Authorities in the Dominican Republic are searching for a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student who went missing while “walking on the beach” in her bikini in Punta Cana while on her spring break trip with classmates.
Sudiksha Konanki, from a tony Washington, DC suburb, was reported missing on Thursday while traveling with a group in the resort town, officials with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office told 13 News Now.
Konanki disappeared while “walking on the beach” in the Caribbean island-nation, authorities added.
“Our office was contacted on Thursday evening about a missing female from Loudoun County who was with a group of other people traveling in the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana specifically,” a LCSO spokesperson said Saturday.
Konanki was last seen around 4:50 a.m. on the beach at Riu Republica Resort, WTAE reported.
A missing persons poster described Konanki as 5 feet, 3 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes.
At the time she went missing, she was wearing a brown bikini, big round earrings, a metal designer anklet on her right leg, yellow and steel bracelets on her right hand and a multicolored beaded bracelet on her left hand.
In a statement, University of Pittsburgh officials said they were working with Konanki’s family and local authorities in Virginia, who were helping in the search.
“University officials are in contact with Sudiksha Konanki’s family as well as authorities in Loudoun County, Virginia, and we have offered our full support in their efforts to find her and bring her home safely,” university spokesperson Jared Stonesifer said.
Defensa Civil, a Dominican Republic search and rescue force, started searching for the missing student Saturday and had plans to resume their search early Sunday morning.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
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