Pitt Student Missing In Dominican Republic: Updated Info

PITTSBURGH, PA — Authorities have confiscated the passport of the person of interest in the case involving University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki, 20, who disappeared in the Dominican Republic more than a week ago.

Additionally, Joshua Steven Riibe is escorted by police anywhere he goes and "is not free to leave," the law firm representing him told NBC News on Sunday.

Konanki, 20, of Ashburn, Virginia and a citizen of India, was one of six Pitt students on a spring break trip to Punta Cana.

Riibe, 22, of Iowa, apparently is the last person to have seen Konanki before she vanished in Puna Cana in the early morning hours on March 6. Authorities from the Dominican Republic, the United States and India, where Konanki was born, have been frantically searching for her since then.

Riibe has told investigators that he and Konanki were on the beach and were waist-deep in the water when a wave overtook the pair and swept them out to sea. Riibe said he got them both back to the beach before she disappeared and that he fell asleep on a beach bed. When he awakened, Konanki was nowhere to be seen.

Riibe, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, told NBC News on Sunday, "I'm just trying to help them out," adding "The ocean is a dangerous place."

Two detectives from the sheriff's office Loudon County, Virginia, where Konaki's family lives, traveled to the Dominican Republic to question Riibe about inconsistencies in his previous interviews, Loudon County Sheriff Michael Chapman said on Sunday.

“I think some of the inconsistencies had to do probably with the language barrier – Spanish to English, English to Spanish – during the initial interviews,” Chapman told CNN on Sunday. “But I think the interview that was conducted, he seemed to be very forthright with our detectives.”