Investigators are still searching for Sudiksha Konanki, a University of Pittsburgh student who went missing while on a spring break trip with her college friends in the Dominican Republic last week.
Multiple international agencies have been searching for the student since her disappearance March 6 as the investigation nears its second week.
Here’s what we know about the case.
Who is Sudiksha Konanki?
Konanki is a 20-year-old biology junior at the University of Pittsburgh, according to the Loudoun County, Virginia, sheriff’s office. She is an Indian citizen and permanent U.S. resident who lives with her family in Chantilly, Virginia, which is in Loudoun County.
She traveled to Punta Cana on March 3 with a group of five other female friends from Pitt for their spring break trip, according to the sheriff’s office.
Konanki is also in the South Asian fusion a cappella group, Avaaz, at college, according to a post on the group’s Instagram social media account.
When was Konanki last seen?
Konanki was last seen in the early hours of March 6 after she went to the beach with friends.
She disappeared after 4:15 a.m. that day, after her friends left the beach and Konanki stayed behind with people she met while on the trip.
Security video showed Konanki and her friends entering the beach area in the Riu Republica Resort where they were staying, Dominican Republican National Police said.
Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman told NBC Washington on Monday that Konanki’s friends went back to the hotel after about 40 minutes, and that Konanki stayed with the others who she met and who were not friends from college.
One of the last people who had contact with the missing student said “that a wave hit them while they were on the beach and caused some kind of situation,” Dominican President Luis Abinader said at a news conference Monday, citing local reports. Abinader said at the time they were still trying to piece together what happened.
Konanki’s friends went on an excursion Thursday, and did not realize she had disappeared until they returned, about 12 hours later, at which point they told the hotel about their missing friend, National Police spokesperson Diego Pesqueira said.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office was then notified of her disappearance, Chapman said.
National Police launched a search effort for Konanki Friday morning after it learned she was missing, using drones, helicopters, divers, boats and canine units. The search effort was expanded on Monday.
Konanki’s friends were supposed to return to the U.S. on Friday but stayed back to aid in the search for her, sheriff’s office spokesperson Thomas Julia said.
The hotel said beach access is always open and that security guards are stationed around the hotel and the area.
What do we know about the investigation?
Multiple agencies are involved in the investigation into Konanki’s disappearance. It is being led by Dominican police, the Dominican attorney general’s office, the FBI and a U.S. Embassy liaison. The U.S. Coast Guard is also involved in the investigation.
A person of interest has been identified and was interviewed at length, Julia, the sheriff’s office spokesperson, told NBC News. The sheriff’s office has no jurisdiction over the case but sent detectives to the island to assist local investigators.
A person of interest is “not the same thing as a suspect as this is not a criminal matter. It is still a missing person case,” Julia said.
National Police said Thursday morning they do not use the term “person of interest” in their investigations and no one is considered a suspect at this point.
The University of Pittsburgh said it was in contact with Konanki’s family and offering support in the investigation. The Indian Embassy in the Dominican Republic is also helping in the investigation, Chapman said.
Konanki’s family had traveled to Punta Cana to aid in search efforts but as of Thursday had returned to Virginia. They declined to comment on the search for her.
La Altagracia Civil Defense, the local Dominican Republic emergency operations agency, shared photos of multiple agencies searching on the beach over the weekend. The hotel was also assisting in search efforts, it said.
Authorities have said it’s not clear whether her disappearance is accidental or whether foul play was involved.
No signs of blood or violence were found at the beach, Pesqueira said.
National Police sent teams to monitor the beach overnight at least twice to watch how the water moves to see where a body would drift if someone drowned, and to see where the waves crash.
A hotel spokesperson said red flags — which indicate “that the sea had a strong current and very high waves” — were flying at the time of Konanki’s disappearance.
On Thursday morning, Dominican authorities said the search was moving from the Riu Republic Resort to Macao beach.
Officials said they were interviewing Konanki’s friends and those who last interacted with her, as well as hotel staff and a person who was at the beach around the same time as her.
Officials are also looking into Konanki’s phone and texts, said Chapman, the Loudon County sheriff. She did not appear to have a history of excessive drinking, he said.
The sheriff’s office said it filed for Interpol to issue a yellow notice, a worldwide police alert for a missing person that will alert authorities if she travels to another country.
“We are going on the presumption that she’s still alive,” Chapman said Monday. “We want to make sure that we’re exhausting every possible lead that we can, and we feel we’re doing that.”
