Local reports indicate that a white netted sarong and beige flip-flops, thought to belong to missing Indian student Sudiksha Konanki, were discovered on a lounge chair at a beach in the Dominican Republic where she disappeared more than a week ago.
Images acquired from the CDN display the garments unchanged, showing no evidence of tampering. Officials think the 20-year-old might have left her belongings on the chair before going into the sea wearing a brown bikini.
Konanki, a student from the University of Pittsburgh, was reported missing at approximately 4 pm on March 6 by her group of five friends who accompanied her to the Caribbean country.
Security video captures her strolling towards the shore alongside her friends. The rest later went back to the hotel, leaving her with 22-year-old Joshua Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, as per officials.
A video from the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana depicts Konanki strolling arm-in-arm with an unknown man — thought to be Riibe — down a resort path, together with friends. She was spotted in a white T-shirt, shorts, with her hair in a ponytail.
Dominican authorities have since identified Riibe as a ‘person of interest’ in the investigation, verifying that he was the last individual seen with the missing student.
His parents issued a statement to CBS News expressing their hopes that she is “located as soon as possible.”
Although Dominican officials first believed it to be a drowning, Konanki’s father has requested that investigators consider other reasons, such as abduction. The family considers it odd that Konanki’s phone and wallet were with her friends, since she typically always had her phone on her.
