Authorities confiscate passport of man who last saw missing student Sudiksha Konanki

By Jessica Hasbun and Chris Boyette, CNN

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (CNN) — Authorities in the Dominican Republic have confiscated the passport of the man who is the last person known to have been with missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki, according to a source close to the investigation.

Dominican Republic Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso interviewed the man, Joshua Steven Riibe, over the weekend for more than six hours and the questioning is expected to continue Monday with a local prosecutor, the source said. Riibe is not considered a suspect in the case and has not been accused of wrongdoing.

It’s unclear why Riibe’s passport was confiscated. Since Konanki went missing in the early hours of March 6, Riibe, a 22-year-old from Rock Rapids, Iowa, and a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, has remained under police surveillance in the Dominican Republic. He has been taken to the police station for interrogation multiple times, his parents said in a statement.

CNN has contacted Riibe’s family attorney for comment.

Konanki, 20, disappeared from the beach of the Riu República Hotel in Punta Cana while on spring break with a group of friends, prompting an intensive search of land, air and sea that has involved authorities from the US, the Dominican Republic and India, where the student was born.

Surveillance video shows Konanki leaving the hotel lobby with a group of friends at approximately 4:15 a.m. on March 6, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

Riibe told prosecutors he and Konanki were hit by an intense wave and were swept out to sea, according to Dominican news station Noticias SIN.

When asked whether he saw Konanki after that night on the beach, Riibe said, “After I saw her walk away while she was walking in the water, I never saw her again.”

Konanki’s sarong-style cover-up was found on a lounge chair on the beach, but there were no signs of violence, a source familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.

Riibe was seen on the beach early Sunday walking with investigators, his father and his attorney, NBC reported.

Riibe told an NBC reporter, “I’m just trying to help them out,” adding, “The ocean is a dangerous place.”

Michael Chapman, the sheriff of Loudon County, Virginia, where Konanki’s family lives, told CNN that Riibe had been “very forthright with our detectives.” Two detectives from the sheriff’s office traveled to the Dominican Republic to interview Riibe.

The sheriff said he didn’t see “any inconsistencies” with what Riibe said.

Dominican officials previously said they were investigating Konanki’s disappearance as a drowning, but prosecutors said last week officials are also investigating whether Konanki’s disappearance could extend “beyond a possible accidental event.”

Dominican President Luis Abinader said Monday that “this is not a citizen security issue as far as it has been determined” but that there is an “ongoing investigation.”

He emphasized the country is “extremely safe” and that although Konanki’s case has attracted a large amount of media attention, in all missing persons cases, “everyone is treated equally here.”

“Let’s wait for the final outcome of this investigation,” he said.

Also Monday, the country’s minister of the interior and police, Faride Raful, said local authorities were working directly with the FBI.

“We have opened the investigation to anyone who may have participation in it to shed light on the issue, because there is absolutely nothing to hide on the part of the Dominican authorities,” Raful said.

Konanki’s last known moments

Konanki, described by her father as an “ambitious” student who planned to study medicine, arrived in Punta Cana on March 3. She traveled with five other female students from the University of Pittsburgh, according to the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office.

Riibe said he first met Konanki in the hotel when he and his friend introduced themselves to her group. The two friend groups went together to the bar, where they drank until “someone suggested we go to the beach,” Riibe said in his interview.

In the early hours of March 6, she was seen on surveillance footage drinking with five women and two men in the Riu República Hotel bar. In the video, Konanki is seen wearing a white cover-up as she hugs and talks with her friends. Riibe is seen several feet away, bent over and stumbling on the lawn outside the bar.

Then, at 4:15 a.m., a surveillance camera captured the group, including Konanki, entering the beach, police said.

Just before 5 a.m., surveillance footage shows five women and one man leaving the beach, two sources close to the investigation told CNN. Konanki was not among them.

During his fourth interview with prosecutors, on Wednesday, Riibe described a harrowing attempt to save Konanki after they were jostled by the wave and she got tired of swimming.

“It took me a long time to get her out. It was difficult,” Riibe said, according to Noticias SIN. He said he was trained as a lifeguard but worked at pools, not at the beach.

“I was trying to get her to breathe the whole time. That didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water. I could have lost consciousness several times. When I finally reached the ground on the beach, I held her in front of me.”

He said he last saw Konanki when she was walking in knee-deep water.

“The last time I saw her, I asked if she was OK. I didn’t hear her answer because I started vomiting up all the seawater I had swallowed.”

“After vomiting, I looked around, and I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left,” Riibe said.

“I felt very sick and tired. I lay down on a beach chair and fell asleep because I couldn’t go far.”

The sun and biting mosquitoes woke Riibe up, he said, and he went to his friend’s room to get his phone and then went to his room to sleep.

“I was sleeping in the room and my friend asked me if I had seen her; I told him no, I thought she had gone to her room,” Riibe said. His friend told him Konanki never returned to her room, which Riibe said “surprised” him.

When Konanki didn’t return to her room, her friends searched for her before notifying authorities, according to the law enforcement source. The group then reported her missing to hotel staff around 4 p.m. Thursday, according to the Riu hotel chain.

Konanki’s disappearance comes nearly two months after four tourists drowned in Punta Cana, according to the Dominican Republic’s civil defense agency, at the same beach where she was last seen. Strong currents swept the tourists off the Arena Gorda beach, where the Riu República Hotel is located, the civil defense agency said January 18 in a Facebook post.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of Joshua Steven Riibe.

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CNNE’s Jessica Hasbun reported from Punta Cana and CNN’s Chris Boyette wrote and reported from Atlanta. CNN’s Alaa Elassar, Zoe Sottile, Marlon Sorto and Sharif Paget contributed to this report.