New data has revealed that different individuals have been on the seaside when US faculty pupil Sudiksha Konanki went lacking within the Dominican Republic, regulation enforcement officers helping within the investigation informed CNN, because the search goes into its seventh day.
The 20-year-old College of Pittsburgh pupil vanished on the seaside of the Riu República Resort in Punta Cana early on March 6, sparking a frantic search by air, sea and land, involving authorities from america, the Dominican Republic and India, the place Konanki’s household is initially from.
Video proof factors to further individuals being on the seaside across the time Konanki went lacking, past a younger man who’d informed police he’d been along with her there, the regulation enforcement officers helping with the probe stated. Investigators are attempting to establish these individuals whereas asking that they arrive ahead with any details about Konanki.
CNN has not seen the footage.
Sudiksha Konanki, 20. – Subbarayubu Konanki
As a result of different individuals have been across the seaside early on March 6, with out discovering a physique authorities should permit for the likelihood Konanki might have encountered a number of of them.
Dominican officers had beforehand stated they have been investigating Konanki’s disappearance as a drowning. However the normal prosecutor’s workplace stated Wednesday officers are additionally investigating whether or not Konanki’s disappearance might prolong “past a doable unintentional occasion.”
Konanki, who’s from Loudoun County, Virginia, traveled to Punta Cana with 5 feminine pals from her college. The ladies had been consuming within the resort’s foyer early on March 6 earlier than surveillance cameras captured them getting into the resort seaside together with two males round 4:15 a.m., based on a regulation enforcement supply and police statements.
Cameras later captured 5 girls and one man leaving the seaside round 4:55 a.m. – however Konanki seems to have stayed behind with a person in his 20s, sources informed CNN. The surveillance cameras recorded the person leaving the seaside simply earlier than 9 a.m., however Konanki was nowhere to be seen.
Konanki’s sarong-style cover-up was discovered on a lounge chair on the seaside, however there have been no indicators of violence, a supply aware of the investigation informed CNN.
The screenshot is believed to be from the final recognized video of lacking faculty pupil Sudiksha Konanki. CNN blurred parts of this picture. – EXCLUSIVE: Noticias SIN
In his interviews with police, the younger man, who’s the final recognized individual to have been with Konanki earlier than she vanished, recalled going within the water, feeling unwell, popping out of the water and laying down on the seaside, whereas seeing Konanki nonetheless standing about ankle deep within the sea, a number of regulation enforcement officers helping with the investigation informed CNN. The person’s subsequent recollection was waking up and leaving the seaside hours later, they stated.
The person is cooperating with the investigation, and police are usually not contemplating him a suspect.
The evening Konanki disappeared, sea circumstances have been harmful with excessive waves, Agustín Morillo Rodríguez, normal commander of the Dominican Republic navy, informed CNN Wednesday.
Konanki’s disappearance comes practically two months after 4 vacationers drowned in Punta Cana on the similar seaside the place Konanki was final seen, based on the Dominican Republic’s civil protection company. Sturdy currents swept the vacationers off the Area Gorda seaside, the place the Riu República Resort is situated, the civil protection company stated on January 18 in a Facebook post.
Civil protection boats seek for Sudiksha Konanki, a college pupil who disappeared on a seaside in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, on Monday, March. 10, 2025. – Francesco Spotorno/AP
On Wednesday, the nation’s normal prosecutor, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, stated investigators have been “making use of a holistic investigation protocol that examines all variables” in Konanki’s disappearance, “as with every disappearance underneath the circumstances of the case at hand.”
Konanki’s household and Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman have urged authorities to think about different avenues.
Konanki’s mother and father, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi Konanki, returned to Virginia this week after flying to Punta Cana with two household pals, based on Chapman. Subbarayudu, Konanki’s father, has requested authorities to widen the investigation.
The daddy’s formal request notes that the scholar’s belongings, together with her telephone and pockets, have been left along with her pals, “which is uncommon as a result of she at all times carried her telephone along with her,” he wrote within the report, based on radio station WTOP, as reported by the AP. It’s unclear the place this data got here from.
Subbarayudu informed CNN earlier he desires native authorities “to additionally examine different potentialities together with whether or not it is a case of kidnapping or human trafficking.”
CNN’s Chris Boyette and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report
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