Joshua Riibe, the 22-year-old student Minnesota College who was at Sudiksha Konanki of the University of Pittsburgh, the night she was missing during a spring break to the Dominican Republic, received his passport back on Thursday, ABC News told ABC News.
RIIBE – who is considered a witness and not a suspect in the disappearance of Konanki – had removed his passport and mobile while he was interviewed in recent days.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Riibe's legal team confirmed to ABC News that they tried to get a new American passport for Riibe from the American embassy in the Dominican Republic so that he could leave the country.
“The American embassy is in communication with Mr Riibe, his family and his lawyer and offers all appropriate consular aid,” the American embassy in the Dominican Republic told ABC News.
Photo: Joshua Riibe, the American who is held in the Dominican Republic for interviewing in the disappearance of Pitt -student Sudiksha Konanki, appears in court, March 18, 2025. (ABC News)
A Dominican judge ruled during a Habeus Corpus who heard on Tuesday that Riibe is free to move without a police officer around the Dominican Republic, because he is only a witness to an accident, not a suspect. But the judge did not return Riibe his passport because he said it was not in his jurisdiction to transfer the passport. The judge has not indicated whose jurisdiction it is to return the passport.
“I can't go anywhere. And I really want to be able to go home, talk to my family, give hugs, tell them that I miss them,” said Riibe in court on Tuesday. “I understand that I am here to help, but it's 10 days ago and I can't leave.”
If the American embassy in the Dominican Republic publishes a new passport, he will be able to use it to leave the country.
More: parents of missing the Pittsburgh student ask the police of Dominican police to explain her death
Riibe said on Tuesday in court that he “is ready to go home and go back to my life.”
Authorities have said that they believe that Konanki died by drowning in Punta Cana at the beginning of March 6, officials told ABC News.
Riibe, who met Konanki that night, said prosecutors that the two were going to swim and Kuden in the ocean. The two were then struck by a wave and pulled by the tide in the ocean, according to a transcript provided to ABC News from two Dominican Republic sources.
Photo: Sudiksha Konanki can be seen in this undated photo shared with meta. (Sudiksha Konanki via meta)
Riibe said he was holding Konanki and tried to get them out of the water. He said he tried to “make sure she could breathe all the time”, so Riibe could not get enough air and he “took a lot of water.”
Once they had touched the sand, Riibe told Konanki officers to get her possessions, but “she was not out of the water because it was on her knee” and walked “in a corner in the water.”
“The last time I saw her, I asked her if she was okay,” he said prosecutors. “I didn't hear her reaction because I started to vomit with all the water I had swallowed. After vomiting, I looked around and I saw nothing. I thought she had taken her things and had left.”
More: Univ Missing Univ. of the Pittsburgh student believed to have died by drowning in the Dominican Republic
Riibe said he fainted on a beach chair, woke up a few hours later and returned to his hotel room.
The Van Konanki family sent a formal request on Monday to the Dominican police in which they asked that they declare their daughter dead, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.
On Tuesday evening, the civil defense of Dominican Republic said that they considerably scaled back the efforts for search and salvation.
The judge will decide whether Riibe will be accused of something in a full judgment on 28 March.
The man seen with missing Pittsburgh -student receives passport, say prosecutors who originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
