PUNTA CANA — The parents of missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki want Dominican Republic officials to declare their 20-year-old daughter dead despite authorities never finding her body.
Subbarayudu and SreeDevi Konanki wrote to local officials late Monday asking them to “respectfully request the legal declaration of our beloved daughter,” according to the letter, which was obtained by The Post.
“Following an extensive search, Dominican authorities have concluded that Sudiksha is believed to have drowned,” they wrote, noting that her clothes were found “on the beach where she was last seen” on March 6.
The parents also suggested that authorities should stop investigating Joshua Riibe, the Iowa student who said he last saw their daughter while kissing her in the water before he passed out drunk on the beach.
“The individual last seen with her is cooperating with the investigation, and no evidence of foul play has been found,” they wrote, without mentioning Riibe by name.
“Given these circumstances, and after much deliberation, we request that the police department proceed with the legal declaration of her death,” the letter said.
“Initiating this process will allow our family to begin the grieving process and address matters retated to her absence,” they wrote.
“While no declaration can truly ease our grief, we trust that this step will bring some closure and enable us to honor her memory.”
The request came on the same day a lawyer for Riibe pushed for her client to be released from police surveillance.
While authorities have described him as a person of interest, he has never been accused of foul play during the high-profile investigation.
“If he wants to leave the hotel, he cannot do that freely, but with police,” attorney Beatriz Santana told ABC News. “His passport is seized despite not being officially charged.”
Local authorities had initially said they believed Konanki drowned in the ocean — but then said they were not ruling out foul play after Konanki’s family earlier raised fears that she could have been kidnapped.
Riibe has said he and Konanki jumped into the ocean outside the hotel they were staying at before they ran into rough water.
He said he passed out shortly afterward, and Konanki — an Indian national who now lives in northern Virginia — was nowhere to be found when he woke.
The missing student’s body has not been found.
Surveillance images captured the pair at a bar with friends at the Riu República hotel where they were both staying. They were also seen arm-in-arm leading up to her disappearance.
The two met sometime after Konanki arrived at the resort town this month.
By JACK MORPHET and JORGE FITZ-GIBBON/New York Post
