Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – An American who was the last person who believes he was seen with the missing student of the University of Pittsburgh, Sudiksha Konanki, approached an plane and took off from the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, almost two weeks after he said that the authorities forced him to stay in the Caribbean nation and confiscate his passport.
Joshua Riibe, a last year student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, was the last person who believes he was seen with Konanki in the morning that disappeared on March 6.
On Wednesday night, NBC News saw Riibe at Las Américas International Airport in Santo Domingo, the capital of the nation.
He was with a man that Riibe’s lawyer has identified as his father. They were accompanied by a woman in the registration area that stayed as they went through the security projection.
NBC News saw an airport employee who attended a boarding school.
Riibe’s departure ends what his lawyers allege was a one -day arrest in the Dominican Republic, since the investigators interrogated him in relation to Konanki’s disappearance.
Riibe, 22, has remained under the supervision of the police at the hotel where Konanki stayed on a spring vacation trip when he disappeared, according to Riibe and his lawyers. Riibe’s passport was also confiscated by local authorities, they said.
Riibe has not been accused of a crime or suspects have been appointed in the disappearance of Konanki, according to the National Police of the Dominican Republic.
His departure comes a day after a Dominican judge ruled that he was no longer required to be under police supervision.
Riibe would have needed to go to the United States embassy in Santo Domingo to obtain an emergency passport in the country.
“The United States Embassy is in communication with him and his family and his lawyer, and we are also providing consular assistance,” said State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce, in an informative session on Wednesday before Riibe’s departure.
NBC News contacted Riibe’s lawyers, the National Police of the Dominican Republic and the country’s attorney general over Riibe’s departure.
The attorney general replied: “I cannot confirm that information.” The other parts have not yet responded.
Konanki’s disappearance has captivated generalized attention in recent weeks.
Konanki, a third year student at Pittsburgh University, was on spring vacation with five friends in a beach complex in Punta Cana when it disappeared in the early hours of March 6. That morning, his friends returned to the hotel from the beach, but Konanki stayed with people he met from the trip, authorities said.
Riibe, who is Rock Rapids, Iowa, told local researchers in an interview last week on the beach with Konanki shortly before she disappeared, according to a transcription of the interview obtained by NBC News.
The transcription establishes that Riibe and Konanki were “in water to the waist, speaking and kissing a little” before a wave crashed, taking them both “to the sea.”
Police have said that they did not find signs of violence on the beach. A hotel spokesman where Konanki was staying also said that the red flags, which indicate “that the sea had a strong current and very high current”, flew the morning that disappeared.
Speaking with journalists outside his home in Loudoun County, Virginia, Konanki’s parents said they have hoped that their daughter is still alive.
“We are reaching an agreement with the fact that our daughter has drowned,” said Konanki’s father, Subbarayudu Konanki, through tears. “This is incredibly difficult for us to process.”
The parents asked the Local Police to declare their dead daughter earlier. Konanki’s father added on Tuesday that they reached the reason why his daughter drowned based on the information that we and the local authorities gave them.
“Both sides of the authorities have shown us how high were the waves of the ocean at the time of [the] Incident, “he said.” And both sides of the authorities also clarified that the person of interest is not suspicious from the beginning. “
Alexandra Bacallao contributed.
