THIS is the concerning moment missing Sudiksha Konanki appears to be sick at a bar shortly before vanishing from her holiday resort.
A 20-year-old student disappeared on March 6 while in the Dominican Republic. Reports from the police suggest that the person who was last seen with her has altered his version of events multiple times.
Recent surveillance video, which was acquired by CDN TV, shows the student socializing with a group of individuals inside a bar at the Riu Republica resort in Punta Cana.
Footage indicates that the University of Pittsburgh student left her drink on a table, then walked to a nearby grassy area where she seemed to vomit, as reported by local media.
The clip is said to have been taken at around 4:05am.
An unknown woman can be seen helping Konanki as she quickly walks back towards the bar area.
The video also shows American man Joshua Riibe, 24, who claims the pair shared a kiss on the beach before Konanki went missing.
Riibe is considered to be the last person to have seen the student after separate CCTV showed them together.
The Iowa resident, who has been interviewed by cops but not named as a suspect in this case, is believed to be in the background of the bar CCTV.
He is stood with two men and also appears to be sick in the short clip.
Riibe and Konanki were stood only around 10ft apart in the footage but did not communicate at any point with each other.
As police continue to look for any signs of Konanki, a number of details have emerged.
Konanki was last seen in the early hours of March 6 near to the Punta Cana resort where she and Riibe were both staying.
The final sighting of her was when surveillance cameras captured five women and one man heading towards the beach at around 4:55am.
This is the same beach where Riibe told cops he kissed Konanki shortly after they first met, according to a transcript of his interview from Noticias SIN.
Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, told police: “We were in waist-deep water. We talked and kissed a bit.”
He also claimed he saved Konanki from drowning while in the water while explaining he was previously a lifeguard.
Riibe said: “It took me a long time to get her out. It was difficult.”
He told cops he was able to pull Konanki until she was “knee-deep and walking at an angle out of the water”.
The senior said he called out to ask if the student was okay but didn’t hear a response before he was sick on the beach.
He added: “After vomiting, I looked around. I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left.”
Riibe then claimed he passed out on a beach chair.
Shirtless and shoeless he was seen leaving the beach and returning to the resort at around 8:55am the morning after.
A police source close to the investigation has now claimed he gave differing accounts to police over the course of four meetings, according to a People report.
It is still unclear which elements were changed.
Timeline of Sudiskha Konanki’s disappearance
SUDISHKA Konanki, 20, disappeared during a spring break trip to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
Here’s a timeline of her last known movements:
- On March 6 at 3 am, Konanki and her five friends were seen dancing at Riu Republica Resort’s disco
- At around 4 am, surveillance captured the group leaving the resort with Joshua Steven Riibe, a 24-year-old from Iowa who they met on the trip
- At around 5:50 am, Konanki’s friends left the beach and headed home, but the now-missing student and Ribe stayed
- Riibe told cops that he passed out drunk on the beach at some point after that, and when he woke up, Konanki was gone
- Konanki was reported missing at 4 pm later that evening by her friends
He is also said to have refused to answer eight questions from local cops, including whether Konanki could swim and what he told his friends.
To these questions he told authorities, “My lawyers advise me not to answer that question and I follow their advice.”
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office told The U.S. Sun they consider Riibe a person of interest due to him being with Konanki.
They stressed he wasn’t a suspect though as the sheriff’s official added: “We want to be clean, this is not a criminal case, it is a missing persons case.
“Person of interest does not mean suspect. It’s still an active investigation.”
It comes as the Dominican Republic’s national police said it believed Konanki may have drowned in the ocean.
Ginette Bournigal, a senator of Puerto Plata and the president of the Senate Tourism Commission, doubled down on the police’s early speculation, according to Su Mundo TV.
