Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – A major witness regarding the disappearance of American college student Sodesha Conniki The Dominican Republic Police was told He and the 20 -year -old Petsburg University was swimming when they were hit by a large wave, and they were washed away, according to a common copy with Fox News.
Joshua Rebby from Iowa completed an interview for nearly four hours on Wednesday with the Dominican Republic Police as a Watch about the disappearance of Conniki She answered more than 50 questions about what happened before her disappearance on March 6. Ribi is considered by the Dominican authorities as a witness in the case, and not as an interested person or suspect.
Ribi is claimed to refuse to answer eight questions, including his ideas about the disappearance and why he did not tell the hotel or authorities about the accident. Police said there are no suspects and this is the case of a missing person, not a criminal case. Rebi, 24, told the police that he had met Conancke that night, as they were staying at the Rio Ribobka resort for the spring vacation.
Rebi's lawyer, Batrice Santana, refused to comment on the case or her client's interviews with the police. The Rebi family also issued a statement, saying: “At this time period, our family is very difficult at the present time, and we are witnessing a lot of sadness and pain. We prefer privacy and we move at this difficult moment together … We appreciate your cooperation and understanding.”
The American College student in the Dominican Republic disappears: the schedule
The 20 -year -old Sodiksha Conniki, from North Virginia, was lost for the first time on Thursday, March 6, after he disappeared from a beach in the Dominican Republic. (The statement, the left, and Dibinsa, Dominicana, to the right.)
“At this time stage, our family is very difficult at the present time, and we are witnessing a lot of sadness and pain. We prefer privacy and we transfer this difficult moment together … We appreciate your cooperation and understanding.”
In the early morning hours of March 6, they walked from a hotel bar to the beach outside RIU Republica. Konanki arrived in Punta Cana on March 3, and he was staying there with five other friends from the University of Pittsburgh. Ruby arrived on March 1.
“On the way to the beach, she was giving me small kisses on her face,” Rebi said to the police.
On the beach, he and Konanki went to the water while two of her friends stayed on the beach. Rebi said that Rebi and Konanki were talking when they were “a big wave.” There was a red warning on the beach at the time, indicating a warning to people not going to swim in the surfing.
People enjoy a time at the beach at the Rio Ribobka Resort in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Connste, 20 years old, was seen last time on a beach outside the five -star Rio Ribika Resort in the Dominican Republic. (Santiago Baez For Fox News Digital)
He said, “(w) in the water declining, we pulled us to the sea.” “Once we appear, we tried to seek help, but no one was.”
When asked about what happened after that, Rebi said he was “tired” and “I realized that she was also tired of swimming.”
“I was a rescue guard, so I caught it and started withdrawing it. I was carrying it under the arm and swimming in taking it out of the water.”
“It took me a long time to get it out. It was difficult,” Ribi continued. “I was a rescue guard in a swimming pool, not in the ocean. I was trying to keep her breathing all the time, which did not allow me to breathe properly, swallowed a lot of water. I could have lost awareness at some point. When the sand finally touched the beach, I put it in front of me.
Local authorities are searching for the missing student in the United States Sodesha Conniki in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic, on Wednesday, 11 March 2025. Konanki, 20, was seen on a beach outside the five -star Rio Rebecca Resort in the Dominican Republic on March 6, 2025. (Santiago Baez For Fox News Digital)
Rebi said that Konanki was walking the “deep knee” in the water when he saw her last time.
“I asked if she was fine. I did not hear her response because I started vomiting in all the sea water that I swallowed.” “After vomiting, I looked around and did not see anyone. I thought she had caught her things and left. I really felt bad and exhausted. I lay on the beach chair, walked asleep because I couldn't go far, then woke up later because of the sun and mosquitoes.
Local authorities are looking for the missing student in the United States Sodesha Conniki in Punta Kana, Dominican Republic, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Connsi, 20, was seen on March 6 on a beach outside the five -star Rio Ripoprika Resort in the Dominican Republic. (Santiago Baez For Fox News Digital)
Ribi also told the police that he “expected to see her the next day” and I think he would “face it throughout the region.”
“After I saw her walking in the water, I didn't see her again.”
Rebi said he was asleep in his room when his friend asked him if he had seen Konanki, who answered Ribi no.
A missing American student is not drowned in the Dominican Republic.
Sudiksha Konanki in a personal photo on Facebook. The 20 -year -old Petsburg University has been missing since March 6, when it disappeared during the spring vacation trip to a five -star resort in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic. (Sudiksha Konanki/Facebook)
“I thought she went to her room. Her friends wrote my friend since he had one of their numbers.”
Iowa said that his friends went to the beach the next day and found his “property” because he “never picked them up”, unlike a pair of shoes and the key of the room, he said, “I stole a person.”
The external view of the Punta Cannes Police Center, the Dominican Republic. (Kirill Clark)
Ribi told the police that he was drinking vodka with 7UP and Tequila shots, adding that the group of women with whom they were from the “TEQUILA pink shots” that drank as a group.
He did not answer eight questions about the advice of his lawyer, according to the copy, including the following:
1. How can we check that everything I said is true?
2. What did you tell your friend when asked about the missing girl, Konanki-Sudiksha?
3. What do you think of the disappearance of Sodiksha?
4. Did Sodiksha know how to swim or not?
5. Do you remember if Sudiksha has made any gestures or shouted while she was at sea?
6. Did the authorities or hotel notify what happened with you and the girl on the beach?
7. Did you tell your friend what happened between you and the girl on the beach?
8. How do you feel about this situation?
Beach chairs sit on the side of the sea at the Rio Ribobka Resort in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Connsi, 20, was seen on March 6 on a beach outside the five -star Ryu Ribbica Resort in the Dominican Republic. (Santiago Baez For Fox News Digital)
“Not an interested person or suspect for the purposes of the criminal investigation. This has begun and still serves as a missing person, and for this purpose from someone who matters to our agency,” said Ludon Sharif County Office in Virginia, where Conniki lives.
On Friday, Ludone Sharif Fox News was told that it had spoken to Ribi on Thursday.
“The investigators from the Ludon Sharif County Office (LCSO) conducted an intense interview with Mr. Joshua Ribi on Thursday afternoon, March 13, 2025.
“At this time stage, our family is very difficult at the present time, and we are facing a lot of sadness and pain. We prefer privacy and we move at this difficult moment together … We appreciate your cooperation and understanding,” the Rebi family said in a statement.
Military individuals are searching for Sudiksha Konanki, a student of the University of Pittsburgh from the United States who disappeared on a beach in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Francesco Spotorno)
In January, four tourists were drowned near Punta Cana, when the red flag warned of strong currents and cruel seas, according to Associated Press.
The last time was seen in Konanki on surveillance footage walking from Rio Riblika to the beach with seven other people, including five females and two males, around 4:15 am on March 6. The last time on the beach was seen around 4:50 am, according to the Dominican Republic office and the hotel.
Then hotel surveillance footage shows a group of six people, including five women and one man, returning to the hotel from the beach at approximately 5:55 am
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The young man who was previously seen with Conancke on surveillance footage was seen entering the interior of the hotel at about nine in the morning on March 6.
The authorities ask anyone with contact information at the Ludon Sharif County Office at 703-777-1021. To remain anonymous, call Loudoun Crime Solutions to 703-777-1919.
