The American student who vanished from a beach in the Dominican Republic may have been kidnaped, according to a private investigator.
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, disappeared from a five-star resort in Punta Cana on Thursday while on Spring Break from the University of Pittsburgh.
Her clothes were found on a portable beach bed the beach where police believe she was last seen going for a swim, ABC 6 reported.
Although the body of the pre-med student has not yet been located, local authorities suspect that she drowned. This theory is contrary to the opinion of a private investigator who worked on the case of Natalee Holloway, a murder victim who disappeared in 2005.
‘I don’t think that she drowned in the ocean,’ private investigator TJ Ward told Fox News.
‘I totally believe that somebody knows something where she is, or somebody took her away, or somebody’s holding her somewhere.’
Ward added: ‘If she had gone into the water, she would’ve washed up somewhere with a tide the way that comes into the island.’
The investigator had previously assisted in the search for Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old high school graduate from Alabama who went missing on the island of Aruba in the Caribbean in 2005.
Natalee Holloway’s remains were never discovered, and she was legally presumed dead in 2012. In 2023, Jordan van der Sloot, a Dutch tourist, confessed to killing Holloway after she spurned his advances.
Konanki’s family has also expressed doubt that she drowned and have pleaded with authorities to look into more sinister theories.
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, vanished from a beach in Punta Cana last week. Local officials believe she drowned but her family and a private investigator disagree
The Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana, where Konanki and her friends were staying
Authorities were using drones, helicopters and detection dogs in the search for the student
‘It’s four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore,’ her father father, Subbarayudu Konanki told WTOP News.
Private investigator TJ Ward thinks the student could have been abducted
‘She’s not found, so we’re asking them to investigate multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.’
It comes as a mystery 24-year-old man who was the last known person to see Konanki told police Konanki vanished in the ocean.
The Iowa was a fellow guest at the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana, where Konanki and her friends were staying.
He told police he and Konanki went for a swim after her friends returned to their rooms and got caught in a big wave. The man claimed he got back to the beach, threw up and went to sleep on a beach bed.
When he woke up, he said, Konanki had vanished.
The man is one of several witnesses police have spoken with since Konanki vanished. Her friends have also provided statements to authorities.
The US State Department is working with the Indian embassy in the Dominican Republic, which has taken the lead in the investigation as Konanki is an Indian citizen who was a permanent US resident.
The pre-med student was expected to graduate from the university in 2026, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Authorities were using drones, helicopters and detection dogs on Monday to scour the waters off the island’s east coast where she was supposedly last seen, Jensen Sánchez, a Civil Defense spokesman, told The Associated Press.
She was last known to be with a 24-year-old Iowa man and a guest at the resort
Police have already spoken with Konanki’s friends to establish exactly where a maritime search should be focused
‘The search is underway at sea because it’s presumed she drowned. According to the boy who was with her, the waves swept her away, but that is under police investigation,’ he said.
He noted it can take more than a week for a body to surface in warm waters.
When her family learned of her disappearance, Subbarayudu Konanki and his wife Sreedevi flew to Punta Cana with two family friends. He and a family friend filed a record of complaint Sunday, asking authorities to widen the investigation.
The complaint notes that the student’s belongings, including her phone and wallet, were left with her friends, ‘which is unusual because she always carried her phone with her.’
‘In light of these circumstances, I respectfully request that the authorities take immediate steps to investigate not only the possibility of an accidental drowning, but also the possibility of a kidnapping or foul play,’ he wrote
