Sudiksha Konanki missing University of Pittsburgh student may never be found amid 3 tourists drowning at the Punta Cana resort in 2025, with only one body recovered amid continuing questions with her dalliance with Iowa man, Joshua Steven Riibe on the evening of her disappearance.
Will they ever find her body …. assuming she was lost at sea?
Rough waters at the upscale Punta Cana, Dominican Republic resort where University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki disappeared have claimed lives in the past — including three tourists who drowned this year alone according to a new report.
Missing pre-med student DR disappearance probed as possible foul play
Josh Riibe family insist he is innocent & did not hurt or harm Sudiksha Konanki
🇩🇴Otro video de la cámara de seguridad del hotel muestra con más nitidez cuando la joven india Sudiksha Konanki se dirigía a la playa con sus amigos antes de su desaparición el pasado jueves 6 de marzo en Punta Cana. pic.twitter.com/NgnEpltgAE
— 🇩🇴Sandra Acta 00 (@Sandra_Acta) March 12, 2025
Drunken evening with Iowa tourist before early morning swim
Three European tourists at the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana were swept away and drowned on Jan. 17, while a fourth — a tourist from Russia — was hospitalized, Dominican Today reported on Wednesday.
Only one of the bodies was recovered. The report raises questions whether the whereabouts of missing pre-med student, Sudiksha Konanki, 20, will be unearthed given the potential that she may have indeed drowned after a ‘drunken’ evening with a 24 year old person of interest, Joshua Steven Riibe.
The Dominican Republic National Police believe the pre-med student who was on spring break at the Riu resort with five friends when she disappeared in the early morning hours of March 6.
Authorities think she likely drowned after going into the water following a night of partying, however, her family is not satisfied with that explanation and want police to investigate whether she may have been kidnapped.
At least 300 law enforcement personnel — including from the FBI and sheriff’s deputies from the co-ed’s hometown in Virginia — are in their sixth day of a massive search for Sudiksha.
Joshua Riibe, a former school wrestling star of Rock Rapids, Iowa, was the last person to see her alive told police they went into the water but he fled the waves and passed out drunk on the beach — leaving her in the surf. Why Riibe failed to reach out to authorities after the episode continued to remain of question as he was now named a person of interest, but not a suspect in the case.
To date, authorities have not stated Konanki’s disappearance is the case of foul play or a criminal case.
*CIRCULA EN REDES SOCIALES. SUPUESTAMENTE LA JOVEN REPORTADA DESAPARECIDA,*
La Joven India Sudiksha Konanki era una joven muy alegré pic.twitter.com/86Rr0jvUYA
— noticias rd noticias rd (@DelBanbino) March 12, 2025
History of tourists drowning at Dominican Republic resort
If she did drown, as local authorities suggest, Sudiksha would not be the first to die in the water at the Caribbean beach.
Polish nationals Marcin Teodor Checinski, 47, and Sylwia Aleksandra, 52, along with Portuguese tourist Nelzon Nunes Ribeiro, 67, were washed out to see and drowned, Dominican Today reported.
In 2023, an American tourist, 67-year-old Jorene Richards, drowned off shore at Punta Cana while on a snorkeling expedition, with three crew members later fined, the outlet said in a report at the time.
In another rough surf tragedy, a family of four from Philadelphia, including a newlywed couple, were washed away at the beach and drowned in 2015, WTVD-TV News reported.
Kajal and Kush Patel were with a group of relatives when Kajal began struggling in the water — prompting her husband and two cousins, brothers Shivang and Jay Patel, swam out to help her.
All four were pulled out to see and lost their lives, the outlet reported.
