‘Somebody took her away’: Why Natalee Holloway private eye doesn't believe missing Pitt student Sudiksha Konanki drowned
BySumanti Sen
Mar 12, 2025 06:28 AM IST
TJ Ward, a private eye who worked for slain Natalee Holloway’s family, has offered to help in the case of University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki.
A private eye who worked for slain Natalee Holloway’s family has reportedly offered to help in the case of University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old Indian-origin woman who vanished while on a spring break holiday in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. She was last spotted at the Riu Republica Resort beach on March 6 around 4:50 am.
Why Natalee Holloway private eye doesn't believe missing Sudiksha Konanki (pictured) drowned (@avaaz_official/TikTok)
Why Natalee Holloway private eye doesn't believe missing Sudiksha Konanki (pictured) drowned (@avaaz_official/TikTok)
TJ Ward, who helped Holloway’s parents when she went missing in Aruba 20 years ago, has “made contact with the [Konanki] family” to “try to help them locate their daughter” in the Dominican Republic, he told NewsNation. Ward does not think Konanki drowned, and agrees with the missing student’s family that something more sinister has happened.
‘Somebody took her away’
“I don’t think that she drowned in the ocean,” Ward told Fox News, noting that “drowning would be one of the last things I think of right now.”
“I totally believe that somebody knows something, where she is, or somebody took her away, or somebody’s holding her somewhere,” he added.
While authorities suggested Konanki may have drowned, her family believes she may have been kidnapped. Echoing what Konanki’s father previously said, Ward stated, “If she had gone into the water [and drowned], she would’ve washed up somewhere with a tide the way that comes into the island.”
Konanki and Holloway’s case have some similarities, including the fact that both of them travelled to a Caribbean beach resort with classmates. Both women disappeared on the beach at night after staying out late with pals. Last year, the prime suspect in Holloway’s disappearance, Joran van der Sloot, appeared in an Alabama court, where prosecutors said he confessed that he killed Holloway for refusing his sexual advances.
Ward said that while youngsters are attracted to vacations on Caribbean islands, they “don’t understand travel in these other countries.” “There’s problems there with assaults, kidnappings and so on and so forth,” he added.
“There’s bad people out in the middle of the night, and I don’t know why she was out at 4:30 in the morning, or where her friends were, but you can’t be by yourself like that, walking in a country that you know nothing about,” Ward said. “You need to stay in groups and where you’re not going to be a target.”
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