A Minnesota college student who was the last person to see missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki, 20, is insisting that he was a "lifesaver" who pulled her from the waters of the Caribbean but refused to answer several questions about her disappearance eight days ago.
"I was a lifesaver. I grabbed her and pulled her out," Joshua Riibe, 22, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, told the Dominican Republic's Public Ministry, according to a transcript obtained by Dominican Republic’s Noticias Sin, reports The New York Post Friday.
Riibe has not been named as a suspect but as a person of interest in Konanki's disappearance.
He had been staying at the RIU Hotel & Resort in Punta Cana for spring break, the same resort where Konanki had been staying.
Surveillance footage captured Riibe and Konaki walking arm-in-arm on the beach after 4 a.m. They waded out into the ocean, where they talked and kissed until the surf became strong.
Riibe told the Dominican Republic authorities that a "big wave came and hit us both and as the water returned, it came back and swept us out to sea."
He said they both called for help, but nobody was around.
Riibe then said he and Konanki were tired from swimming, but he'd fought to get them out of the ocean.
He said he put the young woman under his arm to swim back to the beach with her, but it was difficult to get her out.
"It took me a long time to get her out, it was difficult," Riibe said. "I was a lifeguard in the pool, not in the sea."
He also said that he "could have lost consciousness several times" because he swallowed sea water.
Riibe further recalled hearing Konanki say she was going to get her belongings, but she was in knee-deep water.
"The last time I saw her, I asked her if she was OK," Riibe said. "I didn’t hear her answer because I started vomiting all the sea water I had swallowed."
He said that after he was sick, he looked around and did not see anyone but he thought Konanki got her belongings and left.
Then he told the authorities that he did not feel well, so he fell asleep in a beach chair, where he slept until he woke up to the sun rising and mosquitoes biting him.
Riibe said he then returned to his hotel room and talked to his friend there before he fell asleep.
Authorities said he refused to answer eight crucial questions, basing his reply on his lawyers' advice.
The questions Riibe refused to answer were:
- How can we verify that everything you have said corresponds to the truth?
- Could you tell us what you told your friend Carter Joseph, when he asked about the missing girl Konanki – Sudiksha?
- What do you think about Sudiksha’s disappearance?
- Did young Sudiksha know how to swim or not?
- Do you remember if young Sudiksha made any gestures or cries while she was in the sea?
- Did you inform the authorities or the hotel what had happened to you and the girl on the beach?
- Did you tell your friend what had happened with you and the girl on the beach?
- How do you feel about this situation?
Police said Wednesday they have not ruled out foul play in her disappearance. Initially, they believed she had drowned.
But Riibe's accounting of the situation lines up with a police report that Konanki had been hit by a wave.