Sudiksha Konanki's last known photo shows her cuddling up to unidentified man, FBI joins search for missing Pitt student
BySumanti Sen
Mar 12, 2025 08:42 AM IST
A new surveillance camera shot showed missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki cuddling up to a man before she disappeared.
A new surveillance camera shot showed missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki cuddling up to a man before she disappeared. Konanki, 20, an Indian-origin woman, vanished while on a spring break holiday in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. She was last seen at the Riu Republica Resort beach on March 6 around 4:50 am.
Sudiksha Konanki's last known photo shows her cuddling up to unidentified man (@avaaz.official/Instagram)
Sudiksha Konanki's last known photo shows her cuddling up to unidentified man (@avaaz.official/Instagram)
According to Noticias SIN, the image is the last known photo of Konanki. The picture shows her walking down a path at the Riu Republic Resort with friends. The photo emerged after local authorities announced that the FBI was joining the search for the missing student.
Konanki and the unidentified man had their arms around each other’s backs as they walked down the road with a group of friends. It is unclear what time the photo was captured. However, according to authorities, the group was partying at a disco around 3 am before later heading to the beach. Konanki was seen swimming with a “young man” before she disappeared.
A 24-year-old tourist from Iowa was the last person to see Konanki alive. Joshua Stevem Ribe, a fellow guest at the Caribbean resort from tiny Rock Rapids, suggested that he passed out drunk on the beach, and when he woke up, Konanki was missing. Ribe gave three versions to cops of the incidents leading up to Konanki’s disappearance. He is now cooperating with authorities, who have not said if they suspect foul play.
‘We are concerned’
Officials have said that the investigation is now being led by a “high-level commission” of local and US agencies, as reported by the New York Post. “As part of international cooperating protocols, the FBI and the US Embassy Liaison have increased their involvement, in accordance with established memorandums of understanding,” the Dominican Republic National Police said in a statement.
The statement added, “The investigation confirms that the disappearance occurred after 4:15 a.m. on March 6, 2025, at which time the missing woman and her foreign companions were captured on surveillance cameras just meters away from entering the beach area.”
Dominican President Luis Abinader said Ribe’s accounts have been worrying authorities. “We are concerned,” he said Monday, March 10, during his weekly meeting with the press. “All government agencies are searching … because 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.”
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