A 20-year-old Indian American girl, Sudiksha Konanki, who went to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) with four other female friends from the University of Pittsburgh, has left her Indian parents in Virginia devastated. She went missing.
Sudiksha Konanki was last seen around 4 AM in hotel surveillance videos at the Riu República Hotel lobby, along with two men.
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Later, her friends returned to the hotel, but Sudiksha never did. Punta Cana police have placed one man under monitoring at the same hotel as they investigate, while Sudiksha’s parents suspect foul play.
This is truly tragic and heartbreaking for her parents. One can’t even imagine what they are going through as their 20-year-old daughter remains missing.
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Below is an open letter to Indian parents in the U.S. who nod their heads to everything their kids ask for—please read and share.
The story of the Indian girl Sudiksha Konanki who disappeared in the Dominican Republic has so many red flags.
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She is just 20 years old and traveled with five of her female friends to a resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to celebrate spring break. She arrived on Monday.
On Wednesday night, all six friends went to a nightclub. At 4 AM, they were at the beach. A boy from Iowa, who was also staying at the hotel, befriended them. They all went swimming. At 6:55 AM, the other five girls returned to the hotel, leaving Sudiksha and the boy alone at the beach.
The boy returned at 9:50 AM and said, “She and I were swimming. A big wave took her in. I came back to the beach, collapsed on a chair, and just woke up.”
He is the last known person to have seen her.
Her family, cousins, and some family friends are now in Punta Cana, desperately searching for her. Drones and helicopters are involved in the search. Her parents suspect kidnapping or foul play, but there is no evidence to confirm anything. If she drowned, her body could be anywhere in the Atlantic by now, possibly eaten by fish or sharks.
I can’t believe her parents agreed to send her to a place like the Dominican Republic, which US travel guidelines warn against due to high crime rates, including violent crime, robbery, and sexual assault.
If the argument is that she is an adult and went there on her own without informing her parents, then who ended up in Punta Cana, desperately searching for her and suffering through this ordeal? Her parents, cousins, and family.
Whose idea was it to go to a nightclub and then head to the beach at 4 AM?
If they were hungover, could that have affected her swimming ability?
Can a 20-year-old truly trust a group of friends to go abroad and ensure their safety?
If you travel abroad as a group and don’t listen to your friends’ advice, or if your friends don’t care enough to stop you from staying behind with a stranger, who is responsible if something goes wrong?
This situation raises many serious questions about safety, responsibility, and trust while traveling abroad. It also raises a big red flag about the nature of parent-adult child relationships in the US.
Tell your kids: You may become a legal adult, but your parents will often pay the price for the consequences of your actions—sometimes in foreign lands, in tears, and negotiating with strangers. Don’t put them in such a situation.
By Neander Selvan
