Missing University of Pittsburgh student was last on beach with people she met on trip, authorities say

As the nearly weeklong search for the University of Pittsburgh student who vanished while on spring break in the Dominican Republic continues, Virginia authorities said she was last seen on the beach with people she met during her trip.

The frantic search for the 20-year-old junior Sudiksha Konanki entered its fifth day Tuesday.

Dominican Republic National Police said late Monday they are expanding the search by re-interviewing the last people who interacted with Konanki, her friends and hotel staff. They are also expanding surveys of surveillance footage.

The biology student had traveled to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with five friends from college on March 3. 

Konanki was last with people not part of her college friend group

The college student disappeared after 4:15 a.m. March 6 after she and her friends were seen on video surveillance entering the beach area of the RIU Republic Resort, where they were staying, Dominican Republic National Police said.

Her friends returned to the hotel, but Konanki didn’t, Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman said.

Konanki stayed on the beach with other people who were not from the University of Pittsburgh that she had met while on the trip, the sheriff told NBC Washington on Monday. Dominican authorities are talking to those people, he said.

Dominican police said Monday that they were also interviewing a man who was at the beach around the same time and were trying to corroborate his story.

Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said in a news conference Monday that one of the last people who had contact with Konanki reported “that a wave hit them while they were on the beach and caused some kind of situation,” citing local reports.

“We are investigating to clarify exactly what happened,” Abinder said, expressing sympathy for Konanki’s family.

There were no signs of blood or aggression found at the beach, DR National Police PIO Diego Pesqueira said.

Police had a team on the beach overnight on at least two occasions watching how the water moves to see where a body would drift if someone drowned. They were also looking to see where the waves crash.  

Konanki’s friends went on an excursion March 6 and didn’t realize she was missing until about 4 p.m. that day, Pesqueira said.

The RIU Hotel said there was an electrical issue at the resort where Konanki was staying that started at 1 a.m. March 5 and was resolved by 3 a.m. March 6. The hotel also said access to the beach is always open and security guards are stationed around the hotel and area. 

The investigation: A search by land and sea, and combing through phone records

Konanki is a citizen of India but a permanent resident of the U.S. from Chantilly, Virginia, according to the sheriff’s office. Chapman said she was reported missing to the office early Thursday evening.

The investigation is being led by Dominican police, the Dominican Republic’s Attorney General’s Office, the FBI and U.S. embassy liaison. The search includes search and rescue, the Dominican Navy, helicopters, boats and drones and K-9 officers.  

Chapman said officials are also looking into Konanki’s phone and texts.

“We’re not ruling anything in or ruling anything out just yet,” he said.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said it filed for a yellow notice — a worldwide police alert for a missing person — to be issued by INTERPOL. 

“If she travels to another country or whatever, we’ll be alerted on that. We are going on the presumption that she’s still alive,” Chapman said. “We want to make sure that we’re exhausting every possible lead that we can and we feel we’re doing that.”

‘She was a brilliant student’

Shekar Pendem, a neighbor and family friend of Konanki’s family, described her as a kind and smart woman in the close-knit community. 

“She was a brilliant student. She went to one of the great schools,” Pendem said. He lived next to the Konanki family for more than 10 years, and said she has two younger siblings, who are twins. 

“It’s already going on four days, and the family is so sad,” he said. “They should expand the search beyond just the resort area to the city and town, and hopefully that may give some clue. We are really hoping for her to return.”