American who was last to see missing Pitt student is no longer under supervision, but passport issue is unresolved
A Dominican Republic court is expected to decide on Tuesday whether the last person thought to have seen missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki can leave the country.
HIGÜEY, Dominican Republic — An American who was the last person believed to have been seen with missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki and who has said he wants to return to the United States is no longer under police supervision, a Dominican judge ruled Tuesday, but a passport issue must still be resolved.
The ruling is a partial victory for Joshua Riibe, 22, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, who has said he has been kept in a hotel room and not allowed to leave without supervision since Konanki vanished.
"He’s a witness. He’s cooperated and keeps cooperating," Magistrate Edwis Rijo Delgado said in Spanish while granting a habeas corpus petition Tuesday.
Riibe is believed to be the last person seen with Konanki, 20, on a beach in the Dominican Republic early March 6.
Her parents said Tuesday that authorities have told them they believe she drowned and that there were high ocean waves when she disappeared. She was on a spring break trip with five female friends when she disappeared. Her body has not been found.
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