Dominican Republic Navy, told CNN.
At first, authorities in the Dominican Republic thought Sudiksha had drowned. High waves made for perilous marine conditions the night she vanished.
But according to the general prosecutor’s office, they are now also investigating the possibility that her absence was not an accident.
The missing Pitt student is seen cuddling up to a male companion, Joshua Riibe, in a recent CCTV photo before vanishing from a beach in the Dominican Republic. According to Noticias SIN, this is the final picture of her that is known to exist.
Sudiksha has not been located despite a thorough search, and the Dominican Republic National Police have released a devastating new update that describes how the 20-year-old’s family has written to the police to ask for a declaration of death.
