The parents of American Joshua Riibe have hit out at authorities in the Dominican Republic for ‘detaining’ their son under ‘irregular conditions’ as the hunt for missing spring breaker Sudiksha Konanki enters its second week.
The 22-year-old college student was the last person to see University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha alive at the five-star Riu Republica resort in Punta Cana in the early hours of March 6.
He has not been named a suspect nor a person of interest in the Dominican Republic, and is legally free to fly back to the US whenever he wants.
But Riibe remains holed up in a private corner of the sprawling party complex – a virtual prisoner in paradise – while he continues to cooperate with police and search agencies.
In a lengthy statement shared with DailyMail.com on Friday, parents Albert and Tina Riibe expressed their ‘deep sorrow and solidarity’ with Sudiksha’s family and said their son is ‘deeply dismayed’ by her disappearance.
They also revealed they have now retained legal counsel after learning Joshua had been subjected to extensive questioning and placed under police surveillance since last week.
‘We express our deep sorrow and solidarity with the family of Sudiksha Konanski during this painful time. Above all, we wish to contribute to the search efforts and understand the anguish and uncertainty they are going through and we share the hope that Sudiksha will be found as soon as possible,’ the letter states.
‘Joshua Riibe is deeply dismayed by her disappearance and has fully cooperated in the search and clarification of the facts from the very beginning.’
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, disappeared from a five-star resort in Punta Cana on Thursday while on Spring Break from the University of Pittsburgh
The surveillance video footage showed Riibe and Sudiksha together the night she vanished. When DailyMail.com found him in the hotel he said: ‘I’m sorry, I can’t say anything, not right now’
They added: ‘Despite his full willingness to cooperate, Josh has been detained under irregular conditions and subjected to extensive questioning without the presence of official translators or legal counsel until Wednesday, March 12.
‘He has remained in his hotel room under police surveillance and has been repeatedly taken to the police station since March 6, where he has been interrogated for long hours. This situation has raised serious concern within his family, which has led us to retain legal counsel to initiate legal actions ensuring his safety and the protection of his rights throughout this process.’
Konanki’s Venmo payments emerged earlier on Friday, revealing her final movements before she vanished from a resort in the Dominican Republic.
Her transactions show she made two payments to an unspecified user on the app on March 5 – hours before she disappeared from the five-star Riu Republica hotel in Punta Cana.
Venmo allows users to send money or request it from anyone else who has the app with a few simple taps.
The first transaction was made at 2:54pm to an unnamed ‘new user,’ and Konanki used a sailboat emoji to describe it.
The second was made at 3:38pm and the description was Coco Bongo, which is a renowned nightclub in Punta Cana, as first reported by The US Sun.
It was to Ananya Chilakamarri, one of the students on the trip. There’s no suggestion of any wrongdoing on Chilakamarri’s part.
The 24-year-old said he was able to make it to shore, but claims Sudiksha was still wading in the water when he last saw her
Joshua Riibe, 24, was seen on camera with University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha in the early hours of March 6
Investigators continue to search for the the University of Pittsburgh student from Virginia who vanished while visiting the Caribbean with five other people during spring break from classes.
Riibe, who last seen with her, has reportedly claimed he saved her from drowning after they kissed in the water at the beach.
The former high school wrestling champ has not been named a suspect or a person of interest in the case, and is legally free to fly back to the US whenever he wants.
Konanki’s week-long disappearance has baffled officials and prompted cries from her parents to widen the frantic search for the pre-med student.
The complete transcript from Riibe’s police interview has now emerged, detailing his final moments with Konanki and the chaotic aftermath to her mystery disappearance.
But he refused to answer several critical questions, remaining silent when cops asked if Konanki could swim, if she cried for help and what he confided in friend after the tragic night.
Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, claimed he had only just met the young woman when they decided to head to the beach, according to the transcript of his interview obtained by Noticias SIN.
He revealed they had kissed in the ocean before they almost got swept away by a wave. He said he saved her from drowning while almost losing consciousness.
‘We were in waist-deep water. We talked and kissed a bit,’ Riibe said. ‘A big wave came and hit us both. And when the water returned, it swept us out to sea. As soon as we were able to surface, we tried to call for help.’
He explained that he previously worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool and tried to bring them both to safety when he started to feel sick.
‘I was getting tired. I realized she was getting tired of swimming too. I’ve been a lifeguard. I grabbed her and pulled her out. I held her under my arm and swam to get her out of the water,’ Riibe said.
‘It took me a long time to get her out. It was difficult. I was a lifeguard in a pool, not at sea. I was trying to get her to breathe the whole time. That didn’t let me breathe the whole time and I swallowed a lot of water. I could have lost consciousness several times.’
The 24-year-old said he was able to make it to shore, but claims Sudiksha was still wading in the water when he last saw her.
‘When I finally reached the ground on the beach, I held her in front of me. She wasn’t out of the water, she was knee-deep and walking at an angle out the water,’ he said.
‘The last time I saw her, I asked if she was okay. I didn’t hear her reply because I started vomiting all the water I had swallowed. After vomiting, I looked around. I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left.’
He told investigators that he then passed out on the beach and did not hearing anything about Sudiksha until the next day when her friends texted his friend.
‘I felt really bad and tired. I laid down on a beach chair. I fell asleep because I couldn’t go far,’ Riibe said.
‘Then I woke up because of the sun and because mosquitoes were biting me. I went to my friend’s room to get my phone and then went back to my room to sleep.’
Riibe’s distraught family said the former high school athlete ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Josh and his dad, who flew in this week to support his son, have also been in communication with Sudiksha’s distraught Indian immigrant parents Subbarayudu and Sreedevi, DailyMail.com previously revealed.
Riibe was seen on hotel CCTV with his arm draped around Sudiksha as they headed to the resort’s beach around 4am last Thursday.
The cameras spotted him walking back alone at 9.55am. Sudiksha’s pals reported her missing at around 4pm.
The ‘adults only’ Riu Republica was still teeming with cops, soldiers and officials Thursday as the hunt for pre-med student Sudiksha entered a second week.
Drones, divers, sniffer dogs and hundreds of officers have been deployed in one of the biggest searches in the history of the Dominican Republic, assisted by the FBI and Interpol, which issued a ‘yellow notice’ – a global missing person alert – for the Chantilly, Virginia resident.
Government officials revealed Thursday that the search will carry on at full intensity through at least Sunday, according to Noticias SIN.
Searches are typically stood down after ten days but it could last for as long as six months in a scaled down capacity, the Dominican outlet reported.
