International authorities are leading a search for a University of Pittsburgh student who went missing while on a spring break trip with a group of friends in the Dominican Republic.
Teams in the Dominican Republic are on day four of a frantic search to find 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki, who was last seen on a beach in Punta Cana in the early morning hours on March 6, officials said.
Konanki was on vacation with a group of five other female University of Pittsburgh students, Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Thomas Julia said in an interview with NBC News. She was last seen between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. on March 6, Julia said.
What happened to missing college student Sudiksha Konanki?
On the morning of March 6, Konanki and her friends went to the beach, Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman said in an interview with NBC News.
“We don’t really have any idea exactly what happened after that … when her friends returned back, and she didn’t,” Chapman said.
Konanki’s family resides in Virginia, and the sheriff’s office was contacted to report her disappearance, Chapman said.
The Dominican National Police said in a statement translated by TODAY.com that it had obtained surveillance footage of Konanki and her friends a few feet away from entering the beach area at Hotel Riu Republica around 4:15 a.m.
She was last seen wearing a brown bathing suit, according to a missing persons flier.
A man who was in the water at the beach was interviewed to corroborate his version of events, according to the Dominican National Police.
Chapman said that while authorities have said Konanki was not reported missing until Thursday evening, her disappearance was reported to Dominican law enforcement earlier in the day.
The five other students Konanki was traveling with were scheduled to return to the United States on March 7, but have remained in the Dominican Republic to help with the search.
La Altagracia Civil Defense, the Dominican Republic’s emergency operations agency, is leading the search, and “several brigades” have been deployed to search for the college student, the agency said.
Chapman said authorities are also searching through video footage and cell phone data to find Konanki.
“We have certainly experts here within the U.S. that that will look into all aspects of her phone, her friends, phones, anybody that she might have been with, to see exactly what may have happened there,” he said.
Konanki’s parents did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News, but her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told CNN that his daughter went to the beach with her friends and “some other guys they met at the resort.”
“After that, her friends came back after some time and my daughter did not come back, did not show up from the beach,” he said.
Konanki’s parents were en route to the Dominican Republic, Chapman said.
Officials with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said they have not determined if Konacki’s disappearance was accidental, or if there was foul play involved.
Julia, the sheriff’s office spokesperson, addressed reports that Konanki had drowned.
“This was the initial speculation in this case but other possibilities have been explored since Friday,” he said in a text message to NBC News. “Also, some of the narrative reported here is inconsistent with the information shared with us and seen on surveillance video.”
Chapman said the sheriff’s office hadn’t “ruled anything in or out right now.”
A spokesperson for the University of Pittsburgh urged anyone with information about Konanki, a junior at the college, to contact the authorities.
