By As the nearly weeklong search for the University of Pittsburgh student who vanished while she was on spring break in the Dominican Republic continues, Virginia authorities said she was last seen on the beach with people she met during her trip.
As the search for the 20-year-old junior, Sudiksha Konanki, entered its fifth day Tuesday, U.S. investigators were adding detectives to the investigation as the Dominican Republic National Police said late Monday they also are expanding their effort.
The national police said investigators are re-interviewing the last people who interacted with Konanki, her friends and hotel staff members. They are also expanding surveys of security video.
Sheriff Mike Chapman of Loudoun County, Virginia, where Konanki resides, said he’s sending detectives to the Dominican Republic as they work under the FBI’s guidance.
“Some of the information has been disjointed, inconsistent,” Chapman said of the search so far.
The sheriff expressed hope that Konanki is found soon. “We all want a successful outcome for this,” he said on “Top Story with Tom Llamas” on Tuesday.
Konanki, a biology student, had traveled to Punta Cana with five friends from college on March 3.
Sudiksha Konanki.via Instagram
Konanki disappeared after 4:15 a.m. Thursday, after she and her friends were seen on security video entering the beach area of the RIU Republic Resort, where they were staying, National Police said.
Her friends returned to the hotel, but Konanki didn’t, Chapman said.
Konanki stayed on the beach with other people who weren’t from the University of Pittsburgh whom she had met on the trip, Chapman told NBC Washington on Monday. Dominican authorities are talking to those people, he said.
Dominican police said Monday that they were also interviewing a man who was at the beach around the same time and were trying to corroborate his story.
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said at a news conference Monday that one of the last people who had contact with Konanki reported “that a wave hit them while they were on the beach and caused some kind of situation,” citing local reports.
“We are investigating to clarify exactly what happened,” said Abinader, who expressed sympathy for Konanki’s family.
No signs of blood or aggression were found at the beach, National Police spokesperson Diego Pesqueira said.
Police had a team on the beach overnight on at least two occasions watching how the water moves to see where a body would drift if someone drowned. They were also looking to see where the waves crash.
Konanki’s friends went on an excursion Thursday and didn’t realize she was missing until about 4 p.m. that day, Pesqueira said.
The RIU Hotel said there was an electrical issue at the resort where Konanki was staying that started at 1 a.m. last Wednesday and was resolved by 3 a.m. Thursday. The hotel also said that access to the beach is always open and that security guards are stationed around the hotel and the area.
Konanki is a citizen of India but a permanent resident of the United States from Chantilly, Virginia, according to the sheriff’s office. Chapman said she was reported missing to the office early Thursday evening.
The investigation is being led by Dominican police, the Dominican attorney general’s office, the FBI and a U.S. Embassy liaison. The search includes search and rescue, the Dominican navy, helicopters, boats, drones and law enforcement dogs, authorities said.
Investigators from the Dominican Republic and the United States were “working pretty well with each other” and the resources available are sufficient, Chapman said Tuesday.
Officials are looking into Konanki’s phone and texts as part of the investigation, he said. The woman didn’t appear to have a history of excessive drinking, Chapman said.
The sheriff previously said, “We’re not ruling anything in or ruling anything out just yet.”
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said it filed for Interpol to issue a yellow notice — a worldwide police alert for a missing person.
“If she travels to another country or whatever, we’ll be alerted on that. We are going on the presumption that she’s still alive,” Chapman said. “We want to make sure that we’re exhausting every possible lead that we can, and we feel we’re doing that.”
Shekar Pendem, a neighbor and friend of Konanki’s family, described her as a kind and smart woman in the close-knit community.
“She was a brilliant student. She went to one of the great schools,” said Pendem, who lived next to the Konanki family for more than 10 years. He said she has two younger siblings, who are twins.
“It’s already going on four days, and the family is so sad,” he said. “They should expand the search beyond just the resort area to the city and town, and hopefully that may give some clue. We are really hoping for her to return.”
