The family of Indian student Sudiksha Konanki, who disappeared while vacationing in the Dominican Republic, has requested the police to officially declare her dead, US media reports showed.
The 20-year-old, an Indian national and permanent US resident, was last seen on March 6 at the Riu Republic Resort in Punta Cana. US federal law enforcement agencies have been collaborating with local authorities in the Caribbean nation to investigate her disappearance. Despite an exhaustive search, her body has yet to be located.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic have confiscated the passport of the man who is the last person known to have been with Konanki, according to a source close to the investigation, CNN News reported.
It's unclear why Riibe's passport was confiscated. Since Konanki went missing in the early hours of March 6, Mr Riibe, a 22-year-old from Rock Rapids, Iowa, and a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, has remained under police surveillance in the Dominican Republic. He has been taken to the police station for interrogation multiple times, his parents said in a statement.
The Konanki family sent a formal letter to authorities Monday, acknowledging there is no suspected foul play involved in Konanki's presumed death after she vanished from a Punta Cana beach in the early hours of March 6, New York Post reported.
The father and mother also wrote they trust the authorities' probe into the case and noted Riibe, the last person to see the young woman alive, has cooperated with investigators, Post reported.
Konanki's parents said in the same letter that they understand that certain legal procedures must be followed for their request, but that they are prepared to comply with any necessary formalities or documentation, sources were quoted as saying by the ABC News.
Konanki, described by her father as an "ambitious" student who planned to study medicine, arrived in Punta Cana on March 3. She travelled with five other female students from the University of Pittsburgh, according to the Loudon County Sheriff's Office.
Riibe said he first met Konanki in the hotel when he and his friend introduced themselves to her group.
The two friend groups went together to the bar, where they drank until "someone suggested we go to the beach," Riibe said in his interview.
She was seen on surveillance footage drinking with five women and two men in the Riu Republica Hotel bar, in the early hours of March 6. In the video, Konanki is seen wearing a white cover-up as she hugs and talks with her friends. Mr Riibe is seen several feet away, bent over and stumbling on the lawn outside the bar.
Then, at 4:15 am, a surveillance camera captured the group, including Konanki, entering the beach, police said. Just before 5 am, surveillance footage shows five women and one man leaving the beach, two sources close to the investigation told CNN. Konanki was not among them.
During his fourth interview with prosecutors, on Wednesday, Riibe described a harrowing attempt to save Konanki after they were jostled by the wave and she got tired of swimming.
