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The FBI has joined the Dominican Republic police in search of a 20-year-old US student who went missing nearly a week ago while on spring break.
Sudiksha Konanki, University of Pittsburgh student, was reported missing in the Dominican Republic tourist town of Punta Cana, police said Tuesday.
Luis Abinader, President of the Dominican Republic, told reporters that he lamented the situation.
“We are concerned,” he said Monday during his weekly meeting with the press. “All government agencies are searching … because the latest information we have from one of them, from the last person who was with the young woman, what he says according to the reports is that a wave, while on the beach, crashed into them.”
Abinader noted that the Dominican Republic receives more than 11 million visitors a year and that issues rarely arise.
Dominican police re-interviewing people who were with Konanki before she vanished in the predawn hours of March 6 at a beach in front of the Riu República Hotel.
Konanki, a citizen of India, is a U.S. permanent resident from Chantilly, Virginia, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
Her parents, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi, flew to Punta Cana after she was reported missing and have asked authorities to widen the investigation.
Her father said she and five other female university students traveled to the Dominican Republic on March 3.
NBC4i contributed to this article.
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