SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Dominican police announced on Tuesday that the FBI has joined the search for a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student who disappeared nearly a week ago while on spring break in the Dominican tourist town of Punta Cana. Authorities are re-interviewing individuals who were with Sudiksha Konanki before she went missing in the early hours of March 6 at a beach near the Riu República Hotel.
The hotel revealed that Konanki vanished during a power outage that led several guests to gather on the beach where she was last seen. Dominican President Luis Abinader expressed concern during a press briefing, stating, “We are concerned… All government agencies are involved in the search.” According to reports, the last person with Konanki mentioned that a wave crashed into them while they were on the beach.
Abinader emphasized the safety of tourists in the Dominican Republic, noting that the country typically hosts over 11 million visitors annually with few incidents. Konanki’s parents, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi, flew to Punta Cana with two family friends to assist in the search efforts and have urged authorities to expand the investigation. Konanki, a U.S. permanent resident from Chantilly, Virginia, and a citizen of India, traveled to the Dominican Republic with five female university students on March 3, as reported by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
