Joshua Ribe, the last person to the Indian American student who has mysteriously gone missing during a spring break visit to the Dominican Republic, has made interesting revelations to the investigators.
The 22-year-old man has been identified as the ‘person of interest’ in the case of missing Indian-American student Sudiksha Konkani, who was enjoying her spring vacation in the Dominican town of Punta Cana before she went missing.
Also read | Sudiksha Konanki missing in Dominican Republic: A timeline of her known hours
The Riu Republica Hotel has said in a statement that multiple guests were headed to the beach on March 6 after a power outage. According to authorities, the group was partying at a disco around 3 am before heading to the beach.
Hit by rough waves
Konanki was seen swimming with a “young man” before she disappeared. She was believed to have drowned in the sea, but CCTV visuals from the resorts showed that she was last seen with Ribe, who was trying to click their selfies.
Ribe informed the investigators that he had ventured into the sea with Konkani and had been hit by rough waves. He claimed to have saved her from the rough seas but lost her in the darkness of the night, the New York Post reported.
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“A big wave came and hit us both and as the water returned, it came back and swept us out to sea,” the report quoted Riibe saying.
The 24-year-old Iowa man claimed that their calls for help went unanswered as the beach was empty. He also claimed that he tried swimming back to the shore with Konkani but faced difficulties.
“It took me a long time to get her out; it was difficult. I was a lifeguard in the pool, not in the sea. I could have lost consciousness several times,” Ribe added.
Explaining further, Ribe said he thought Konkani went back to the sea to fetch her belongings and left. He also claimed not to have noticed her actions as he threw up after reaching the shores.
Investigators have sought finer details from Ribe as he reportedly failed to answer crucial questions due to his lawyer’s advice. The probe is now led by a “high-level commission” of local and US agencies, including the FBI.
Dominican President Luis Abinader had said Ribe’s accounts have been worrying. “We are concerned. All government agencies are searching because the latest information we have from one of them, from the last person who was with the young woman, what he says, according to the reports, is that a wave, while on the beach, crashed into them,” he said on Monday, March 10, during his weekly meeting with the press.
