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

[cocomonkey]

The use of the word "young" might be an instance where the translator used a literal word equivalent instead of a context word equivalant.

The Spanish word 'joven / jovena' literally means "young" in English. But..... in context, it is probably closer to the English word "youth".

Thus, it can apply to a broad range of people from say, 14-22 or so, depending on the speaker. For example: The youths / jovenes went to the rock concert.

In defense of translators, a near 100% translation of a conversation can be very difficult and usually requires somebody who bilingual and also bi cultural. Such a person might not be available to the police at this moment.

For example, I have a learned fluency in Spanish. Once on this forum, myself and a Hispanic forum member translated portions of a badly written manifesto by a Mexican murder suspect.

My translation of one mangled sentence was: "I went to see XXXX. "XXXX" was an unusual last name. Ok, I thought- The suspect suddenly went to see somebody with a weird last name- seems out of context.

Hispanic's cultural translation: "I just went "Rambo". "

My translation was not bad- well, in the technical sense. Hers, however was accurate in the cultural sense. There was a big difference.

My husband is a native Spanish speaker but has been speaking English for the past 50 years. So often when we have his relatives visit he tries to translate but he obviously has difficulty in choosing the right words. Sometimes he just says, "it doesn't sound right in English."

 

[cocomonkey]

IMO - I

IMO - So if her friends had her phone, they should have at least waited for her to get out of the water & return her phone to her before leaving themselves. This is where I’m confused, who leaves their drunk friend at a beach with a drunk guy she just met & takes her phone with them & leaves? The guy is probably also on holiday, drinking, meets a cute girl, they kiss & spend time together but I find him far less responsible than her actual friends who should not have left that beach with her phone. MOO

Drunk people might leave their drunk friend. OMG were you never young and foolish. When I think back I am so lucky to be alive for all the rookie errors I made, including late night dips in the ocean where the water was known to have frequent shark visits. Alcohol and responsible behaviour do not go hand in hand.

 

[Himako14]

one thing that is bothering me as I read this over- they always tell you that if you get caught in a rip tide, do not directly fight it. swim parallel and try to go to shore outside the rip. so neither of them knew that? (given they were so drunk, that they might have known nothing when this was happening and were just panicking, but...)

They may not have known where the shore was, especially if they were drunk and it was dark out.

 

[scriabina]

The guy was blackout drunk which means his coordination and "fight or flight" response were severely impaired. Despite his lifeguard experience, I doubt he would be able to have the mental and physical fortitude in his drunken state to swim through the heavy current and back to shore carrying a full-grown woman. It would be hard enough just to save himself.

Perhaps I missed this being discussed earlier, but I found a few things interesting in his most recent quote:

"[Sudiksha] and I kissed. A big wave came and hit us both, and with the rising water, it swept us out to sea. As soon as we were able to surface, we tried to call for help, but there was no one there."

I had not heard until now that they called for help and that no one was there.

The witness said he acted as a lifeguard and "grabbed her and pulled her out" and got them back to the shore.

"Then she went to gather her belongings, since the sea had moved us. She wasn't out of the water, as it was up to our knees. She was walking at an angle in the water," he said. "The last time I saw her, I asked if she was okay. I didn't hear her answer because I started vomiting all the seawater I'd swallowed."

Source

According to his own account, she appeared to be well and confident enough to prioritize gathering her belongings and even going back in the water, so perhaps their scary ordeal wasn't actually that life-threatening after all. Maybe a smallish wave knocked them over and they bounced back pretty quickly. Had the event gone as he described -- being swept out to sea by a big wave that required him to go into lifeguard mode and rescue the victim; swallowing so much seawater that he vomited -- it doesn't make sense that SK would be apparently unaffected and well enough to gather up belongings. She didn't even have anything of value (like her phone) with her. Would she really risk her life again to splash around in the ocean looking for a dirty shirt?

He said that was the last time he saw Sudiksha. "I thought she'd grabbed her things and left," the witness said. "After I saw her walk away, as she walked in the water, I never saw her again."

