Police in Virginia have identified a man seen with a missing University of Pittsburgh student the night she disappeared while on spring break in the Dominican Republic; authorities still are classifying the disappearance as a likely accident.
Joshua Riibe, 24, is one of a group of young people seen on video with 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki the night she went missing after visiting a beach at 4 a.m. and taking a swim, ABC-7 news reported. Authorities in Virginia said the case is not considered to be a criminal investigation, and police in the Dominican Republic have said Riibe is not a person of interest.
Konanki has been missing since Thursday. Wednesday night Konanki and friends went to a nightclub. Afterward, Konanki, Riibe, and four other friends went to the beach around 4 a.m. The other four later returned around 5:55 a.m., asis captured on video, but Konanki and Riibe stayed at the beach, ABC News reported.
Riibe has told authorities that he and Konanki went swimming and found themselves caught in large waves. When he returned to shore, Riibe threw up and fell asleep on a beach bed. When he woke up around 9:55 a.m., Konanki was nowhere to be found, and he has told authorities he returned to the hotel, ABCNY reported.
Police found Konanki's personal belongings on a beach bed. They have said that they found no evidence of a struggle or violence and have been treating the disappearance as a potential drowning, ABCNY reported.
