PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — The passport of Joshua Riibe, an American linked to the disappearance of a University of Pittsburgh student, has been confiscated by Dominican authorities as part of an ongoing investigation, his attorneys told NBC News.
Riibe might have been the last person to see Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh junior who went to Punta Cana on March 3 with five female friends for spring break. She was last seen around 4:15 a.m. on March 6 after going to the beach with friends.
Speaking exclusively to NBC News briefly at the resort where Konanki had been staying before her disappearance, Riibe said, “I’m just trying to help them out,” adding, “The ocean is a dangerous place.”
Riibe “has been confined to the hotel since the investigation began. He is permanently escorted by the police anywhere he goes. So no, he is not free to leave,” the law firm representing him told NBC News in an email Saturday.
The Dominican Republic’s national police did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
In an interview this week with local investigators, Riibe said he was on the beach with Konanki shortly before she disappeared.
He said they were “in waist-deep water, talking and kissing a little,” according to a transcript of the interview obtained by NBC News. A wave crashed, taking them both “out to sea.”
“I kept trying to get her to breathe, but that didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water,” he said, telling investigators that he used to work as a lifeguard.
Riibe said he got Konanki back to shore before she went missing.
“The last time I saw her, I asked if she was OK. I didn’t hear her answer,” he said. “I looked around and didn’t see anyone. I thought she’d grabbed her things and left.”
He told authorities in the Dominican Republic that he was shocked to later learn she was missing.
The sheriff’s office in Loudon County, Virginia, where Konanki is from and where her family lives, has described Riibe as a “person of interest.” The sheriff’s office has no jurisdiction over the investigation but has sent detectives to Punta Cana to assist in the U.S. side of the investigation.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said Thursday they do not use the term “person of interest” in the case and at this point, no one is considered a suspect.
U.S. authorities say this is a missing persons case and not a criminal matter.
Riibe, 22, from Rock Rapids, Iowa, is a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