So he describes a near-death experience that exhausted him so much that he vomited and passed out while SK was well enough to "grab her things" and "walk away" in the water? The timing of his blackout is very (in)convenient. Moreover, if they really just survived a near-death experience together where he risked his life to save her, and if he really was unable to confirm that she was okay (beyond a glimpse of her walking in the ocean) before he blacked out, it's very odd that he didn't show any curiosity or care for her well-being when he awakened.

I simply don't buy the rescue story.

 

[mickey2942]

I am so sorry this happened. It is a terrible loss for her family.

@scriabina I agree with most of what you wrote. And I am surprised that she didn't stay with her friends. There seems to be a lot missing in the information. Or things that are unsaid. Unfortunately.

 

[mickey2942]

Drunk people might leave their drunk friend. OMG were you never young and foolish. When I think back I am so lucky to be alive for all the rookie errors I made, including late night dips in the ocean where the water was known to have frequent shark visits. Alcohol and responsible behaviour do not go hand in hand.

Truer words have never been spoken. There for the grace of god...

I definitely did a lot of crazy things. Sometimes, it is just luck. Or unlucky.

 

[Warwick7]

They may not have known where the shore was, especially if they were drunk and it was dark out.

Yes true.
But if it was dark, how did he see her walking knee high back in the water?

 

[KooshBall]

I don't believe anything sinister happened. I believe this is yet another case of alcohol mixed with a body of water, leading to tragedy.

I was a smart "good girl" but hooked up with a guy in the middle of the night on a beach in the Bahamas, in my early 20s. I was on my first vacation without my parents and drank a lot. I only remembered small moments of the night the next day. We were far up on the beach, away from the water. I don't know how long we were there but I remember suddenly being surrounded by water as the tide came all the way up to where we were. His shoes got pulled into the ocean and as he went after them, I grabbed my stuff and took off for my hotel room, doing the walk of shame. If he had drowned after I left, I don't think I would have been responsible. We were both consenting adults and made the decision to drink and then go out to the beach in the middle of the night. People do stupid things when they drink, they often don't even remember what took place. Brains still aren't fully developed in the early 20s so you can't expect young adults to always do the right thing, fully understand consequences, and add alcohol into the mix and you end up with tragic accidents. MOO

 

[scriabina]

People do stupid things when they drink, they often don't even remember what took place.

True. Still, I found it notable the level of detail he provided for his rescue efforts and the timing when he blacked out and remembered nothing. For example, he even recalled that AK was "walking at an angle in the water," which I thought was an interesting detail to include.

 

[katydid23]

[…]

Riibe said Konanki was walking "knee-deep" in the water when he last saw her.

"I asked if she was okay. I didn’t hear her response because I started vomiting all the seawater I had swallowed," Riibe said. "After vomiting, I looked around and didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left. I felt really bad and exhausted. I lay down on a beach chair, fell asleep because I couldn’t go very far, and later woke up because of the sun and mosquito bites. I went to my friend’s room to get my phone, then went to my own room to sleep."

Riibe also told police he "expected to see her the next day" and thought he would "run into her around the area."

Riibe said he was sleeping in his room when his friend asked him if he had seen Konanki, to which Riibe replied no.

"I thought she had gone to her room," he allegedly told police. "Her friends texted my friend since he had one of their numbers."

The Iowa man said his friends went to the beach the next day and found his "belongings" because he "never picked them up," other than a pair of shoes and a room key that he said "someone had stolen."

[…]

Key witness in American college student's disappearance tells police how they met, what happened on beach

Key witness in missing American college student Sudiksha Konanki's disappearance in the Dominican Republic says they were hit by a big wave before she vanished.

www.yahoo.com

What about HER things? His were still there but what about hers?
ETA---I just saw that they found her things on the beach. That worries me a lot.

 

[katydid23]

"Then it's possible too that she wanted to gather her clothes and just get out of there, but personally that would not be my reaction." <Snipped from the above>
This was obviously not her reaction. Her clothes (or wrap) were left where they were and she didn't get out of there back to the resort.

