Chilling surveillance footage has emerged that shows missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki walking toward the Dominican Republic beach where she was last seen alive. The chilling video captures Konanki heading toward the shore in Punta Cana alongside Joshua Steven Ribe, the man suspected to be the last person to see her before she vanished.
The footage was recorded in the early hours of March 6, the Daily Mail, which has access to the video, reported. At the time, Sudiksha was on a vacation with her college friends. The footage captures Konanki, Ribe, and their group making their way toward the ocean around 4 a.m. after a night out.
The Final Video
At 5:55 a.m., the rest of the group returned to their rooms, leaving Ribe and Sudiksha alone on the beach. Ribe claims that they decided to go for a swim but were suddenly hit by a powerful wave. He says he managed to make it back to shore and then fell asleep, while Sudiksha was never seen again.
Her body has not yet been found, but Dominican authorities strongly believe she drowned. However, her family is not convinced and is pushing for an investigation into possible human trafficking.
This came as it was revealed that the FBI has now joined the search for Sudiksha. Police said that they are re-interviewing people who were with Sudiksha in the early morning hours of March 6 at a beach in front of the Riu República Hotel.
A private investigator, who previously looked into Natalee Holloway's 2005 murder case, does not agree with the police's conclusion that Sudiksha drowned. "I don't think that she drowned in the ocean," private investigator TJ Ward told Fox News.
"I totally believe that somebody knows something where she is, or somebody took her away, or somebody's holding her somewhere."
"If she had gone into the water, she would've washed up somewhere with a tide the way that comes into the island," he added.
Konanki's family has also questioned the possibility of drowning and urged authorities to investigate other, more troubling possibilities. "It's four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore," her father father, Subbarayudu Konanki told WTOP News.
Mystery Man Becomes Suspect
A puzzling development in the case involves a 24-year-old man who was the last known person to see Konanki before she disappeared. He told police that she vanished in the ocean. The man, originally from Iowa, was also a guest at the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana, where Konanki and her friends were staying.
According to his statement, after Konanki's friends returned to their rooms, he and Konanki decided to go for a swim. He claimed they were caught in a strong wave, but he managed to make it back to shore, where he vomited and then fell asleep on a beach chair.
When he woke up, Konanki was gone. Police have questioned multiple witnesses since her disappearance, including this man and Konanki's friends, who have also provided their statements to authorities.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department is collaborating with the Indian embassy in the Dominican Republic, which is leading the investigation, as Konanki was an Indian citizen and a permanent resident of the United States.
Konanki, a pre-med student, was on track to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh in 2026, according to her LinkedIn profile.
