Punta Cana, Dominican Republic CNN —
A man believed to be the last person to see missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki is asking a court to grant him his freedom, challenging authorities’ treatment of him since the 20-year-old woman’s disappearance nearly two weeks ago.
Joshua Steven Riibe, a 22-year-old from Rock Rapids, Iowa, and a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, filed a habeas corpus petition in a Dominican Republic court, claiming his rights were violated by prosecutors, police and the hotel where he was staying, according to court documents obtained by CNN.
A hearing is set for 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to the documents.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic confiscated Riibe’s passport, a source close to the investigation told CNN, and he has remained under police surveillance, even though is not considered a suspect in Konanki’s disappearance and has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Dominican Republic Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso interviewed Riibe over the weekend for more than six hours, according the source. A previous statement from Riibe’s parents said their son has been taken to the police station for interrogation multiple times.
Riibe’s parents also claimed he was detained “under irregular conditions” and questioned without official translators or legal counsel until March 12. Prosecutors declined comment when asked by CNN about those allegations.
Michael Chapman, the sheriff of Loudon County, Virginia, where Konanki’s family lives, told CNN that Riibe had been “very forthright with our detectives.” The sheriff said he didn’t see “any inconsistencies” with what Riibe said.
The entire contents of Riibe’s habeas corpus request are expected to be made public at the Tuesday hearing.
Konanki, described by her father as an “ambitious” student who planned to study medicine, arrived in Punta Cana on March 3. She traveled with five other female students from the University of Pittsburgh, according to the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office.
Riibe said he first met Konanki in the hotel when he and his friend introduced themselves to her group. The two friend groups went together to the bar, where they drank until “someone suggested we go to the beach,” Riibe said in his interview.
In the early hours of March 6, she was seen on surveillance footage drinking with five women and two men in the Riu República Hotel bar. In the video, Konanki is seen wearing a white cover-up as she hugs and talks with her friends. Riibe is seen several feet away, bent over and stumbling on the lawn outside the bar.
Then, at 4:15 a.m., a surveillance camera captured the group, including Konanki, entering the beach, police said.
Just before 5 a.m., surveillance footage shows five women and one man leaving the beach, two sources close to the investigation told CNN. Konanki was not among them.
During his fourth interview with prosecutors on Wednesday, Riibe described a harrowing attempt to save Konanki after they were jostled by the wave and she got tired of swimming.
“It took me a long time to get her out. It was difficult,” Riibe said, according to Noticias SIN. He said he was trained as a lifeguard but worked at pools, not at the beach.
“I was trying to get her to breathe the whole time. That didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water. I could have lost consciousness several times. When I finally reached the ground on the beach, I held her in front of me.”
He said he last saw Konanki when she was walking in knee-deep water.
“The last time I saw her, I asked if she was OK. I didn’t hear her answer because I started vomiting up all the seawater I had swallowed.”
“After vomiting, I looked around, and I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left,” Riibe said.
“I felt very sick and tired. I lay down on a beach chair and fell asleep because I couldn’t go far.”
The sun and biting mosquitoes woke Riibe up, he said, and he went to his friend’s room to get his phone and then went to his room to sleep.
“I was sleeping in the room and my friend asked me if I had seen her; I told him no, I thought she had gone to her room,” Riibe said. His friend told him Konanki never returned to her room, which Riibe said “surprised” him.
When Konanki didn’t return to her room, her friends searched for her before notifying authorities, according to the law enforcement source. The group then reported her missing to hotel staff around 4 p.m. Thursday, according to the Riu hotel chain.
“After I saw her walk away while she was walking in the water, I never saw her again,” Riibe told Dominican news station Noticias SIN.
Konanki’s sarong-style cover-up was found on a lounge chair on the beach, but there were no signs of violence, a source familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.
Konanki’s disappearance comes nearly two months after four tourists drowned in Punta Cana, according to the Dominican Republic’s civil defense agency, at the same beach where she was last seen. Strong currents swept the tourists off the Arena Gorda beach, where the Riu República Hotel is located, the civil defense agency said January 18 in a Facebook post.
