Pittsburgh Student Disappears While on Spring Break Trip in the Dominican Republic – One America News Network
OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:08 PM – Sunday, March 9, 2025
A large-scale search operation is currently in progress for a University of Pittsburgh student who disappeared during spring break in the Dominican Republic.
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20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki, hailing from Northern Virginia, was vacationing in Punta Cana with a group of six classmates when she went missing.
According to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, Konanki was first reported missing on Thursday. She was last spotted on March 6th, around 4:50 a.m. on the beach at the Riu Republica Resort.
The sheriff’s office is collaborating with Dominican authorities in this search. Notably, Konanki also holds Indian citizenship, prompting the involvement of the Indian Embassy in the Dominican Republic in the search efforts.
“Our office is assisting with those efforts and continuing to investigate here locally,” the sheriff’s office stated, noting that “we understand that the U.S. is deploying significant federal resources” to help locate Konanki.
“Multiple teams have been dispatched by sea and land to search for the missing tourist,” reported the Dominican Republic emergency operations agency.
A spokesperson from the University of Pittsburgh also released a statement offering complete support in the ongoing search.
“University officials are in touch with both Sudiksha Konanki’s family and authorities in Loudoun County, Virginia, and we have extended our full support in their endeavors to locate her and ensure her safe return,” the spokesperson stated.
Additionally, the Dominican Republic’s Civil Defense rescue team indicated that they had completed a full day of searching for the young woman on Saturday and planned to continue the search on Sunday.
“The Orange Search and Rescue Unit, along with other organizations, commenced efforts early Saturday, striving to locate Sudiksha Konanki, but were unsuccessful,” the agency announced.
Konanki is described as being 5 feet 3 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a brown two-piece bikini, along with large round earrings and a multicolored beaded bracelet on her left wrist, as detailed in a missing persons flyer.
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