'We're all just worried': Pitt students on edge as classmate still missing in Dominican Republic

Students who returned to classes Monday at the University of Pittsburgh were talking about a classmate who wasn’t there: Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old student who went missing last week while on spring break in the Dominican Republic.

“These things can happen to anybody,” said Mackenzie Shearon, 19, of Cranberry.

A freshman, Shearon was sitting with friends Monday morning in the commons room of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning in Oakland.

Konanki, 20, of Loudoun County, Va., went to Punta Cana with five friends and was last seen about 4:50 a.m. Thursday, Dominican authorities said.

Authorities used drones, helicopters and detection dogs Monday to scour the waters off the island’s east coast where she supposedly was last seen, Civil Defense spokesman Jensen Sánchez told the Associated Press.

While Ria Gohel, a sophomore at Pitt, didn’t know Konanki personally, “We’re just all worried, and we’re hoping she makes it back,” she said.

Gohel, 20, of suburban Philadelphia, went to Miami for spring break this year because her parents were not comfortable with her traveling abroad.

There are risks with everything, said Liv Paoletti, 21, a Pitt senior from Princeton, N.J. She went skiing over spring break.

In Punta Cana, Sánchez said the search is “underway at sea because it’s presumed she drowned. According to the boy who was with her, the waves swept her away, but that is under police investigation.”

It can take more than a week for a body to surface in warm waters, he said.

Konanki’s parents traveled to the Dominican Republic and asked for a wide-ranging search for their daughter. They could not immediately be reached.

“It’s four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore,” her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told WTOP-FM, a radio station serving the Washington, D.C., area. “She’s not found, so we’re asking them to investigate multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.”

Subbarayudu Konanki and his wife, Sreedevi, flew to Punta Cana with two family friends. He and a family friend filed a record of complaint Sunday, asking authorities to widen the investigation.

The complaint notes that the student’s belongings, including her phone and wallet, were left with her friends, “which is unusual because she always carried her phone with her.”

“In light of these circumstances, I respectfully request that the authorities take immediate steps to investigate not only the possibility of an accidental drowning, but also the possibility of a kidnapping or foul play,” he wrote, according to WTOP-FM.

Sudiksha Konanki, a citizen of India, is a permanent U.S. resident from Chantilly, Va., according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, which is working with federal officials and university police in support of the Dominican National Police investigation. She was studying chemistry and biological sciences, according to Pitt’s website.

“It’s kind of a complex scenario,” Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman told TribLive.

U.S. authorities were doing everything in their power to assist the Dominican investigators, Chapman said.

“We’re still hoping that she’s found alive,” Chapman said. “We’re still working on that premise.”

The FBI and other U.S. agencies were assisting, but Chapman said he couldn’t divulge more information.

“We do have pretty great capabilities to do some important things” is the most Chapman could say. “We’re working feverishly to bring this to a successful conclusion.”

Pitt officials are in contact with the family and authorities and offered their support in the efforts to find Konanki, the school said in a statement.

Konanki and five other female students traveled to the Dominican Republic on March 3, according to her father.

“She wanted to have a nice break with her friends in Punta Cana,” he said.