(NewsNation) — A judge in the Dominican Republic ruled that the last person to see missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki is free to return home to the United States.
Joshua Riibe, 22, was named as a person of interest in Konanki’s March 6 disappearance. He was not charged with wrongdoing or named as a suspect.
The ruling comes as Konanki’s parents asked authorities to declare the 20-year-old dead.
“Sudiksha’s family has expressed their belief that she drowned,” Loudon County Sheriff Michael Chapman said in a statement Tuesday.
“While a final decision to make such a declaration rests with authorities in the Dominican Republic, we will support the Konanki family in every way possible,” he added.
Authorities say that a friend who was with Riibe at the resort where Konanki went missing remains in the Dominican Republic but did not say if he was being held there or if he was free to leave the country.
