A Minnesota college student who’s identified as a “person of interest” in the disappearance of an American woman on spring break in the Caribbean has been under police surveillance for more than a week and subjected to lengthy interrogations, his family said Friday.
Law enforcement said this week that St. Cloud State University senior Joshua Riibe, 22, was possibly the last person to be seen with 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki before she went missing in the predawn hours of March 6 in the Dominican Republic tourist town of Punta Cana.
Riibe’s parents released a lengthy statement through a Dominican-based attorney that points out that their son “is deeply dismayed by [Konanki’s] disappearance and has fully cooperated in the search and clarification of the facts since the beginning.”
Albert and Tina Riibe went on to say that “despite his full willingness to cooperate, Josh has been detained under irregular conditions and subjected to extensive questioning without the presence of official translators or legal counsel until Wednesday.”
The parents said he has remained in his hotel room under police surveillance and has been “repeatedly taken to the police station since March 6, where he has been interrogated for long hours.”
Given the circumstances as they spell out, the Riibes said they have retained legal counsel “to initiate legal actions ensuring his safety and the protection of his rights through this process. … We trust that the investigation will be conducted with transparency and justice. Our only interest is that due process be respected.”
St. Cloud State spokesman Zachary Dwyer said Thursday that Riibe is a student who enrolled there in 2023. Dwyer said Riibe is from Rock Rapids, Iowa, about 10 miles south of the Minnesota border, and is majoring in land surveying and mapping sciences.
Konanki is a citizen of India who resides in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Chantilly, Va. Dominican police said they are re-interviewing people who were with Konanki before she vanished at a beach in front of the Hotel Riu República. The FBI is among the agencies participating in the investigation.
