(NewsNation) — Virginia authorities have said they know who may have been the last person to see or be with University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki prior to her disappearance.
Konanki, 20, vanished while on a spring break trip with friends in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic early Thursday morning.
Chad J. Quinn, manager of media relations and communications for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, originally identified a man as a person of interest on Wednesday morning.
Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office director of media relations and communications Thomas Julia clarified the statement later that day.
“We are not going to comment about other persons, but we do believe that (he) may have been the last person to see or be with the missing person. This is still a missing person investigation, not a criminal investigation, so he is not a person of interest nor suspect for that latter purpose,” Julia said in a statement.
NewsNation will not name the man unless he is named officially as a person of interest or a suspect in this case.
Authorities have not indicated any signs of foul play in her disappearance, though her family is pushing investigators to consider the possibility she might have been abducted.
Sudiksha Konanki missing after trip to Dominican Republic
A resident of Ashburn, Virginia, Konanki was last seen Thursday at 4:50 a.m. while walking on the beach at the Riu Republica Hotel, just north of Punta Cana in the La Altagracia district of the Dominican Republic.
According to the Aware Foundation of Virginia, Konanki was last seen wearing a brown bikini, big round earrings, a metal designer anklet on her right leg, yellow and steel bracelets on her right wrist, and a multicolored beaded bracelet on her left wrist.
Konanki is a citizen of India and a permanent U.S. resident. She was one of six female University of Pittsburgh students traveling together for spring break. According to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Indian embassy in the Dominican Republic has led the search efforts, along with state, federal and on-the-ground law enforcement.
Police interview witnesses
Police spoke to both Konanki’s friends and a man in his 20s who was allegedly at the beach around the same time as her, CNN and other outlets reported.
The man was spotted on surveillance leaving the beach area alone at 9:55 a.m. and is allegedly the last person to see Konanki.
He reportedly told police multiple versions of the morning’s events. He initially said Konanki may have been swept away by a wave but then gave another account, saying she may have left when he got out of the water.
In another, he claimed both he and Konanki went into the ocean, but he felt sick, left the water and fell asleep in a lounge chair.
Another account involved her walking along the beach with the water up to her knees in the direction of where she had left her clothes, the outlet reported.
Marine conditions were hazardous
Authorities may be circling back to possibility that Konanki was swept away, an idea supported by diver Doug Bishop of United Search Corps. He noted that Punta Cana is known as a treacherous beach, especially around high tide when the student disappeared.
“These types of tides will absolutely create complications, not just for survivability, but also for the search,” Bishop told “Banfield” on Wednesday. “This type of tide, if you lose an individual in it, has the ability to drag you out upwards of a mile in certain situations.”
Police have not linked the interviewee to any name. Anyone with information regarding Konanki’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office at 703-777-1021.
NewsNation’s Patrick Djordjevic and Safia Samee Ali contributed to this report.