The Venmo transactions of the missing Pittsburg university student have shed light on her last known activities before she disappeared from a resort in the Dominican Republic. Sudiksha Konanki, 20, sent two payments to an unknown recipient through the app on March 5, just hours before she went missing from the luxurious Riu Republica hotel in Punta Cana.
Police are verifying who Konanki had sent those payments to. Venmo enables users to quickly send or request money from others who have the app with just a few taps. The first payment was sent at 2:54 p.m. to an unidentified "new user," with Konanki using a sailboat emoji as the description.
New Revelation in Mystery Disappearance
The second transaction occurred at 3:38 p.m. and was labeled "Coco Bongo," referring to a well-known nightclub in Punta Cana. According to The US Sun, this payment was made to Ananya Chilakamarri, one of the students on the trip. There is no indication of any wrongdoing on Chilakamarri's part.
Authorities are still searching for Konanki, a University of Pittsburgh student from Virginia, who disappeared while vacationing in the Caribbean with five others during spring break.
An American man who was reportedly the last person seen with her claims he rescued her from drowning after they kissed in the ocean. Former high school wrestling champion Joshua Riibe has not been identified as a suspect or person of interest and is legally allowed to return to the U.S. at any time.
Konanki's week-long disappearance has left investigators puzzled and led her parents to call for an expanded search effort for their daughter, a pre-med student.
A full transcript of Riibe's police interview has now surfaced, revealing details about his last interactions with Konanki and the chaotic events following her mysterious disappearance.
However, Riibe declined to answer several key questions, staying silent when officers asked whether Konanki could swim, if she called for help, and what he told a friend after that fateful night.
Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, said that he had only recently met Konanki before they decided to go to the beach together, according to an interview transcript obtained by Noticias SIN.
He revealed that they shared a kiss in the ocean before a wave nearly pulled them under. Riibe claimed he rescued her from drowning, despite nearly losing consciousness himself.
"We were in waist-deep water. We talked and kissed a bit,' Riibe said. 'A big wave came and hit us both. And when the water returned, it swept us out to sea. As soon as we were able to surface, we tried to call for help."
Riibe Speaks Out
He mentioned that he had previously worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool and tried to guide them both to safety before he began feeling unwell. "I was getting tired. I realized she was getting tired of swimming too. I've been a lifeguard. I grabbed her and pulled her out. I held her under my arm and swam to get her out of the water," Riibe said.
"It took me a long time to get her out. It was difficult. I was a lifeguard in a pool, not at sea. I was trying to get her to breathe the whole time. That didn't let me breathe the whole time and I swallowed a lot of water. I could have lost consciousness several times."
The 24-year-old said that he managed to reach the shore but claimed that Sudiksha was still in the water when he saw her last.
"When I finally reached the ground on the beach, I held her in front of me. She wasn't out of the water, she was knee-deep and walking at an angle out the water," he said.
"The last time I saw her, I asked if she was okay. I didn't hear her reply because I started vomiting all the water I had swallowed. After vomiting, I looked around. I didn't see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left."
He told investigators that he lost consciousness on the beach and didn't learn about Sudiksha's disappearance until the next day when her friends messaged his friend. "I felt really bad and tired. I laid down on a beach chair. I fell asleep because I couldn't go far," Riibe said.
"Then I woke up because of the sun and because mosquitoes were biting me. I went to my friend's room to get my phone and then went back to my room to sleep."
Josh and his father, who traveled this week to support him, have also been in contact with Sudiksha's grieving parents, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi, who immigrated from India.
Hotel surveillance footage captured Riibe with his arm around Sudiksha as they walked toward the resort's beach around 4 a.m. last Thursday.
