A Dominican senator desperate to retain tourism said that missing American student Sudiksha Konanki had it coming when she vanished in a shocking on-air rant.
Sudiksha Konanki vanished in the early hours of March 6, sparking a frantic search and investigation in and around the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana where she had been staying in with five girlfriends.
The 20-year-old is believed to have entered the ocean with a man she met on the trip. He came ashore because of the dangerous conditions and passed out on the beach, but Sudiksha has not been seen since.
While police initially said she likely drowned, they have now admitted that her death may not have been an accident.
After a week, her remains have still not washed up, sparking desperate pleas from her family to consider all other options.
They are now considering the possibility that foul play have been involved.
But Ginnette Bournigal, a senator of Puerto Plata and the president of the Senate Tourism Commission, was convinced it was a drowning when she spoke.
‘There was obviously a red flag on the beach. What were those young people looking for with a red flag at four in the morning on the beach? A red flag means everywhere, the world knows this: don’t go to the beach.’
Bournigal, speaking on Wednesday in an interview with Su Mundo TV, shockingly added: ‘Here we are magnifying something that happened.’
Sudiksha Konanki vanished in the early hours of March 6, sparking a frantic search and investigation in and around the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana where she had been staying in with five girlfriends
Ginnette Bournigal, a senator of Puerto Plata and the president of the Senate Tourism Commission, said Konanki and her friends should have known better
DailyMail.com accompanied officers from the National Police as they trawled a four kilometer (2.5 miles) stretch of coast by motorboat Tuesday afternoon to search for any signs of her
She went on to criticize media outlets reporting Konanki’s disappearance, insisting they are instead ‘trying to discredit the destination.
‘We have many enemies, and any little thing that happens here – how many people, how many things haven’t happened to tourists in different parts of the world?’
In a direct plea to social media networks in the Dominican Republic, Bournigal warned them to ‘be careful’ about what they are posting.
‘Be careful with that. Be careful. Let’s all be careful. The Dominican Republic, today, it’s a safe island.
‘It’s a part, a shining point in the entire Caribbean, in Latin America, that we cannot neglect, that we have to provide love and care for.’
A 300-strong search team utilizing drones, sniffer dogs and Navy divers scoured the tropical playground for a fifth day without finding any trace of the University of Pittsburgh student.
‘We won’t stop working. We are doing everything in our power to find her,’ vowed Colonel Diego Pesqueira, spokesman for the National Police.
Konanki’s disappearance had reportedly coincided with a power outage that knocked out AC units and prompted multiple guests to head out to the beach to escape the stifling heat, according to Dominican media.
Surveillance video footage obtained by Dominican Republic news outlet Noticias SIN showed Joshua Riibe (left) and Sudiksha Konanki (second from left) following their friends to the beach at the Riu Republica Hotel before Konanki disappeared March 6
Military personnel search for Sudiksha Konanki through dense vegetation
The mystery hunk seen with his arm draped around missing spring breaker Sudiksha Konanki on the morning she vanished has been named by police sources as American Joshua Steven Riibe
Sudiksha Konanki, who was a pre-med student at the University of Pittsburgh, vanished from the Riu Republica resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on March 6
But Bournigal denied that too, saying security footage appeared to show there was no such outage at the resort.
‘It’s four days, and if she was in water, she would likely have been strewn to shore,’ her father Subbarayudu Konanki said in a complaint urging authorities to consider other lines of inquiry until and unless her body washes ashore.
‘She’s not found, so we’re asking them to investigate multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.’
The complaint states: ‘While it is possible that Sudiksha drowned, there is a growing suspicion that there may be a crime, specifically the possibility of kidnapping.’
The pre-med student was expected to graduate from the university in 2026, according to her LinkedIn profile.
‘My daughter is a very nice girl. She’s ambitious,’ her father said. ‘She wanted to pursue a career in medicine.’
Konanki was last seen with Joshua Riibe, a 24-year-old Iowa man who was a fellow guest at the resort. He is cooperating with authorities.
