The last person who saw the student of the University of Pittsburgh, Sudiksha Konanki, before she disappeared into the Dominican Republic, had his passport taken over by investigators.
The authorities in the Caribbean country have confiscated the travel documents from Joshua Ribe, while according to the NBC News, they continue to investigate Konankis.
On Sunday morning, according to the outlet, Ribe was seen with investigators, his father and a lawyer on the beach. Riibe reported on the ocean, while the security kept everyone else away from the location.
The 22-year-old has been “limited to the hotel since the beginning of the investigation” and has a permanent police officer, said his lawyers NBC News.
“He is not free to go,” said his lawyers, with his pass being confiscated on Friday.
Konanki was last seen on March 6 with Ribe on the beach near the Riu Hotel & Resort. He informed the investigators that he pulled them out of the dangerous water before losing them in the dark.
“I’m just trying to help you,” he said to NBC News in his hotel. “The ocean is a dangerous place.”
Konanki, a 20-year-old Pre-Med student, was last entered a beach on March 6th at 4:15 a.m., while during the spring holidays in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, he had vacationed with five female college friends.
After her friends returned to her hotel room shortly before 6 a.m., Konanki remained on the beach with Ribe – a former high school wrestler from Iowa. It is not immediately clear whether or how the couple knew before they met on the Caribbean island.
He told the police that he entered Konanki, and the two kissed into the water before a large wave rose, according to an interview transcript received from NBC News.
“I kept trying to make them breathe, but that didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water,” he said. He also told the investigators that he used to work as a lifeguard.
The Sheriff’s Office in Loudon County, Virginia, where Konanki’s family lifes, described Ribe as a “person of interest” and sent detectives to support.
