CNN
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New data has revealed that different individuals have been on the seaside when US faculty pupil Sudiksha Konanki went lacking within the Dominican Republic, legislation enforcement officers helping within the investigation informed CNN, because the search goes into its seventh day.
The 20-year-old College of Pittsburgh pupil vanished on the seaside of the Riu República Lodge in Punta Cana early on March 6, sparking a frantic search by air, sea and land, involving authorities from the US, the Dominican Republic and India, the place Konanki’s household is initially from.
Video proof factors to extra individuals being on the seaside across the time Konanki went lacking, past a younger man who’d informed police he’d been along with her there, the legislation enforcement officers helping with the probe stated. Investigators try to establish these individuals whereas asking that they arrive ahead with any details about Konanki.
CNN has not seen the footage.
As a result of different individuals have been across the seaside early on March 6, with out discovering a physique authorities should permit for the chance Konanki might have encountered a number of of them.
Dominican officers had beforehand stated they have been investigating Konanki’s disappearance as a drowning. However the normal prosecutor’s workplace stated Wednesday officers are additionally investigating whether or not Konanki’s disappearance might prolong “past a attainable unintended occasion.”
Konanki, who’s from Loudoun County, Virginia, traveled to Punta Cana with 5 feminine mates from her faculty. The ladies had been ingesting within the lodge’s foyer early on March 6 earlier than surveillance cameras captured them coming into the lodge seaside together with two males round 4:15 a.m., in keeping with a legislation enforcement supply and police statements.
Cameras later captured 5 girls and one man leaving the seaside round 4:55 a.m. – however Konanki seems to have stayed behind with a person in his 20s, sources informed CNN. The surveillance cameras recorded the person leaving the seaside simply earlier than 9 a.m., however Konanki was nowhere to be seen.
Konanki’s sarong-style cover-up was discovered on a lounge chair on the seaside, however there have been no indicators of violence, a supply accustomed to the investigation informed CNN.
In his interviews with police, the younger man, who’s the final identified particular person to have been with Konanki earlier than she vanished, recalled going within the water, feeling ailing, popping out of the water and laying down on the seaside, whereas seeing Konanki nonetheless standing about ankle deep within the sea, a number of legislation enforcement officers helping with the investigation informed CNN. The person’s subsequent recollection was waking up and leaving the seaside hours later, they stated.
The person is cooperating with the investigation, and police usually are not contemplating him a suspect.
The evening Konanki disappeared, sea circumstances have been harmful with excessive waves, Agustín Morillo Rodríguez, normal commander of the Dominican Republic navy, informed CNN Wednesday.
Konanki’s disappearance comes almost two months after 4 vacationers drowned in Punta Cana on the identical seaside the place Konanki was final seen, in keeping with the Dominican Republic’s civil protection company. Robust currents swept the vacationers off the Enviornment Gorda seaside, the place the Riu República Lodge is situated, the civil protection company stated on January 18 in a Fb submit.
On Wednesday, the nation’s normal prosecutor, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, stated investigators have been “making use of a holistic investigation protocol that examines all variables” in Konanki’s disappearance, “as with all disappearance below the circumstances of the case at hand.”
Konanki’s household and Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman have urged authorities to think about different avenues.
Konanki’s mother and father, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi Konanki, returned to Virginia this week after flying to Punta Cana with two household mates, in keeping with Chapman. Subbarayudu, Konanki’s father, has requested authorities to widen the investigation.
The daddy’s formal request notes that the coed’s belongings, together with her cellphone and pockets, have been left along with her mates, “which is uncommon as a result of she all the time carried her cellphone along with her,” he wrote within the report, in keeping with radio station WTOP, as reported by the AP. It’s unclear the place this data got here from.
Subbarayudu informed CNN earlier he desires native authorities “to additionally examine different prospects together with whether or not it is a case of kidnapping or human trafficking.”
CNN’s Chris Boyette and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report
