The parents of Sudiksha Konanki, the 20-year-old college student who went missing during a spring break trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, said they had come to terms with the possibility she had drowned, and asked for privacy to mourn her, according to officials and a statement to the media on Tuesday.
Their sorrowful statement came more than a week after her disappearance on March 6 grabbed headlines around the world, and led to repeated questioning of the last person seen with her.
“Sudiksha’s family has expressed their belief that she drowned,” the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia said in a statement on Tuesday. “While a final decision to make such a declaration rests with authorities in the Dominican Republic, we will support the Konanki family in every way possible” while continuing to review the evidence, the office said.
In a tearful Fox 5 DC video shared online, Ms. Konanki’s father said that they had accepted “that our daughter has drowned” and that this conclusion was “incredibly difficult for us to process.” Her mother sobbed as he read the statement. They also asked for “time and privacy to focus on healing” and their family, NBC4 Washington reported.
Ms. Konanki, a University of Pittsburgh student from Loudoun County was last seen nearly two weeks ago. She was spotted in the early morning hours of March 6 at a beach in Punta Cana with an unnamed friend who was “under investigation,” according to the authorities in the Dominican Republic.
The man, who was not named by The New York Times because he had not been charged with a crime, was present at a court hearing in the Dominican city of Higüey on Tuesday, but the outcome of the proceeding had not yet been disclosed by the authorities.
During the proceeding, the judge granted the man’s request to be able to move about freely and without police supervision.
Ms. Konanki stayed at the Hotel Riu Republica in Punta Cana with five friends after arriving in the Dominican Republic on March 3, the police said. Her disappearance sparked a massive search in the Caribbean nation, which is heavily dependent on foreign tourism.
When the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic alerted the national police that Ms. Konanki had disappeared, officials began an exhaustive search of the beach and the surrounding area, using drones, helicopters, divers, boats, police dogs and other resources, the authorities said.
More than 300 agents have been searching for Ms. Konanki, the police said. The F.B.I. has been assisting in the investigation, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
Hogla Enecia Pérez contributed reporting from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.