RICHMOND, Va. — As the search for missing Loudoun County woman Sudiksha Konanki continues, CBS 6 spoke with a college student who said tensions on her spring break trip were high.
Kaitlyn Morgan, a student at Virginia Tech, was in Punta Cana as the search for Konanki, 20, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, stayed in the news.
"It’s very close to home and it’s very scary to think that could have happened to any one of us," Morgan said.
Investigators in the Dominican Republic spent hours over the weekend and again Monday questioning the last person known to have been with Konanki on the morning of her disappearance.
Twenty-two-year-old Joshua Riibe, an Iowa resident and student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, told U.S. investigators he was not certain if Konanki got out of the water after swimming in the early hours of March 6.
Dominican officials also released surveillance video showing Konanki at the RIU Republica Resort’s bar before she and a group of friends, including Riibe, walked toward the beach. The video shows the others returning to the hotel without Riibe and Konanki.
Riibe told police that’s when they were swept into the sea by a large wave and struggled to reach shore. He believed Konanki was out of the ocean by the time he passed out but was not certain.
With other college students on spring break around the same time, many students were on high alert.
Morgan explained that her sorority sisters had a buddy system prior to the trip, but Konanki's disappearance heightened their awareness.
"We had two people together at all times going anywhere. Even if it was just to go down to get some food or go out to the beach, we always made sure that one person was with another," she said.
Investigators stress this remains a missing persons case and not a criminal investigation and are looking into all possibilities of what could have happened to the 20-year-old Loudoun County resident, including accidental drowning or foul play.
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