The family of missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki still fears she could have been abducted in the Dominican Republic.
Local authorities have suggested the 20-year-old pre-med student likely drowned after jumping in the ocean early Thursday while on spring break with friends at the Riu Republic Resort in Punta Cana.
However, a complaint seeking to intensify search efforts said that “while it is possible that Sudiksha drowned, there is a growing suspicion that there may be a crime, specifically the possibility of kidnapping,” WTOP reported Monday.
“It’s four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore,” the missing student’s father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told the outlet.
“She’s not found, so we’re asking them to investigate multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.”
The dad flew from his home in Virginia to Punta Cana with his wife and two family friends as soon as he realized his daughter was missing.
They filed the criminal complaint pushing Dominican authorities to “take immediate steps to investigate not only the possibility of an accidental drowning, but also the possibility of a kidnapping or foul play,”
“Her belongings, including personal items like her phone and wallet, were left with her friends, which is unusual because she always carried her phone with her,” the complaint said..
Sudiksha Konanki, some friends and “some other guys they met at the resort” went to the beach around 4 a.m. after she told her friends she was heading to a party, her father told CNN.
“After that, her friends came back after some time and my daughter did not come back, did not show up from the beach,” her father said.
Konanki and others were spotted on surveillance footage near the beach shortly before she went missing.
Officials at the resort said her friends reported her disappearance around 4 p.m. Thursday — about 12 hours after she was last seen — when she was not in her room.
“They searched using helicopters and other tools. They also searched in the nearby bay, bushes, and trees. They went multiple times around the same areas,” her distressed father told the CNN.
Agencies from Konanki’s home in Virginia, along with the Indian embassy in the Dominican Republic, have been assisting with the search.
The FBI, DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, and the University of Pittsburgh police are assisting the Dominican National Police’s investigation, according to the sheriff’s office in Loudon County, where Konanki is from.
The University of Pittsburgh has also been coordinating with her family.
Konanki was staying at the resort with five other female students from Pitt, according to the sheriff’s office in Loudoun County, Virginia.
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