Friends of the last person to see missing Pitt student Sudiksha Konanki are in “total shock” he has been named a person of interest in the case — while his aunt insisted he “wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Joshua Steven Riibe, 24, has been identified as the man seen hugging and walking hand-in-hand with the 20-year-old student just hours before she vanished in the Dominican Republic a week ago.
He was called a person of interest — but “not a suspect” — in part from reportedly giving conflicting accounts of his final moments with Konanki, including one version saying he got out of the rough surf and passed out drunk on the beach — only to wake up to find her gone.
Friends and relatives insist that the former high school wrestler and football player would never have done anything wrong.
“He’s a great kid. He wouldn’t hurt a fly,” an aunt, Theresa Riibe, told the Daily Mail.
A neighbor in Riibe’s hometown of Rock Rapids, Iowa, also told the outlet she was “in total shock” over the news.
“I bet my life on it, Josh did not hurt that girl,” his next-door neighbor, Laurel Schreiver, said.
“I’ve known Josh since he was a young boy. There is no way he would harm her or have anything to do with her disappearance.”
Schreiver described him as “a super good kid” and a “friendly and good student.”
“If he was drunk as I’ve read, that was not the smartest thing to do, but he’s in college on spring break,” Schreiver said, later reiterating: “There is no way he would have hurt the girl.”
“I am sure both families are devastated. Josh’s family are great typical small-town Midwest people,” Schreiver added.
Riibe is currently a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he has a girlfriend, his uncle, Richard, told Daily Mail.
Surveillance footage of the night Konanki went missing shows her walking with Riibe near the beach around 4:15 a.m. At one point, the pair can be seen holding hands as Konanki’s spring-break friends from college walk nearby.
The Dominican Republic National Police said that Konanki, from Virginia, and her pals took to the beach after attending a disco because the Riu Republica Hotel, where they were staying, was experiencing a power outage.
In an email to The Post on Wednesday, Chad Quinn, a spokesman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Konanki’s hometown, confirmed Riibe was a person of interest but cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
“This is not at this time a criminal investigation, so to be clear, he is not a suspect,” Quinn said. “It is our understanding that he is a US citizen who was vacationing in Punta Cana, not part of the group traveling with the missing person.
“A number of people have been interviewed by the Dominican National Police with the assistance of the FBI and this is continuing. Our office will have a presence on the ground today too.”
Officials also issued a yellow notice, an international alert used to help locate a missing person, for Konanki this week.
Authorities in the Caribbean island said approximately 300 law enforcement personnel are involved in the search, including the FBI, the agency confirmed this week. The rough surf has complicated the hunt.
Local police initially suggested Konanki drowned during the early swim. However, her family believes she is a crime victim — and may have been abducted.
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