A Pittsburgh University student who vanished in the Dominican Republic on Spring Break is feared dead.
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, arrived in the country last Monday and was staying with five other female college friends at a resort in Punta Cana, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said.
Three Dominican officials close to the investigation told ABC News Sudiksha drowned after she and a friend were caught by a big wave while going for a swim. However, a body has yet to be found and her father wants other possibilities investigated, including “kidnapping or human trafficking”.
Subbarayudu Konanki, her father, told CNN that his daughter was on vacation ahead of pre-med studies at Pittsburgh U.
“My daughter is a very nice girl,” he said. “She’s ambitious. She wanted to pursue a career in medicine.”
Sudiksha told her friends Wednesday that she was heading out to a party at the resort, her father said.
“She went to the beach on March 6, early morning around 4 a.m. with friends and some other guys they met at the resort,” he told CNN. “After that, her friends came back after some time and my daughter did not come back, did not show up from the beach.”
Sudiksha was last seen in the early hours of Thursday when she walked onto the beach of the Riu hotel, with a friend who is now under investigation, according to Dominican police.
Her friends alerted authorities when she could not be found. She was reported missing at 8am on Friday by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic.
A young man who went into the sea with Sudiksha has been interviewed and authorities are talking to several others to corroborate the version of events he offered in the preliminary interview, said the Policía Nacional República Dominicana.
The 20-year-old was captured on CCTV surveillance “just a few meters from entering the beach area” at around 4.15am alongside the group of “young foreigners”, stated the Policía Nacional.
A missing persons poster described Sudiksha as five feet and three inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a brown bikini, big round earrings, a metal designer anklet on her right leg, yellow and steel bracelets on her right hand, and a multicolored beaded bracelet on her left hand.
Dominican authorities have carried out an extensive sea, air, and land, search using drone and helicopter surveillance, as well as divers, boats, canine units and human personnel.
“The Public Prosecutor's Office, together with investigative officers from the Central Investigation Directorate (DICRIM) and Politur, are interviewing several people, mainly the companions of the missing young woman, whose names are being withheld, in order to establish the exact location of the maritime search and its surroundings.”
The Independent contacted the Policía Nacional República Dominicana for comment.
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