Connect with us

Pittsburg, PA

Missing University of Pittsburgh student was last on beach with people she met on trip, authorities say

Published

on

Missing University of Pittsburgh student was last on beach with people she met on trip, authorities say


As the nearly weeklong search for the University of Pittsburgh student who vanished while on spring break in the Dominican Republic continues, Virginia authorities said she was last seen on the beach with people she met during her trip.

The frantic search for the 20-year-old junior Sudiksha Konanki entered its fifth day Tuesday.

Dominican Republic National Police said late Monday they are expanding the search by re-interviewing the last people who interacted with Konanki, her friends and hotel staff. They are also expanding surveys of surveillance footage.

The biology student had traveled to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with five friends from college on March 3. 

Advertisement
Sudiksha Konanki.via Instagram

Konanki was last with people not part of her college friend group

The college student disappeared after 4:15 a.m. March 6 after she and her friends were seen on video surveillance entering the beach area of the RIU Republic Resort, where they were staying, Dominican Republic National Police said.

Her friends returned to the hotel, but Konanki didn’t, Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman said.

Konanki stayed on the beach with other people who were not from the University of Pittsburgh that she had met while on the trip, the sheriff told NBC Washington on Monday. Dominican authorities are talking to those people, he said.

Dominican police said Monday that they were also interviewing a man who was at the beach around the same time and were trying to corroborate his story.

Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said in a news conference Monday that one of the last people who had contact with Konanki reported “that a wave hit them while they were on the beach and caused some kind of situation,” citing local reports.

Advertisement

“We are investigating to clarify exactly what happened,” Abinder said, expressing sympathy for Konanki’s family.

There were no signs of blood or aggression found at the beach, DR National Police PIO Diego Pesqueira said.

Police had a team on the beach overnight on at least two occasions watching how the water moves to see where a body would drift if someone drowned. They were also looking to see where the waves crash.  

Konanki’s friends went on an excursion March 6 and didn’t realize she was missing until about 4 p.m. that day, Pesqueira said.

The RIU Hotel said there was an electrical issue at the resort where Konanki was staying that started at 1 a.m. March 5 and was resolved by 3 a.m. March 6. The hotel also said access to the beach is always open and security guards are stationed around the hotel and area. 

Advertisement

The investigation: A search by land and sea, and combing through phone records

Konanki is a citizen of India but a permanent resident of the U.S. from Chantilly, Virginia, according to the sheriff’s office. Chapman said she was reported missing to the office early Thursday evening.

The investigation is being led by Dominican police, the Dominican Republic’s Attorney General’s Office, the FBI and U.S. embassy liaison. The search includes search and rescue, the Dominican Navy, helicopters, boats and drones and K-9 officers.  

Chapman said officials are also looking into Konanki’s phone and texts.

“We’re not ruling anything in or ruling anything out just yet,” he said.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said it filed for a yellow notice — a worldwide police alert for a missing person — to be issued by INTERPOL. 

Advertisement

“If she travels to another country or whatever, we’ll be alerted on that. We are going on the presumption that she’s still alive,” Chapman said. “We want to make sure that we’re exhausting every possible lead that we can and we feel we’re doing that.”

‘She was a brilliant student’

Shekar Pendem, a neighbor and family friend of Konanki’s family, described her as a kind and smart woman in the close-knit community. 

“She was a brilliant student. She went to one of the great schools,” Pendem said. He lived next to the Konanki family for more than 10 years, and said she has two younger siblings, who are twins. 

“It’s already going on four days, and the family is so sad,” he said. “They should expand the search beyond just the resort area to the city and town, and hopefully that may give some clue. We are really hoping for her to return.”





Source link

Advertisement

Pittsburg, PA

Man’s body found underneath trailer behind former Shop ‘n Save in Carrick

Published

on

Man’s body found underneath trailer behind former Shop ‘n Save in Carrick



Pittsburgh Police detectives are investigating after a man’s body was found underneath a trailer behind the former Shop ‘n Save store in the city’s Carrick neighborhood.

