FBI Joins Search For Missing Pitt Student From Virginia

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — The FBI has joined the search for missing University of Pittsburgh student and Loudoun County, Virginia, native Sudiksha Konanki, who was reported missing nearly a week ago while on a spring break trip in the Dominican Republic with friends.

Dominican police said they are re-interviewing people who were with 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki before she vanished in the early morning hours of March 6 at a beach in front of the Riu República Hotel in Punta Cana.

According to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, Konanki was vacationing with five female friends from college when she disappeared.

Konanki is a citizen of India and a permanent U.S. resident studying pre-medicine. She is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

In a statement sent to the Associated Press, the hotel said Konanki’s disappearance coincided with a power outage that prompted multiple guests to head to the beach.

Konanki’s father, Subbarayudu Konank, indicated that his daughter was last seen before 5 a.m. The record of complaint sought by the missing student's loved ones mentions a "stranger" with Konanki on the beach along with her friends. The report said she left behind personal items like her phone and wallet with friends.

A local police source told CNN that later surveillance video shows a man leaving the beach area at 9:55 a.m. with no sign of Konanki.

According to a New York Post report, Konanki was alone on the beach with Joshua Steven Ribe, a fellow guest at the Caribbean resort.

Ribe, 24, reportedly gave authorities three different accounts of what happened on the beach, according to the Post. He first told cops he threw up from the rough surf. Before going back to shore, he reportedly asked Konanki if she was OK.

In the second version, he allegedly said he felt sick to his stomach and left the water, last seeing the missing woman in knee-deep surf before passing out. Finally, according to the Post, Ribe told authorities he saw Konanki walking along the shore before he passed out in the sand.

Dominican President Luis Abinader told reporters that he lamented the situation.

“We are concerned,” he said Monday during his weekly meeting with the press. “All government agencies are searching … because the latest information we have from one of them, from the last person who was with the young woman, what he says according to the reports is that a wave, while on the beach, crashed into them.”

While authorities previously speculated that Konanki may have drowned, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday said they could not confirm drowning as her cause of death.

“There is no evidence or confirmation of a drowning at this time and the case is being aggressively investigated by U.S. law enforcement working with the Dominican national police, with support from assets here at home," the agency said in a statement to PEOPLE.

Her parents, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi, flew to Punta Cana after she was reported missing and have asked authorities to widen the investigation.

“So far, the authorities, multiple authorities here in the Dominican Republic have searched in the waters. They searched using helicopters and other tools. They also searched in the near bay, bushes, and trees. They went multiple times around the same areas,” her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told CNN.

WTOP reported the Indian Embassy is collaborating with the State Department and Dominican National Police on the missing student investigation, according to WTOP. The FBI, DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, University of Pittsburgh police and Loudoun County Sheriff's Office are also assisting.

Anyone with information in the case may contact the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office at 703-777-1021. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Loudoun Crime Solvers at 703-777-1919.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.