The university student’s parents are asking for her to be declared dead, believing she drowned at sea on March 6.
Until the early hours of March 6th, Sudiksha Konanki was just the bright, ambitious girl her parents talk about. A 20-year-old woman born in India, who moved with her family to the United States in 2006, who was in her third year of medical school at the University of Pittsburgh, and who had decided to treat herself to a few days of spring break with a group of friends at the RIU Punta Cana resort , a five-star all-inclusive featured in some travel lists in their top ten . Days after that early morning, Konanki is no longer just that; she’s also the vacationer grabbing international headlines, appearing in an Interpol file as the 1.6-meter-tall, 63-kilogram, black-haired, brown-eyed young woman who mysteriously disappeared on the beach and who has united authorities from the Dominican Republic, the United States, and India in her search. And since Tuesday, she’s also the daughter whose parents have accepted that she’s dead.
In a letter dated Monday the 17th but made public this morning, the young woman’s parents, Subbarayudu and SreeDevi Konanki, have requested that their daughter be declared dead, believing she drowned at sea on March 6, when she disappeared from a beach near the hotel where she was staying. “After an exhaustive search, Dominican authorities have concluded that Sudiksha is believed to have drowned. Her clothing was discovered on a beach near the location where she was last seen. The person last seen with her is cooperating with the investigation, and no evidence of foul play has been found,” the letter reads. “Given the circumstances, and after much deliberation, we request that the police department proceed with the legal declaration of her death,” her parents request.
“The beginning of this process will allow our family to begin the grieving process and address the issues surrounding his absence. While no statement can truly ease our pain, we trust that this step will allow us to bring closure and honor his memory,” they added.
The university student arrived in Punta Cana on March 3 with five school friends. Three days later, hotel cameras, accessed by police, recorded the young women drinking alcohol in the hotel lobby and then heading to the beach with two men. It was around 4:15 a.m., and it wasn’t until 4:00 p.m. that same day that her friends notified the hotel staff of Konanki’s disappearance, whose management, in turn, reported the incident to the authorities.
Since then, the search by land and sea has continued, and little by little, other details have emerged in the investigation. Joshua Riibe, a 22-year-old student from Minnesota, was the last person with Konanki. Security camera footage released shows the two walking together in the early hours of the morning. Although authorities do not consider him a suspect in the case, he remains detained at the hotel and has been interrogated several times by Dominican police.