Sudiksha Konanki’s puzzling disappearance comes as thousands of students prepare to embark on spring break trips of their own.

• University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki went missing while on spring break in the Dominican Republic.
• Konanki’s disappearance shares similarities with the Natalee Holloway case from 2005, raising concerns about student travel safety.
• Authorities are investigating Konanki’s disappearance but have not classified it as criminal, while her father has urged them to consider possibilities like kidnapping.
• The incident has sparked anxiety among some parents and students planning spring break trips, but travel agencies report minimal cancellations.

A night out in the Caribbean. Blurry surveillance footage. A mysterious disappearance. Worried parents demanding answers. Sound familiar? 

University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki vanished from a beach in the Dominican Republic last Thursday while on spring break with five friends. Authorities say she was last seen with a man whom she is believed to have met in the resort town of Punta Cana. 

Early details of her case are eerily similar to the disappearance of another American student almost 20 years ago. On May 30, 2005, Natalee Holloway did not return to her hotel room after a night out drinking with friends in Aruba on her high school graduation trip. Her murder would go unsolved for more than a decade.  

The questions surrounding Holloway’s final moments captured the attention of the entire country for days, weeks and years after her death – dominating the 24/7 news cycle, inspiring dozens of books and documentaries, and helping to germinate America’s obsession with true crime. 

Holloway’s mom, Beth Holloway, told Fox News that she hoped the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic would be able to help Konanki’s family find answers.

“The family is so fortunate to have an American embassy there to work with. I did not have that in Aruba,” Holloway said. “Surely they are checking cameras from hotel, gas stations, traffic lights, store fronts and wherever they had dinner, any casinos they visited, the beach areas.”

More: Punta Cana: What to know about the resort town where Sudiksha Konanki was last seen

Echoes of Natalee Holloway

Holloway’s case struck fear in many young Americans, particularly women, and their parents about traveling abroad. The idea that tragedy could unfold in a place that looked like paradise was “unsettling” to an American public that associated tourism with safety said Amy Shlosberg, a professor of criminology at Fairleigh Dickinson University and host of the podcast Women & Crime. 

Holloway was traveling with a large group of students on a high school graduation trip when she died. On their last night in Aruba − May 29, 2005 − she and a few friends went to a local bar to get drinks. Holloway was seen leaving with a group of men, including a Dutch teenager named Joran van der Sloot.