Police have interviewed Iowa man ‘at length’ in relation to disappearance of student in Dominican Republic
Joshua Riibe is believed to have been vacationing in Punta Cana, although was not a part of Konanki’s group
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Nearly a week since University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki vanished, Virginia authorities say they have interviewed a person of interest.
Konnanki, a 20-year-old pre-med student, was last seen at 4.15 a.m. on March 6 entering a beach while vacationing with five female college friends on spring break in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Now, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, where her family lives, has identified Joshua Riibe, 22, a person of interest in the missing person investigation, a spokesperson confirmed to The Independent.
“This particular individual may have been the last one to have seen her, so is of particular interest,” the spokesperson said. “This is not at this time a criminal investigation, so to be clear, he is not a suspect,” the spokesperson added.
Riibe, from Iowa, is believed to have been vacationing in Punta Cana, although was not a part of the group Konanki was traveling with.
The sheriff’s office interviewed Riibe “at length,” Fox News Digital reported Tuesday.
Riibe allegedly provided three different accounts to authorities, the New York Post reported. However, CNN said there were "no inconsistencies" in the person of interest’s recounting of events, and that translation issues may have been to blame. The outlet did not name Riibe. The Independent has reached out to the sheriff’s office for clarification.
It’s not immediately clear if or how the pair knew one another before meeting on the Caribbean Island. Riibe is a senior at St. Cloud University in Minnesota, according to the New York Post, citing his LinkedIn.
A number of people have been interviewed by the Dominican National Police, the spokesperson added.
In an update on Monday, the sheriff’s office said the wide-ranging investigation includes reviewing surveillance footage and phone records.
Konanki was staying at the Riu República Hotel, the Dominican National Police said in a March 9 statement. Surveillance footage captured her entering the hotel’s beach in the early morning hours of March 6 along with her friends. The group had been drinking in the hotel lobby an hour earlier, police told CNN. A surveillance video showed Konanki appearing to stay behind with a man, who is later captured leaving the beach area alone just before 9 a.m., sources told the outlet.
Her friends reported her missing around 4 p.m. after she didn’t return to her room, a source told CNN. Her sarong-style cover-up was found on a lounge chair on the beach, but there were no signs of violence, the outlet reported.
The Dominican police said Monday it was interviewing a “young man who entered the waters” of the beach and were trying “to corroborate the version that he offered in a preliminary way,” but the man was not identified further.
Police began the “process of re-interviews of the persons who were previously with the missing person in time and space,” including hotel employees, “in order to gather information that allows corroboration of their movements, interactions and any relevant data in this search process,” authorities said Tuesday. A day earlier, they had conducted an “exhaustive search” by sea, air, and land.
The FBI is also assisting with the investigation.
The missing 20-year-old’s father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told CNN that his daughter is a “very nice girl” and “wanted to pursue a career in medicine.” He previously suggested that she had been kidnapped, as her body hadn’t washed up on the shore.