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PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – The top prosecutor in the Dominican Republic interviewed Iowa 22-year-old Joshua Riibe at his hotel in Punta Cana for hours Saturday, personally questioning the lone publicly known eyewitness in the disappearance of Virginia 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki.
Yeni Berenice Reynoso, the Dominican attorney general, grilled Riibe in person to wrap up a week that included multiple interviews with detectives from several agencies, including La Policia Nacional, the country’s police force, and detectives from Loudoun County, Virginia, Konanki’s hometown.
Reynoso’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Both Riibe and Reynoso’s entourage were seen coming and going from a room in the Riu Republica hotel for hours Saturday evening, and his lawyers later confirmed he was being questioned by the AG herself.
While Riibe has not been named a suspect, nor has any crime been alleged, authorities have described him as a “key element” in the missing person investigation. He has been joined in the country by his parents. Riibe, Konanki and their friends were staying at the resort for spring break.
A drone flies overhead as local authorities search for missing college student Sudiksha Konanki in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. (Santiago Baez for Fox News Digital)
Riibe, according to a leaked transcript of one of his police interviews obtained by Fox News, told police that he and Konanki were struck by a strong wave and swept offshore. They battled the current, and he brought her back to land. Then he said he last saw her walking away in knee-deep water toward her belongings, as he threw up and then fell asleep on a beach chair
When he woke up, she was gone, he said.
The same resort saw four European tourists drown in one incident in January. Their remains were all recovered within 48 hours.
Local authorities search for Sudiksha Konanki in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Friday. (Fox News Digital)
The search for Konanki has expanded up the coastline, involving hundreds of personnel, helicopters, planes, boats, dive teams, K9s and drones, including new AI-equipped models.
“Above all, we wish to contribute to the search efforts and understand the anguish and uncertainty they are going through, and we share the hope that Sudiksha will be found as soon as possible,” Riibe’s parents said Friday. “Joshua Riibe is deeply dismayed by her disappearance and has fully cooperated in the search and clarification of the facts from the very beginning.”