Her not getting her dry clothes and flip flops really worries me. I'd think she'd grab them if she was heading back to her room. Makes me think she never made it out of the water.

 

[Rita7]

I guess, it would be helpful to know does JR have any warning signs on his background check:
was he in a situation with the police or involved in any domestic disturbance back home, etc.

 

[Karin1974]

Drunk people might leave their drunk friend. OMG were you never young and foolish. When I think back I am so lucky to be alive for all the rookie errors I made, including late night dips in the ocean where the water was known to have frequent shark visits. Alcohol and responsible behaviour do not go hand in hand.

IMO - There is no need for a personal attack & yes I was once young, however, I wasn’t foolish & I never put myself in dangerous circumstances. MOO

 

[katydid23]

After pondering this confusing situation, this is what makes the most sense to me now. I think they were both too drunk to be in 5 to 6 foot waves. They were having fun until suddenly they weren't.

I think he probably did try to help her when they both got dragged out into deeper turbulence----but when he got into sudden trouble he had to focus on himself and he lost track of her. He is probably ashamed and embarrassed that she likely drowned under his watch. But I do think that is most likely what happened.

I don't think he was forcing himself on her , I think it was just a dangerous natural disaster.

The video shows him with his arm around her but she has her arm around his waist and she looks happy with that situation. I think they were both willingly enjoying each other's company and made a very bad choice to wade deeper into the water.

 

[scriabina]

I think he probably did try to help her when they both got dragged out into deeper turbulence----but when he got into sudden trouble he had to focus on himself and he lost track of her. He is probably ashamed and embarrassed that she likely drowned under his watch. But I do think that is most likely what happened.

This could be it. Only thing is, would he risk lying to police just to avoid admitting something he found embarrassing? If he told his lawyers the truth (which seems like it would be the smart thing to do!), wouldn't the lawyers advise him to confess to exaggerating the story? Also, if he killed her, wouldn't it be so much easier to just say, "We were hit by a wave and got pulled into the sea. I made it out and tried to help her, but she slipped away, and I never saw her again" instead of crafting this complicated & strange tale? It's all so befuddling.

 

[truthfinder2019]

Yes true.
But if it was dark, how did he see her walking knee high back in the water?

I checked the moon phases and on 6 March in Punta Cana DR the moon was only at its first quarter, so we cannot even explain some moonlight from a full moon which occured on 14 March

Moon Phases 2025 – Lunar Calendar for Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

The Moon phase calculator shows exact times of the various moon phases for Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in year 2025 or in other locations and years.

www.timeanddate.com

Another witness said it was “pitch black” on the beach (see my post upthread).
There was some light in the alleys though as the power outage did not affect the whole resort.

The sea temperature on 5-6 March was around 81F (27C) which is pretty high. The high tide was at 4:56 am on March 6

Punta Cana tides schedule for 10 days | High & Low Times

Chart and tables of tides in Punta Cana for today and the coming days

seatemperature.info

IMO comments in tripadvisor for this resort are pretty interesting, including beach safety.

 

[FromGermany1]

The guy was blackout drunk which means his coordination and "fight or flight" response were severely impaired. Despite his lifeguard experience, I doubt he would be able to have the mental and physical fortitude in his drunken state to swim through the heavy current and back to shore carrying a full-grown woman. It would be hard enough just to save himself.

Perhaps I missed this being discussed earlier, but I found a few things interesting in his most recent quote:

"[Sudiksha] and I kissed. A big wave came and hit us both, and with the rising water, it swept us out to sea. As soon as we were able to surface, we tried to call for help, but there was no one there."

I had not heard until now that they called for help and that no one was there.

The witness said he acted as a lifeguard and "grabbed her and pulled her out" and got them back to the shore.

"Then she went to gather her belongings, since the sea had moved us. She wasn't out of the water, as it was up to our knees. She was walking at an angle in the water," he said. "The last time I saw her, I asked if she was okay. I didn't hear her answer because I started vomiting all the seawater I'd swallowed."

