Last Person to See Missing Student: I Thought I Saved Her

The last person to see missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki alive told authorities he thought he'd saved her life in the Dominican Republic. During his fourth interview with prosecutors on Wednesday, Joshua Riibe said the pair were frolicking in waist-deep water near their Punta Cana resort in the early hours of March 6 when they were hit by a powerful wave, according to reporting from news outlet Noticias SIN. As the water rushed back out to sea, Konanki and Riibe were taken along with it, said the 22-year-old student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, per the New York Post. "It took me a long time to get her out," added Riibe, a trained lifeguard who had worked only in pools, per CNN.

Riibe said he finally made it to shore with Konanki and last saw her walking in knee-deep water at an "angle" toward the beach, per the Post. "I asked if she was OK. I didn't hear her answer because I started vomiting up all the seawater I had swallowed," he said, per CNN. "After vomiting, I looked around, and I didn't see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left," added Riibe, who said he felt "very sick and tired," laid down on a beach chair, and fell asleep. Konanki's belongings were later found on the beach. No trace of the 20-year-old has been found.

"It's just unfortunate that no one notified anyone until it was … much later in the day, that she was missing," Robin Bernstein, a former US ambassador to the Dominican Republic, tells Fox News. Riibe said he returned to his room around sunrise and went back to sleep. Friends didn't report Konanki missing until 4pm, almost 12 hours after she was last seen. Though it's possible Konanki drowned, her father has urged authorities to consider other possibilities, including kidnapping, USA Today reports. As of Wednesday, the Dominican Republic Public Prosecutor's Office said it was "exploring all possible options, accidental and intentional." (Riibe is not considered a suspect.)