The parents of a missing University of Pittsburgh student are challenging the police’s assessment that the 20-year-old likely drowned.
Sudiksha Konanki was reported missing while on spring break in the Dominican Republic on Thursday. She was last seen on the beach at the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana at around 4:50 a.m.
Dominican officials involved in the investigation told ABC News Sunday that Konaki likely died by drowning after jumping in the ocean, but her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, suspects his daughter may have been abducted. Her body has yet to be discovered.
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The family has filed a complaint with Dominican authorities seeking to broaden the investigation.
“It’s four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore,” Konanki told WTOP. “She’s not found, so we’re asking them to investigate multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.”
“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 reads.
It asks authorities to “take immediate steps to investigate not only the possibility of an accidental drowning, but also the possibility of a kidnapping or foul play.”
Konanki’s father flew from Virginia to Punta Cana with his wife and two family friends upon learning of his daughter’s disappearance.
The University of Pittsburgh student went to the beach with friends and “some other guys they met at the resort” at around 4 a.m. after she told her friends she was going to a party, her father told CNN.
“After that, her friends came back after some time, and my daughter did not come back, did not show up from the beach,” her father said.
According to the complaint, Sudiksha had left her phone and wallet with a friend, “which is unusual because she always carried her phone with her.”
Konanki was spotted on surveillance footage near the beach accompanied by others right before she went missing.
According to officials at the resort, her friends reported her disappearance about 12 hours after she was last seen.
“They searched using helicopters and other tools. They also searched in the nearby bay, bushes, and trees. They went multiple times around the same areas,” her distressed father told CNN.
Agencies from Konanki’s home state of Virginia, along with the Indian Embassy in the Dominican Republic, have been supporting the search efforts. The FBI, DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, and the University of Pittsburgh police are also helping the Dominican National Police in their investigation, according to the Loudoun County, Va., sheriff’s office.
