DR, Sudiksha Konanki, 20, Punta Cana, 6 March 2025

[TMich6811]

I’m looking around but can’t find it - do we know when they met or if they had spent other nights together already?

 

[nightowl2728]

I’m looking around but can’t find it - do we know when they met or if they had spent other nights together already?

I don't think that's something that they would disclose to the public.

 

[TMich6811]

Agree with this so much. Even if he didn't intentionally drown her, I find it so odd that he didn't try to check in with anyone to ensure she got back to the hotel safe (if that is truly what he thought happened) - whether by finding her friends (it looked like his male friend was holding hand with her friend on the way back into the hotel that night - I'm assuming they exchanged numbers at some point or at least knew their general whereabouts in the hotel) or by asking hotel staff given it was a possible emergency situation (a possible drowning). Him just moving on with his day as if nothing happened just seems really odd to me, unless he went back to his room and passed out for a long period of time again, hoping what he thought happened didn't...

The above doesn't make him guilty, but it is odd and not morally upstanding, IMO

I think he probably passed out that long if he was as drunk as he appears. The kind of drunk where every time you open your eyes you

We don’t know if he tried calling her phone either or did go to their room and they were on the excursion

 

[armchairagatha]

Bbm.
I don't think that is far fetched to wonder at all .
So far nothing can really be ruled out, imo.
Omo.

I am sure they have already looked inland around that area. He wouldn’t have gone far to hide her body inland - could be caught on camera. No, I think the simplest explanation is that she is in the ocean - either accidentally drowned or dumped by him. That is what he says too - she got washed away. He fully expects her body to wash up eventually. The easiest way to dispose of a body in that area would be in the sea. IMO

 

[TMich6811]

I don't think that's something that they would disclose to the public.

Edited sorry I thought you were referring to the possibility of him trying to find her

 

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[nightowl2728]

I think he probably passed out that long if he was as drunk as he appears. The kind of drunk where every time you open your eyes you

We don’t know if he tried calling her phone either or did go to their room and they were on the excursion

That's a good point, perhaps he did try to find her but that hasn't been disclosed to the public.

I have been basing my assumptions on when the missing person report(s) were made - by her friends around 4pm that day, and by him (apparently, I'm not sure if this is confirmed) two days later?? Which seems maybe not accurate. I assume he would have been in touch with her friends by then. Unclear

 

[branmuffin]

There's more info here: videos and photos
Also timing was off,
"While the video time stamp showed 5:16 am local time, Noticias SIN confirmed the surveillance system's clock was inaccurately set an hour ahead - making the time the group was filmed at 4:16 am.

Additional footage showed Johnson and another woman holding hands as they returned from the beach at 5:05 am, 10 minutes before the other two young women had left the beach.

The camera picked up Riibe, barefooted and without his shirt, as he slowly walked back to his room at 8:54 am."

High school wrestling star who last saw Dominican spring breaker alive

A source close to the investigation told DailyMail.com that Riibe, 22, a powerfully-built former high school wrestler, was 'being cooperative'. He is still in Punta Cana.

www.dailymail.co.uk

As far as I know DR doesn't do Daylight savings time and is on Atlantic Time. Atlantic Time and Eastern Standard Time which changed to Daylight Savings Time are now the same as of March 9th. When SK went missing the time difference would be one hour.

 

[Lusitana]

Despite all her bravado she came from a sheltered Indian American family. Very possible that she only wanted to make out on the beach with him and not go all the way. He definitely wanted more and thought he was getting more. I can easily see a scenario where he pushed her into the water in a drunken rage after she rebuked his advances for s*x. Maybe he realized the horror of what he did too late and passed out on the beach. Hope I am wrong. JMO.
Edit: I am Indian American myself and know the culture very well. So not making racial assumptions here.

While that may be true for you, it may not be true for Sudiksha and many other indian girls. She did nothing wrong, btw.

 

[branmuffin]

I am glad your daughter was able to gauge the situation. The words "strong swimmer" often come up in conversations I have with people about rip currents. Being a strong swimmer is quite irrelevant when it comes to rip currents. People try to swim against them, tire themselves out and drown.

I agree. Being a strong swimmer is irrelevant if you panic in a rip current. You just exhaust yourself. I don't know if rip currents were the reason why 4 tourists died in Punta Cana in January 2025 or because they were blind drunk since the red flag warnings were out at the beach they went swimming. A lot of people don't recognize the signs of a rip current which is very unfortunate. I stopped a young Indian family from going into the ocean once because they didn't understand that the area that had no waves which they thought was safer for their little kids was actually a rip tide. People learn all sorts of things, or at least make a rudimentary attempt at boning up on idiosyncrasies of places they visit but many leave out the dangers of the sea. They worry about pickpockets and wear fanny packs and money belts, they leave their valuables at home and take epi pens in case they get bitten by something but ignore the water.

 

[Chimera]

Re; Cryptic's post about inland where a body could be concealed, I agree. What was he doing in those four hours he was missing? I think it's a real possibility he could have been sleeping/passed out on the beach given the early hours and drunkenness. But that's also time to conceal a crime. I've read that the resort is very much hard to get in/out of without video footage, so I do think that would make it difficult to go hide a body somewhere. Especially a non-local without a car, etc. Plus they've been searching with dogs, etc.

Agreed.
Even if there are cameras everywhere, someone would need to spot him on one of them.
How many times have we read about cases where cameras missed something as well ?

Occam's Razor would say she drowned or he did something to her, and pushed her body out.
The most plausible choice, imo.
Except LE say he is not a suspect although a person of interest.

Depends if there was anyone else at that time on the beach ?
Was there a short window of time, where no one was out there ?
Imo.

 

[Spartygirl]

Just heard about this today as a childhood friend of mine is there now on vacation.

