It’s sunny and 85 degrees every day, you’re on that spring break trip you’ve been planning with your best friends for months, sipping drinks and lounging by the pool. But then the unimaginable happens. One of those friends goes missing.
Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student, went missing during the early hours of March 6 while on spring break in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. A body still has not been found.
According to NBC News, Konanki and her friends were out drinking with people they met on the trip, enjoying their night, and decided to cap off their evening with a trip to the beach around 4 a.m. Security camera footage shows Konanki’s friends leaving the beach to go back to their room, but Konanki was never seen again.
22-year-old Joshua Riibe was the last person to see Konanki before she vanished. They were not friends before the trip, so they didn’t know each other well. The New York Post explained Riibe was never named a suspect, just a person of interest in the case because he was the last person to see Konanki, but that doesn’t eliminate people’s suspicion of him.
CNN reported Riibe said they “were jostled by an intense wave, he helped her back toward the beach, and last saw her walking in knee-deep water before he fell asleep on a beach chair.” Despite multiple versions of what Riibe said floating around social media, NBC4 Washington reported they were in the water together, a big wave hit them, and Riibe was able to get out of the water, but Konanki was not. Riibe threw up from alcohol and swallowing too much salt water, and then immediately passed out on a beach chair. He assumed Konanki got out of the water, but she never made it out.
As the hunt for Konanki deepened, they searched the beaches and reefs; they had helicopters, boats and divers searching for her in the water but found nothing. Authorities said this is not a criminal case and there were no signs of blood or aggression, so it’s classified as a missing persons case.
At first, Konanki’s parents wanted authorities to look into the possibility of Konanki being kidnapped or abducted, but as of March 18, they asked for authorities to officially declare her dead. According to TODAY, Konanki’s parents said they 100 percent believe in the authorities’ investigation. “It is with deep sadness, sadness and a heavy heart, we are coming to the terms with the fact that our daughter has drowned," Subbarayudu Konanki said, his voice breaking as he spoke. "This is incredibly difficult for us to process.” The parents also said authorities showed them how high the ocean waves were at the time she was in the water, which made them believe she drowned.
It’s also worth mentioning the power was out at the resort the group was staying at, which should have meant the friends would’ve been more aware of where their friends were. Uncertainty rose after NBC News said, “Konanki’s friends went on an excursion Thursday and didn’t realize she was missing until about 4 p.m. that day.” This is a good reminder to keep track of your friends, especially women, and especially in a foreign country.
It can be argued that Konaki’s friends should have never left her alone on the beach in the middle of the night where the waters were rough while she was under the influence. If Konanki’s friends didn’t leave her alone, the situation may have ended differently.
It has been declared by authorities that Konanki drowned, but The Daily Mail reported Stephen Leatherman, a professor of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, said her body should have recovered at this point if she did drown. He and other people speculating on social media still believe she is alive and something else may be at play here. We may never know the final answer, but we need to control what we can, which is to stop leaving our friends alone.
Whether you’re at the bars here in Athens or in a different country, always keep track of your friends, don’t let them go off with random people and constantly check in with them. You never think a tragic situation like this one will happen to you until it does.
Kendall Timms is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Kendall Timms about her column? Email her at kt353720@ohio.edu.
