Search for missing Pitt student Sudiksha Konanki intensifies as Interpol issues global alert
Interpol has issued a global alert for Sudiksha Konanki, the Pitt student who went missing while on spring break in the Dominican Republic.
The Yellow Notice for Konanki comes as officials released more details about the search on Thursday, saying they've spent more than 35 hours in the air looking for the 20-year-old, who was last seen at the Riu Republica hotel around 4 a.m. on Thursday, March 6.
The Dominican Republic's Sistema 911 says they're dividing search areas and assigning drones to those sectors. Pilots monitor the area in real time and the videos are uploaded to the command center, where AI is used to analyze the footage, looking for objects at sea.
Authorities say the search is being carried out within a range of 17 linear km.
What is Yellow Notice?
A Yellow Notice is a global police alert for a missing person that Interpol says is published for victims of kidnappings or "unexplained disappearances."
Once the notice is published, Interpol says police in all its member countries are notified. The notices are used to give high international visibility to cases and since missing people are flagged to border officials, Interpol says it makes travel difficult.
What happened to Sudiksha Konanki?
Konanki was on a spring break trip with friends in the Dominican tourist town of Punta Cana when she went missing.
A Dominican police source told CBS News that Konanki walked to a beach with five women she was traveling with. They were accompanied by two other American men. Konanki stayed on the beach with one of the men while the rest of the group returned to the hotel.
Surveillance video obtained by Noticias SIN, a Dominican media outlet, appears to show Konanki and the group when they were walking to the beach.
As the search continues, the sheriff for Konanki's hometown of Loudoun County acknowledged there's been "considerable public speculation" about what happened to the college student, but he cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
"Everybody's kind of working through this right now. There's a lot of folks that are involved, so we want to make sure that before we put any information out, that we get it absolutely right," Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman told KDKA-TV on Monday.
Earlier this week, the Dominican Republic National Police said they were forming a "high-level commission" to oversee Konanki's case. The University of Pittsburgh said it's been in contact with Konanki's family as well as authorities in Loudoun County.
