A Minnesota college student who’s identified as a “person of interest” in the disappearance of an American woman on spring break in the Caribbean has been under police surveillance for more than a week and subjected to lengthy interrogations, his family said Friday.
Parents: Long police interrogations for Minn. college student about woman’s Dominican disappearance
Joshua Riibe has remained in his hotel room under police surveillance when not being questioned at the police station, his parents said.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 14, 2025 at 11:12PM
Law enforcement said this week that St. Cloud State University senior Joshua Riibe, 22, was possibly the last person to be seen with 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki before she went missing in the predawn hours of March 6 in the Dominican Republic tourist town of Punta Cana.
Riibe’s parents released a lengthy statement through a Dominican-based attorney that points out that their son “is deeply dismayed by [Konanki’s] disappearance and has fully cooperated in the search and clarification of the facts since the beginning.”
Albert and Tina Riibe went on to say that “despite his full willingness to cooperate, Josh has been detained under irregular conditions and subjected to extensive questioning without the presence of official translators or legal counsel until Wednesday.”
The parents said he has remained in his hotel room under police surveillance and has been “repeatedly taken to the police station since March 6, where he has been interrogated for long hours.”
Given the circumstances as they spell out, the Riibes said they have retained legal counsel “to initiate legal actions ensuring his safety and the protection of his rights through this process. ... We trust that the investigation will be conducted with transparency and justice. Our only interest is that due process be respected.”
St. Cloud State spokesman Zachary Dwyer said Thursday that Riibe is a student who enrolled there in 2023. Dwyer said Riibe is from Rock Rapids, Iowa, about 10 miles south of the Minnesota border, and is majoring in land surveying and mapping sciences.
Konanki is a citizen of India who resides in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Chantilly, Va. Dominican police said they are reinterviewing people who were with Konanki before she vanished at a beach in front of the Hotel Riu República. The FBI is among the agencies participating in the investigation.
Chad Quinn, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office in the northern Virginia county where Konanki lives as a permanent U.S. resident, said Riibe is not yet suspected of a crime in connection with the woman’s whereabouts.
Quinn said that “we consider [Riibe] a person of interest for the purposes of this missing person investigation [because] he may have been the last person to see or be with the missing person. We are not going to comment on when or where.”
Numerous news media outlets have posted video that appears to show Konanki walking with a young man and several other people shortly before her disappearance.
With specifying Riibe by name, Dominican President Luis Abinader said at a news conference that the last person known to be with her disclosed that a wave crashed into them while they were on the beach.
Riibe, who met Konanki that night, confirmed he and and Konanki kissed after a night of drinking, he told a prosecutor Thursday, according to a transcript provided to ABC News from two Dominican sources.
“A big wave came and hit us both, then the tide pulled us into the ocean,” he told the prosecutor. “When we surfaced, we tried to plead for help, but there was no one there.”
The ABC report added that Riibe said, “The last time I saw her, I asked her if she was OK. I didn’t hear her response, because I began to vomit with all the water I had swallowed. After vomiting, I looked around and I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had taken her things and left.”
A hotel representative said Konanki’s disappearance coincided with a power failure that prompted guests to head to the beach. Quinn said Riibe was not traveling with Konanki’s group.
Konanki’s parents, Subbarayudu and Sreedevi, flew to Punta Cana after their daughter was reported missing and have asked authorities to widen the investigation. Her father said she and five other university students traveled to the Dominican Republic on March 3.
Her family says her belongings, including a phone and wallet, were left with her friends, although she’s known to always carry her phone.
Along with addressing their son’s plight roughly 2,000 miles from his northwestern Iowa home, the Riibes expressed “our deep sorrow and solidarity with the family of Sudiksha Konanki. ... We ask everyone to pray that Sudiksha be found and returned home to her family.”
This story contains material from the Associated Press.
Joshua Riibe has remained in his hotel room under police surveillance when not being questioned at the police station, his parents said.
