20-year old college student Konanki has been missing for about 27 days. She has permanent residency in the United States, as well as citizenship in India. She arrived in the Dominican Republic for spring break on March 3 and was vacationing with a group of friends. Her friends were five other women, according to investigators and her parents. She has been missing since Thursday, March 6, after surveillance video showed her and her three friends walking with two other men outside the Riu Republica hotel toward the beach area. The video was taken at around 4:15 AM. An earlier surveillance video showed Konanki and one of her hugging at a hotel bar.
One of the men in the group walking to the beach has been identified as 22-year-old Joshua Riibe, an American college student. In the footage, Konanki and Riibe are seen walking with their arms around each other. The last sighting of Konanki and Riibe in the water happened around 4:50 AM, according to Loudon County Sheriff Mike Chapman, whose office in Virginia is involved in the investigation. Riibe told police “he and Konanki were swept into the ocean by a large wave and both struggled against rough seas.” He said he believed Konanki got out of the water but was not certain, according to a person with direct knowledge of Riibe’s statements to U.S. investigators. Riibe is presumed to be the last person who saw Konanki alive. Riibe had been confined to a hotel in Punta Cana for more than a week as he faced questioning during the investigation, with officers escorting him anywhere he went.
A judge in the Dominican Republic ruled on March 18 that Riibe should be freed from police surveillance. The law firm representing Riibe, Guzmán Ariza, had pushed in legal documents for his freedom, given the absence of any criminal charge, which led to the hearing. In court, Riibe argued to the judge that he was detained inappropriately. “I really want to go home and see my family,” Riibe said. “I understand I’m here to help, but it’s been 10 days.” His attorneys said earlier that authorities had confiscated Riibe’s passport. The judge’s March 18 ruling did not include an immediate decision on the issue of returning Riibe’s passport, but, the next day, his attorneys said the La Altagracia Prosecutor’s Office informed Riibe it was willing to return his passport. “Although grateful for the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office, Joshua decided, for privacy reasons, to request a new one at the United States Consulate, which was urgently issued to him,” Riibe’s attorneys said. He then returned home to the U.S. with his father, his attorneys said.
More than 300 police and other officials, with support from the FBI, are searching the air, sea and land to locate her, Dominican President Luis Abinader said. The Dominican Republic National Police said they have assembled a new “high-level commission” to oversee the case, and Interpol has issued a global police alert at the request of investigators.”We are concerned,” Abinader said at a news conference on March 10. “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.” Dominican Republic National Police said in a statement March 11 that they were “re-interviewing targeted individuals who were in the victim’s proximity at the time of her disappearance.” Investigators said the individuals included “hotel employees where Konanki and her companions were staying, with the goal of gathering information to corroborate her movements, interactions, and any relevant details for the investigation.”
