University of Pittsburgh Student Disappears on Spring Break Trip

A 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student disappeared in the Dominican Republic last week while on a spring break trip. Sudiksha Konanki was with five other female Pitt students on a trip to Punta Cana when she was reported missing Thursday, NBC News reports. Local authorities believe she went missing between 3am and 5am that day. That's around the time she was last seen swimming with a young man at a beach near the Riu Republica Resort and then going on a walk on the beach in her bikini, the New York Post reports, citing local news outlets. She had reportedly gone to the beach with her friends, but never made it back to her room, CNN reports.

The other students, who were scheduled to fly back home Friday, chose instead to stay and help with the search. Konanki, an Indian national who hails from Virginia, is 5-foot-3 with black hair and brown eyes. The man with whom she was seen swimming has been questioned by police; it's not clear whether he's also a student. Helicopters and drones have been deployed in the search, and both US and Indian authorities are assisting Dominican authorities. "Right now it runs the gamut from something accidental to foul play," says a sheriff's office representative from Virginia. "It is all at this point under consideration. Nothing's been ruled out." (More missing woman stories.)