The parents of missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki want Dominican Republican officials to declare their 20-year-old daughter dead, according to reports.
The family sent a formal letter to authorities Monday, acknowledging there is no suspected foul play involved in Konanki’s presumed death after she vanished from a Punta Cana beach in the early hours of March 6, sources told ABC News.
The father and mother also wrote they trust the authorities’ probe into the case and noted Joshua Riibe, the last person to see the young woman alive, has cooperated with investigators, local outlet Noticias SIN reported, also citing a source.
They also said they understand certain legal hurdles must be met and are ready to provide any necessary paperwork, the outlets reported.
The requested “legal declaration of death” comes the same day the lawyer for Riibe, a 22-year-old college student from Iowa, argued her client needs to be released from police surveillance.
While authorities have described him as a person of interest, he is not a suspect and is not accused of wrongdoing.
“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 initially said they believed Konanki drowned in the water, but then said they were not ruling out foul play.
Riibe has claimed he and Konanki jumped into the ocean outside the hotel they were staying at before they ran into rough water.
He said he was able to get himself and the Indian national who now lives in northern Virginia out, but passed out shortly after.
When he woke up at the beach, she was gone.
Surveillance images captured the pair at a bar with other 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 on March 3.