Source

According to his own account, she appeared to be well and confident enough to prioritize gathering her belongings and even going back in the water, so perhaps their scary ordeal wasn't actually that life-threatening after all. Maybe a smallish wave knocked them over and they bounced back pretty quickly. Had the event gone as he described -- being swept out to sea by a big wave that required him to go into lifeguard mode and rescue the victim; swallowing so much seawater that he vomited -- it doesn't make sense that SK would be apparently unaffected and well enough to gather up belongings. She didn't even have anything of value (like her phone) with her. Would she really risk her life again to splash around in the ocean looking for a dirty shirt?

He said that was the last time he saw Sudiksha. "I thought she'd grabbed her things and left," the witness said. "After I saw her walk away, as she walked in the water, I never saw her again."

So he describes a near-death experience that exhausted him so much that he vomited and passed out while SK was well enough to "grab her things" and "walk away" in the water? The timing of his blackout is very (in)convenient. Moreover, if they really just survived a near-death experience together where he risked his life to save her, and if he really was unable to confirm that she was okay (beyond a glimpse of her walking in the ocean) before he blacked out, it's very odd that he didn't show any curiosity or care for her well-being when he awakened.

I simply don't buy the rescue story.

bbm (font size 15)
This.

 

[Hexe]

The video shows him with his arm around her but she has her arm around his waist and she looks happy with that situation.

Interesting, because I see something different there. IMO she is holding his waist to stabilise him, because he, big, unsteady dude, is leaning on her with his weight, making her to lose her balance. And it is rather hard to tell if she is happy or not, because we can see her only from the back.

Anyway I found it suspicious that after near drowning and after fighting with waves, he, a strong, fit man, was so exhausted he blacked out while she was casually strolling around the beach like nothing happened.

Another issue I notice is the amount of details he provides in his statements. It is A LOT of details for a man that was first sloshed drunk and then exhausted to the point of blackout.

 

[cocomonkey]

Agree, his previous experience being a lifeguard means he was trained to save lives. Although the ocean is very different from a pool in Iowa.

As I see it, his biggest problem is telling the truth. If nothing nefarious was involved and SK drowned in the ocean. Creating a story that he rescued her and she was up and walking around after, creates a cloud of suspicion over him.

That detail he offered about putting her ahead or in front of him when he got her to shore, was really odd? Anyone else catch that?

IMO - There is no need for a personal attack & yes I was once young, however, I wasn’t foolish & I never put myself in dangerous circumstances. MOO

I'm so sorry, it wasn't meant to be a personal attack. I did act foolish when drunk and I did put myself in dangerous circumstances. When sober I am a completely different, straight laced, conservative and sensible person.
I really am sorry for offending you as it really wasn't the way I wanted it to come across.

 

[cocomonkey]

I don't believe anything sinister happened. I believe this is yet another case of alcohol mixed with a body of water, leading to tragedy.

I was a smart "good girl" but hooked up with a guy in the middle of the night on a beach in the Bahamas, in my early 20s. I was on my first vacation without my parents and drank a lot. I only remembered small moments of the night the next day. We were far up on the beach, away from the water. I don't know how long we were there but I remember suddenly being surrounded by water as the tide came all the way up to where we were. His shoes got pulled into the ocean and as he went after them, I grabbed my stuff and took off for my hotel room, doing the walk of shame. If he had drowned after I left, I don't think I would have been responsible. We were both consenting adults and made the decision to drink and then go out to the beach in the middle of the night. People do stupid things when they drink, they often don't even remember what took place. Brains still aren't fully developed in the early 20s so you can't expect young adults to always do the right thing, fully understand consequences, and add alcohol into the mix and you end up with tragic accidents. MOO

I agree and can see how your own story relates so closely. Thanks for sharing it. I can't believe how many people here really want this to be more sinister. Anyway, I'm with you on this one but maybe we are both wrong- who knows.