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A search is on for a University of Pittsburgh student who went missing while on a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic.
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, a citizen of India and a U.S. resident who lives with her family in Virginia, was traveling with five other female students from her college in Punta Cana last week when she disappeared.
She was reported missing March 6 and appears to have vanished between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. that morning, a Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told NBC News, adding that authorities are looking at all possibilities.
“Right now it runs the gamut from something accidental to foul play,” the spokesperson said. “It is all at this point under consideration. Nothing’s been ruled out.”
Sheriff Michael Chapman told NBC News that on the morning of her disappearance, Konanki went to the beach with friends and that they returned, but she did not.
The embassy of India in the Dominican Republic has taken the lead working with the U.S. State Department and local law enforcement on the ground, the office’s spokesperson added.
Local government-funded agency Defensa Civil Dominicana said Konanki disappeared early March 6 while walking on a beach in the province of Altagracia and that search and rescue efforts, which includes the use of drones, helicopters, boats, divers and canine units, were ongoing, news channel Telenoticias reported March 9.
The other students who traveled with Konanki have stayed behind to aid in the search instead of returning to the United States as scheduled, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said. Konanki’s parents have also traveled from Virginia to the Dominican Republic, according to Pittsburgh TV station WTAE.
Facebook / Sudiksha Konanki
Konanki is 5 feet, 3 inches tall, has black hair and brown eyes and was last seen in the early hours wearing a brown bikini, big round earrings, a metal designer anklet and several bracelets, according to a flyer circulating on social media and posted by Dominican Today, a local English-language news outlet.
The student was staying at the Riu República hotel before she went missing. “We have been working closely with local authorities, including the Police and Navy,” the Riu Hotels & Resorts hotel chain said in a statement to Dominican Today, “to carry out a thorough search.”
The University of Pittsburgh said it is in contact with the Konanki’s family as well as authorities in Loudoun County, Virginia. “We have offered our full support in their efforts to find her,” a spokesperson told NBC News, “and bring her home safely.”
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