International authorities are looking for a student from the University of Pittsburgh who disappeared during a spring vacation trip to the Dominican Republic last week.
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, was with a group of students who visited Punta Cana when it disappeared, according to the Sheriff’s office of Loudoun County in Virginia.
Konanki seems to have disappeared between 3 and 5 in the morning on Thursday, said Sheriff’s office spokesman Thomas Julia.
The authorities have said that Konanki did not report that he disappeared until that night, but Sheriff Michael Chapman indicated in an interview that his disappearance was apparently reported to the Dominican police before that.
Konanki’s family resides in Virginia, and the Sheriff’s office was contacted to inform his disappearance, said Chapman.
Konanki was traveling with a group of five other female from Pittsburgh University, said Julia. The other five were scheduled to return to the United States on Friday, but they chose to stay to help in the search, said Julia.
The morning of his disappearance, Konanki went to the beach with friends. They returned, but she didn’t, Chapman said. He said that the Dominican authorities have obtained a video of when the group on the beach was last seen.
Chapman said his office is working with the Dominican authorities and state and federal agencies, including the State Department.
In a statement, the FBI said that the Dominican authorities are leading the investigation, but that the office “is ready to help our international partners with any request for assistance.”
As Konanki is also a citizen of India, Chapman said that the Indian embassy in the Dominican Republic is also helping in the investigation.
The authorities are examining all the possibilities that Konanki’s disappearance could explain, said Julia.
“At this time he directs the entire range of something accidental to a dirty game,” said Julia. “Everything is at this point in consideration. Nothing has been ruled out.”
Getting video, watching evidence of cell phones and talking to people who were with Konanki is still a high priority, said Julia.
The Civil Defense of Altagracia, the emergency operations agency of the local Dominican Republic, said it was coordinating an extensive search.
“Several sea and land brigades have been deployed to find the whereabouts from abroad,” said the agency in a statement on Facebook.
A spokesman from the University of Pittsburgh urged anyone with information about Konanki’s disappearance to contact the Sheriff’s office of the Loudoun County.
“University officials are in contact with the family of Sudiksha Konanki, as well as the authorities in the County of Soudoun, Virginia, and we have offered our full support in their efforts to find it and bring it home safely,” said the spokesman.
The Dominican Republic is classified as a level 2 in the four -level travel warning rubric, which means that travelers who have “greater caution” are advised when they travel there. He warns that violent crime is a concern throughout the country.
Chapman, the loudon county sheriff, said the authorities still maintain the hope of a positive result.
“Obviously, we expect the best result here, but we really don’t know where it will yet go,” he said.
