New surveillance footage of Sudiksha Konanki shows the missing college student just before she vanished during her spring break trip.
Konanki, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student, went missing on Thursday, March 6, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, while on spring break with friends.
In a new video, taken at 4:15 a.m. local time on March 6, Konanki is seen leaving the RIU Hotels and Resorts lobby with three other people. She is arm-in-arm with a man while two women trail behind them as they exit the building, CNN reports.
The Dominican Republic National Police previously stated that surveillance cameras captured footage of Sudiksha and “the young foreigners who accompanied her” about “a few meters from entering the beach area” around 4:15 a.m.
The Loudon County Sheriff’s Office said that before her disappearance, Sudkisha was reportedly with five female college friends at a resort. Meanwhile, her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, told CNN that his daughter went to the beach on March 6 “with friends and some other guys they met at the resort.”
Subbarayudu told CNN that “her friends came back after some time and my daughter did not come back, did not show up from the beach.” Additionally, two police sources told ABC News that the other women who were with Sudiksha returned to their hotel around 5:55 a.m.
Sudiksha is believed to have stayed behind with a man, according to a local police source, per CNN. Surveillance footage captures the man leaving the beach around 9:55 a.m., but Sudiksha was nowhere to be seen.
The Dominican Republic National Police said in its March 9 statement that the young man who was with Sudiksha when she entered the beach “is under investigation.”
Authorities said they were interviewing several people, “mainly the companions of the missing young woman, whose names are being withheld, in order to establish the exact location of the maritime search and its surroundings.”
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Sudkisha’s father told WTOP-FM on Monday, March 10, that “it’s [been] four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore.” Adding, “She’s not found, so we’re asking them to investigate multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.”
Sources close to the investigation told ABC News that Sudkisha’s clothes were found on the beach where she went missing.
Authorities have used drones, helicopters and detection dogs to search the waters near the area she was last seen, Jensen Sánchez, a Civil Defense spokesman, told The Associated Press on Tuesday, March 11.
“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,” he said. Sánchez said it could take over a week for a body to surface in warm waters.
Since the initial report, U.S. and local law enforcement have been investigating the missing persons case. The FBI and U.S. Embassy International Liaison have joined in the investigation, per Tuesday, March 11 reports. The Embassy of India in the Dominican Republic is also involved. Sudiksha is a citizen of India and a permanent resident of Chantilly, Va.
Although the investigation is underway, no one has been charged or accused of a crime.
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