Police in the Dominican Republic say FBI joins search for US student who vanished on spring break

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The FBI has joined the search for a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student who went missing nearly a week ago while on spring break in the Dominican tourist town of Punta Cana, police said Tuesday.

Dominican police said they are re-interviewing people who were with Sudiksha Konanki before she vanished in the pre-dawn hours of March 6 at a beach in front of the Riu República Hotel.

The hotel said in a statement that Konanki’s disappearance coincided with a power outage that prompted multiple guests to head to the beach where she was last seen.

Dominican President Luis Abinader told reporters that he lamented the situation.

“We are concerned,” he said Monday during his weekly meeting with the press. “All government agencies are searching … because the latest information we have from one of them, from the last person who was with the young woman, what he says according to the reports is that a wave, while on the beach, crashed into them.”

Abinader also defended the safety of tourists in the Dominican Republic.

“The country receives more than 11 million visitors a year,” he said, adding that issues rarely arise.

Konanki’s parents, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi, flew to Punta Cana with two family friends after she was reported missing and have asked authorities to widen the investigation.

Her father said she and five other female university students traveled to the Dominican Republic on March 3.

Sudiksha Konanki, a citizen of India, is a U.S. permanent resident from Chantilly, Virginia, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.