20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki, a University of Pittsburgh student, who went missing from her holiday in the Dominican Republic made two payments on the Venmo app which offers the investigators fresh clues. The disappearance was initially thought to be a case of drowning but Konanki’s parents insisted that the search for her should be widened and now the police are probing the angle of a foul play as well. Joshua Riibe, the last person seen with Konanki, claimed he pulled her from drowning in the rough waters of the sea but could not tell police what happened after.
Two payments made in a gap of an hour
The first payment was made at 2.54 pm on March 5 to an unnamed new user. Konanki used a sailboat emoji to describe it. The second was made at 3.38 pm and the description was Coco Bongo which is a renowned nightclub in Punta Canda. This second payment was to Ananya Chilakamarai, one of Konanki’s friends on the trip.
‘The last time I saw her, I asked if she was OK’
Joshua Riibe said he had tequila shots with his friends and waded into the ocean with Konanki and was swept away. He said he fought the waves and reached the shore with Konanki but then slept off. “The last time I saw her, I asked if she was OK. I didn’t hear her answer because I started vomiting all the seawater I’d swallowed. After vomiting, I looked around and didn’t see anyone. I thought she’d grabbed her things and left. I felt really bad and tired. I lay down on a beach chair and fell asleep because I couldn’t go far. Then I woke up because of the sun and mosquito bites. I went to my friend’s room to get my phone, and then I went to my room to sleep,” he said.
Riibe said he met Konanki when he and his friend introduced themselves to her and her friends. He admitted that they were kissing in the water when a wave crashed into them.
“It took a long time to get her out; it was difficult. I was a lifeguard in a pool, not in the ocean. I kept trying to get her to breathe, but that didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water. I could have lost consciousness several times,” he continued. “When I finally reached the ground on the beach, I pulled her in front of me. Then she went to gather her belongings, since the sea had moved us. She wasn’t out of the water, as it was up to our knees. She was walking at an angle in the water.”
After that, he said he never saw her. “My friend asked me if I knew where the girl was. I told him I thought she had gone to her room, and he told me she never returned,” he said.
