- Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Joshua Steven Riibe was not charged with any crime or identified as a suspect in Konanki’s disappearance, but he was initially considered a ‘person of interest’
By: India Weekly
A JUDGE in the Dominican Republic has ruled that Joshua Steven Riibe, a 22-year-old Iowa resident, believed to be the last person who was seen with the missing Indian-origin student Sudiksha Konanki, should be released from police surveillance.
Although Riibe has not been charged with any crime or identified as a suspect in Konanki’s disappearance, he was initially considered a ‘person of interest’ in the case and his passport was confiscated.
Dominican Republic Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso interviewed Riibe, over the weekend for more than six hours.
Riibe, a student of St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, was not considered a suspect in the case and not accused of any wrongdoing.
Since Konanki, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburg student, went missing on March 6, Riibe has remained under police surveillance and interrogated multiple times, his parents said in a statement.
Riibe was released after Sudiksha’s family asked the Dominican Republic police on Tuesday (18) to declare her dead.
Konanki, a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the United States, was last seen on March 6 at the Riu Republic Resort in Punta Cana town.
She has gone missing while on vacation and US federal law enforcement agencies are working with authorities in the Caribbean country in the probe into her disappearance.
Despite an extensive search, her body has not been found.
Dominican Republic National Police spokesperson Diego Pesqueira said Konanki’s family has sent the agency a letter requesting a declaration of death, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
The Konanki family sent a formal letter to authorities Monday (17), acknowledging there is no suspected foul play involved in Konanki’s presumed death, 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, sources said.
Konanki’s parents in the same letter said 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.
In the early hours of March 6, she was seen on surveillance footage drinking with five women and two men in the Riu República Hotel bar.
In the video, Konanki is seen wearing a white cover-up as she hugs and talks with her friends. 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.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic have said no one is considered a suspect in Konanki’s disappearance.
US authorities have said it is a missing persons case and not a criminal matter. (Agencies)
