‘Person of interest’ named in missing Dominican Republic tourist mystery
Global News
Police said they were re-interviewing people who were with Sudiksha Konanki before she vanished at the beach in front of the Riu República Hotel.
A person of interest has been identified in the search for a 20-year-old student from the University of Pittsburgh who disappeared last week on spring break in Punta Cana.
Sudiksha Konanki was last seen in surveillance footage entering the beach at the Riu República Hotel around 4:15 a.m. on March 6, according to a statement from the Dominican National Police.
On Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, where Konanki is a biology student, told NBC News that a person of interest has been identified by U.S. investigators.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office has no jurisdiction in Konanki’s case but has sent detectives to Punta Cana to assist with the investigation.
Dominican Republic authorities have not said whether the individual is a person of interest in their investigation.
“This is not the same thing as a suspect as this is not a criminal matter. It is still a missing person case,” Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Thomas Julia told the outlet.
Julia also said the as-yet-unidentified person of interest was interviewed at length in the investigation.
New surveillance footage of Konanki, who arrived in the country on March 3, has also been released by Dominican Republic news outlet Noticias SIN. The footage, taken at 4:15 a.m. local time on March 6, shows Konanki leaving the Riu República Hotel lobby with three other people.
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