I had to come here to WS to see if there was a thread as I have not been online much for the past week.

I am now trying to catch up on the posts in here while waiting for my friend to call with any details on searches and updates while he is there.

 

[Chimera]

@CStewartNews


Here is the security video of Sudiksha and Joshua Riibe who has reportedly been named a “person of interest” in her disappearance…no charges have been filed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1899833016202952882

University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki disappeared while on spring break in Punta Cana last week. She was last seen in the early morning hours of Wednesday morning. Brand new surveillance footage shows her final moments before she was reported missing. Law&Crime’s Chris Stewart has the brand new updates on this episode of On the Case.

Bbm.
Thanks for linking this, @arielilane .
Somewhat strong words coming from LE; who at this time say he's not a suspect.
I'd imagine they still need to know more from him ?

I still have some questions about the length of time it took JR to report her missing--as he was the only one with her last, but maybe that's due to him thinking she'd gone back to her room ?
Generally LE will focus on anyone who last saw the missing person.

If there's any chance he really thought she'd drowned or was carried alive out to sea with a riptide, wouldn't he have flagged someone down on the beach if anyone was there, or used his phone ?
Even if initially drunk, by the time he walked back to his resort room he might have started to sober up.
Omo.

 

[Chimera]

I think he probably passed out that long if he was as drunk as he appears. The kind of drunk where every time you open your eyes you

We don’t know if he tried calling her phone either or did go to their room and they were on the excursion

Most likely LE are looking at JR's phone/texts.
His story may be legit ... but it's part of this investigation & if he saw nothing/did nothing -- he was still the last to see her so he's prob. not surprised LE are checking his account out.
Afaik he's free to leave the country.
Wonder if he's lawyered up just in case, though ?
Imo.

 

[branmuffin]

I found this tide chart and saw that the low tide for today was around midnight and high tide was at 9:16 am. I don't know much about tides and how much of a difference in tides woukd be needed to wash away a person. Could SK have passed out/fallen asleep at the edge of the beach and have been washed out to sea before she could have woken up? As unlikely as this seems for a possible scenario, I'm just throwing this out there. Get Punta Cana tide times

When you look at the tide chart that Otto provided it looks like the stronger current moves east from where the hotel is located and depending on the wind and wave strength she may never be found or her remains might end up in Puerto Rico's north shore. Depending how close she was to the beach a smaller current might move her remains more northwest of the Riu Republica.

 

[Spartygirl]

What was he doing from 5:55 to 9:55am?

My thoughts exactly !!

 

[armchairagatha]

Most likely LE are looking at JR's phone/texts.
His story may be legit ... but it's part of this investigation & if he saw nothing/did nothing -- he was still the last to see her so he's prob. not surprised LE are checking his account out.
Afaik he's free to leave the country.
Wonder if he's lawyered up just in case, though ?
Imo.

If this happened unpremeditated, as is most likely, there won’t be anything on his phone. My point is - if her body washes up to shore in a week, they probably still won’t be able to say definitively if she drowned on her own or was pushed into the water and drowned. Only if she was killed before being dumped in the water, they will be able to tell. So most likely, they have no case against him. This was a spur of the moment thing. They won’t find anything on his phone. JMO.

 

[whitelilac]

Bbm.
Thanks for linking this, @arielilane .
Somewhat strong words coming from LE; who at this time say he's not a suspect.
I'd imagine they still need to know more from him ?

I still have some questions about the length of time it took JR to report her missing--as he was the only one with her last, but maybe that's due to him thinking she'd gone back to her room ?
Generally LE will focus on anyone who last saw the missing person.

If there's any chance he really thought she'd drowned or was carried alive out to sea with a riptide, wouldn't he have flagged someone down on the beach if anyone was there, or used his phone ?
Even if initially drunk, by the time he walked back to his resort room he might have started to sober up.
Omo.

Thing is that most people, and the majority of young people, don't even consider or imagine something horrible could have happened. I'm the opposite, always on alert for worst case scenarios, and the reason I remain anxious when my daughter is out trekking in the wilderness with no service.
But generally people don't think like this.

This fellow could have passed out as he stated, found himself alone, went back to his room, probably slept some more and figured Sudiksha did the same.

Same with the ocean. If you don't live near the ocean and are familiar with its dangers, you are likely oblivious to those dangers.

 

[branmuffin]

Yes and the friends didn’t report her missing until 4pm on return from a scheduled trip. Didnt they think to text/physically check on her on rising given they left her at the beach with unknown male?
What happened to girl code JMO

When I think of girl code I think of women who are sober before they go out and hopefully remain so and agree that they arrive and leave together no matter what. Phone numbers can be exchanged, etc. but nobody leaves with a stranger. That code can get broken pretty quickly when one of them is extremely drunk and can't listen to reason. Judging by the security cams SK was extremely drunk and the other two weren't. That is just speculation though. The friends haven't said they wanted her to leave with them. They might have been drinking too but gave no physical evidence they were so inebriated they couldn't walk without someone holding them up. Nobody likes to argue with a drunk person and depending on how many times they'd met the person SK was with may have felt comfortable enough to leave their friend alone him. Ninety nine times out of a hundred that's usually correct but there's always the one percent. I'm sure they feel extremely guilty for leaving their friend. I am not ready to think this guy is somehow responsible for SK's disappearance without further proof. He may be guilty as sin but we don't arrest people based on suspicion. His life may already be destroyed by this tragedy even though he had nothing to do with it.

 

[flowershop]

Private Investigator Steve Fisher is interviewed. Around 13:27 he says that if a deceased person is taken out to the ocean by a rip current the deceased person does not necessarily return to shore. He explains that the person, once drowned, sinks to the bottom for a few days. Then the body resurfaces.