As the search for a University of Pittsburgh student missing in the Dominican Republic neared the one-week mark, the mood among some on Pitt’s Oakland campus remained somber as they waited with the rest of the world for news on the pre-med student whose disappearance has captured international attention.
Sudiksha Konanki , 20, seemingly vanished March 6 from the beach near the resort where she and five friends arrived days earlier for spring break. She was last seen on the beach shortly after 4 a.m., and authorities from the Dominican and United States have continued an extensive search via land, sea, and air to no avail.
Pranjal Panda, a sophomore at Pitt, spent spring break at a resort she said was less than 10 minutes from the Riu Republica where Ms. Konanki stayed. Ms. Konanki’s friends reported her missing to hotel staff around 4 p.m., and Ms. Panda said news about the disappearance was spreading within two hours.
She said that while she didn’t know Ms. Konanki personally, the situation was jarring nonetheless.
“I can’t even explain what I thought [when I heard about the disappearance],” she said. “Not only going [to Punta Cana] from America, but the same school and to the same area in another country — it’s just insane.”
Ms. Panda, 20, said the resort she stayed at felt safe. The beach, she noted, “was rough anytime of day,”
She said the situation feels like it’s weighing on students — campus feels quieter and students seem preoccupied.
“It felt really awful coming back to Pitt on Sunday knowing she wouldn’t be able to,” she said.
Around 4:15 a.m. Thursday, Ms. Konanki, her five friends, and two men they’d met during the trip were captured on surveillance footage headed toward the beach, which officials have said was among the last times the Pitt student was seen.
The group was among many others who trickled out of the hotel after a power outage, according to the Associated Press and Dominican Today. Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana confirmed to both outlets the resort lost power March 5 and it wasn’t fully restored until early March 6.
On Wednesday, the FBI and the sheriff in Ms. Konanki’s home county of Loudoun, Va., named a “person of interest in the case.”
“This is not at this time a criminal investigation,” sheriff’s spokesman Chad Quinn told the Post-Gazette via email, “so to be clear, he is not a suspect.”
Mr. Quinn said the man is a 24-year-old U.S. citizen who was vacationing in Punta Cana. He was not a part the group with whom Ms. Konanki traveled.
Authorities told multiple U.S. news outlets that Ms. Konanki’s five friends and one of the men were seen on camera leaving the beach and heading back toward the resort shortly before 5 a.m., presumably leaving Ms. Konanki and the other man on the beach.
Dominican news outlet Noticias SIN published a portion of that security footage, which appears to show Ms. Konanki and her friends and the two men heading toward the beach.
“Her friends came back after some time and my daughter did not come back, did not show up from the beach,” Ms. Konanki’s father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told CNN.
Shortly before 9 a.m., authorities said, cameras showed the man leaving the beach with no sign of Ms. Konanki.
According to NBC News, Ms. Konanki’s friends were on an excursion during the day on Thursday and didn’t realize she was missing until late that afternoon. Dominican authorities said they received a call from the U.S. Embassy alerting them to the situation Friday morning.
The disappearance sparked a massive multi-agency investigation, including Dominican authorities, the U.S. State Department and the FBI. Dominican officials said earlier this week that more than 300 investigators including “officers, specialists, tactical units and aquatic search teams” were combing the area around the resort using drones, helicopters and detection dogs.
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said in a news conference earlier in the week that authorities are investigating Ms. Konanki’s disappearance as an accident and conducting a “special search operation in the ocean,” according to CNN.
“We are concerned,” he said. “All government agencies are searching.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Konanki’s family has asked Dominican authorities to wide the investigation, according to WTOP-FM, and her father and family friend filed a record of complaint over the weekend. The complaint, according to the radio station, notes that “While it is possible that Sudiksha drowned, there is a growing suspicion that there may be a crime, specifically the possibility of kidnapping.”
The complaint notes that the student’s belongings, including her phone and wallet, were left with her friends, “which is unusual because she always carried her phone with her.”
“In light of these circumstances, I respectfully request that the authorities take immediate steps to investigate not only the possibility of an accidental drowning, but also the possibility of a kidnapping or foul play,” he wrote, according to WTOP.
— Pittsburgh-based freelance writer Abby Lipold contributed
First Published: March 12, 2025, 2:09 p.m.
Updated: March 13, 2025, 8:03 p.m.
