Prior to the disappearance of an American college student in the Dominican Republic, she and the last people she was seen with on March 6 had been drinking before deciding to swim in rough surf, prompting questions about liability that the resort where they were staying could potentially face.

In the early morning hours of March 6, Sudiksha Konanki and her friends walked from a hotel bar to the beach outside the RIU Republica in Punta Cana, where she was staying with five female friends from the University of Pittsburgh.

The 20-year-old apparently went for a swim with a 22-year-old man named Joshua Riibe, of Iowa, who has been identified as a witness in her disappearance. Riibe apparently told Dominican Republic authorities that they went swimming and were struck by a large wave, which is the last time he saw her.

“I was over at the Natalee Holloway investigation way back when. And although there are some similarities here, there are some differences,” Chris Swecker, former FBI Criminal Investigative Division assistant director, told Fox News Digital. “But in this case, I think it’s plausible, based on everything that I’ve read, that it is a drowning.… I don’t think it’s an outlandish assumption here, based on the facts, that they were both pretty drunk.”

Konanki was last seen on surveillance footage walking from RIU Republica to the beach with seven other people, including five females and two males, around 4:15 a.m. on March 6. She was last seen on the beach around 4:50 a.m., according to the Dominican Republic prosecutor’s office and the hotel.

Local authorities participate in the search for missing student Sudiksha Konanki, March 11, 2025. (Santiago Baez for Fox News Digital)

Hotel surveillance footage then shows a group of six people, including five women and one man, returning to the hotel from the beach around 5:55 a.m.

The young man previously seen with Konanki is seen on surveillance footage entering the interior of the hotel around 9 a.m. on March 6.

Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office at 703-777-1021. To remain anonymous, call Loudoun Crime Solvers at 703-777-1919. 

Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Ashley Papa contributed to this report.