PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – The State Department on Tuesday confirmed to Fox News Digital that it is supporting a witness who lost his disappearance from the Dominican Republic on March 6th by University of Pittsburgh student Suddixsha Konanki.
Conanki, 20, has been missing since she swam in the water with an eyewitness identified as 22-year-old Joshua Libe from Iowa outside the Riu Lepolika resort in Punta Cana after drinking at a hotel bar early on March 6th. She hasn’t found it yet.
“We take our commitment to supporting citizens abroad seriously and provide consul assistance,” the State Department said in a statement when asked about Monday’s submission of Libe’s habeas corpus. “Due to privacy considerations, there are no further comments.”
Conanki went to the beach with a group of seven other friends after drinking the night. Six of her friends returned to Riu Republica around 6am, and the 20-year-old student left Riibe with Riibe.
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Suddiksha Conanki, 20, from northern Virginia, was reported missing on Thursday, March 6 after disappearing from a beach in the Dominican Republic. (handouts, left, and Defensive Citizen Dominicana, right.)
The Libe, considered a witness to the loss of Conanki’s Firm, told Dominican authorities that while they were swimming, a huge wave crashed over them, according to a translated transcript to police that she shared with Fox News.
He says he tried to help her, and finally sees her walking through the deep waters of her knees. He then began vomiting the seawater, realizing that Conanki was no longer visible, and thought she had returned to her hotel room. Libe said he fell asleep in a chair on the beach before he finally returned to his room.
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Local authorities went missing Sudiksha Konanki in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Fox News Digital)
Hotel surveillance footage shows Riibe returned to his hotel room around 9am on March 6th.
Libe has been detained by Dominicans ever since, and filed a habeas-safe warrant on Monday, challenged his de facto detention. He is expected to have a hearing Tuesday that governs whether the judge will be able to return home, sources said.
Conanki’s parents, Subvarayudu and Sridevi Conanki, have not challenged Libe’s explanations about what happened, according to a letter sent to Dominican police on Monday. Her father had previously asked the police to investigate all the possibilities.
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Local authorities went missing Sudiksha Konanki in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, on Wednesday, March 11, 2025. (Santiago Baez from Fox News Digital)
“After a major search, Dominican authorities have concluded that Sudiksha is believed to have been drowned,” her parents wrote in a letter Monday night to the country’s national police, La Policia Nacional. “Her clothes were found on a beach near where she was last seen. She and the last individual she saw were working with the investigation and no evidence of foul play was found.”
They said they made the request after “many deliberations” and thanked their supporters for their international search efforts.
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After disappearing from the beach in Punta Cana on March 6, 2025, investigators expanded their search area as American university student Sudiksha Konanki remains missing. (Fox News Graphics)
The Loudoon County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, where Conanki is born, has issued a statement sharing her family’s belief that she owns.
“The final decision to make such a declaration depends on the authorities of the Dominican Republic, but we will support the Conanki family in every way to continue to review the evidence and information that has become available during the course of this investigation,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
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Libe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, has not been charged with the crime but is considered a key witness in the case, but has been monitored at the resort since Conanki was reported missing.
The beach lounger sat on the sand by the sea at the RIU Republica resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Conanki, 20, was last seen on March 6th on the beach outside the Dominican Republican 5-star RIU Ripolika resort. (Santiago Baez from Fox News Digital)
His family calls his continued presence in the country “irregular.”
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Libe has not been charged with a crime, but authorities confiscated his passport and investigated what happened.
A hearing on the habeas-protection petition is expected to take place Tuesday afternoon, sources say the timing could change.