Pittsburgh Public Safety said late Monday night that detectives from the Violent Crime division responded to the area of Amanda Street and Wynoka Street in Carrick after a man’s body was found around 8:30 p.m.

Public Safety said the man’s body was found underneath a trailer and that he was pronounced dead by medics at the scene.

Advertisement

Pittsburgh Police detectives are investigating after a man’s body was found underneath a trailer in the city’s Carrick neighborhood on Monday night.

Pittsburgh Public Safety


A photo provided by Pittsburgh Public Safety shows officers surrounding a taped off area and what appears to be a refrigerated trailer parked at the loading dock along Amanda Street behind the former Brownsville Shop n’ Save, which closed its doors last month

No details surrounding the circumstances of the man’s death were provided by Public Safety, who said that the cause and the manner of the man’s death will be determined by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Advertisement

The man’s identity has not been released.

Public Safety said the investigation into the man’s death is “ongoing.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Pittsburg, PA

Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County

Published

on

Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County



In the early 1960s, the peregrine falcon population declined so sharply that the raptors weren’t even nesting in Pennsylvania. But now, the National Aviary says a record number have been counted in Allegheny County.

Advertisement

The National Aviary says six peregrine falcons were recorded in the county during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The nation’s longest-running citizen science project collects data on bird populations for ornithologists, the aviary says. It also plays a role in guiding conservation action, like what was needed to bring peregrine falcons back from the brink of extinction. 

Because of the use of DDT, peregrine falcons were no longer nesting in the state of Pennsylvania by the early 1960s, the aviary said. But after the harmful pesticide, which negatively affects reproduction rates in birds, was banned in 1972, conservation efforts have helped the peregrine falcon rebound. It was removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999 and Pennsylvania’s list in 2021. 

The record number of peregrine falcons in Allegheny County is thanks in part to the nest on top of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. For the past two years, biologists with the Pennsylvania Game Commission have banded chicks born in the nest. Three were banded last year, and two the year before that. 

People can watch Carla and Ecco raise their family in the nest on a livestream camera run by the National Aviary. Carla laid her first egg of the breeding season on March 16 last year, so the aviary says the start of another season isn’t too far away. 

Advertisement



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Pittsburg, PA

Police investigating two late-night McKeesport shootings

Published

on

Police investigating two late-night McKeesport shootings



Police are investigating two shootings that happened less than 30 minutes apart on Sunday night in McKeesport. 

Two men were injured in the shootings that happened at two different locations. 

Allegheny County Police said that the department’s Homicide Unit was requested and responded to assist in the shooting investigations.

Advertisement

According to police, officers were first called to the area of Lysle Boulevard and Huey Street, where a man was shot just after 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night.

KDKA’s news crew at the scene saw the outside of the Sunoco gas station along Lysle Boulevard lined with crime tape and what appeared to be blood on the front door of the store. 

Police are investigating two late-night shootings that happened in McKeesport on Sunday. Officers were called to a gas station along Lysle Boulevard and an alleyway near Madison Avenue around 30 minutes apart Sunday night.It’s unclear at this time if the two shootings are related or connected.

KDKA Photojournalist Bryce Lutz

Advertisement


Police also had an area taped off around the intersection of nearby 5th Avenue and Huey Street.  The man who was shot in the area was taken to the hospital in stable condition.

Police said they are also investigating a shooting that happened in the area of an alleyway behind Madison Avenue, where another man was shot Dispatchers said the second shooting happened around 25 minutes after the first.

The two shooting scenes in McKeesport are located around 1/4 of a mile apart.

At the second shooting scene, KDKA’s news crew at the scene saw police taping off an alleyway between Madison Avenue and Petty Street. 

screenshot-2026-03-02-004551.png

Police are investigating two late-night shootings that happened in McKeesport on Sunday. Officers were called to a gas station along Lysle Boulevard and an alleyway near Madison Avenue around 30 minutes apart Sunday night.

Advertisement

KDKA Photojournalist Bryce Lutz


Officers at the scene were shining flashlights and looking into a black sedan that had its flashers on.  The man who was shot in the area of Madison Avenue was taken to the hospital in stable condition.

Police didn’t specify if the two shootings are believed to be related.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending