Joshua Riibe has passport confiscated as he is now being detained by Dominican Republic authorities while police continue to insist the case is not a criminal one or that the Iowa man is a suspect in the disappearance in University of Pittsburgh student, Sudiksha Konanki disappearance.
The passport of Joshua Riibe, a 24 year old Iowa man linked to the disappearance of a University of Pittsburgh student, has been confiscated by Dominican authorities as part of an ongoing investigation.
Riibe a Rock Rapids, Iowa, native and senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota might have been the last person to see Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old pre-med student who went to Punta Cana on March 3 with five female friends for spring break. She was last seen around 4:15 a.m. on March 6 after going to the beach with friends.
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El joven turista estadounidense Joshua Steven Ribe fue captado en vídeo al momento de salir custodiado por agentes de Politur, luego de que fuera interrogado en la Fiscalía de La Altagracia como la última persona que vio a la turista india Sudiksha Konanki antes de su… pic.twitter.com/wSJB85sU5J
— Noticias RNN (@NoticiasRNN) March 13, 2025
I’m just trying to help them out,
Approached by NBC News, at the the resort where Konanki had been staying before her disappearance, Riibe said, ‘I’m just trying to help them out,’ adding: ‘The ocean is a dangerous place.’
Riibe ‘has been confined to the hotel since the investigation began. He is permanently escorted by the police anywhere he goes. So no, he is not free to leave,’ a law firm Riibe has retained told NBC News on Saturday.
The outlet reported Dominican Republic police declining to comment on Riibe’s forced confinement.
In newly released police interview transcripts, Riibe said he was on the beach with Konanki shortly before she disappeared.
He said they were ‘in waist-deep water, talking and kissing a little,’ before a wave crashed, taking them both ‘out to sea.’
‘I kept trying to get her to breathe, but that didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water,’ he said, telling investigators that he used to work as a lifeguard.
Riibe said he got Konanki back to shore before passing out after telling investigators he had vomited in the water.
‘The last time I saw her, I asked if she was OK. I didn’t hear her answer,‘ transcripts stated. ‘I looked around and didn’t see anyone. I thought she’d grabbed her things and left.’
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Surveillance captured him returning to his room later that morning at 9am after allegedly passing out on the beach. When approached by authorities later that afternoon about the missing woman’s whereabouts, after Konanki failing to return to her room, Riibe told authorities that he was shocked to discover she was missing.
At no point had Riibe reached out to officials of his own volition to report what had transpired in the ocean hours earlier and whether she was safe or to inform authorities that the 20 year old may have drowned or at the least launch a search for her.
Of note, police transcripts revealed Riibe refusing to answer eight critical questions, including, ‘if Sudiksha knew how to swim, if she made any cries for help, if he told authorities what happened on the beach.’
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, in Virginia, where Konanki is from and where her family lives, has described Riibe as a person of interest. The sheriff’s office has no jurisdiction over the investigation but has sent detectives to Punta Cana to assist in the U.S. side of the investigation.
Over the weekend, Riibe’s parents who have now joined their son in the Dominican Republic, released a statement, shared by WTAE, expressing their ‘deep sorrow and solidarity’ with Konanki’s family, as they explained that their son had ‘fully cooperated in the search and clarification of the facts from the very beginning.’
While noting his ‘helping out’ has come with ‘concerning irregularities’, with the statement adding, ‘Despite his full willingness to cooperate, Josh has been detained under irregular conditions and subjected to extensive questioning without the presence of official translators or legal counsel until Wednesday, March 12.’
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said Thursday they do not use the term ‘person of interest’ in the case and at this point, no one is considered a suspect.
U.S. authorities say this is a missing person’s case and not a criminal matter.
