Joshua Riibe, last to see missing Pitt student Sudiksha Konanki alive, ‘resting up’ at Iowa home — with plans for returning to school unclear

The Iowa college senior named as a person of interest in the disappearance of missing Pitt student Sudiksha Konanki finally returned home Saturday — but it’s not clear when he’ll head back to school after what his mom called “a really sad situation.”

Joshua Riibe, 22 — the last person to see Konanki, 20, alive before officials say she drowned in the Dominican Republic — is recovering from the tragedy in his family’s home in Rock Rapids.

“It was a really sad situation. Josh is resting up right now,” his mother, Tina Riibe, told the DailyMail.

Although the distressed mother did not consent to an interview, she told the outlet that her family’s thoughts are with Konanki and her loved ones.

Tina also refused to reveal whether Riibe would return to St. Cloud State University, where he is a senior studying land surveying.

“We are keeping that to ourselves right now. It’s been a long travel,” she added. 

Riibe’s homecoming was weeks in the making, and included a long holdover in Puerto Rico over issues with a new passport he had to get in order to leave the Dominican Republic.

The passport — issued by the US Consulate in the Dominican Republic to help him leave quickly — was reportedly not stamped correctly when he left the tropical nation.

Riibe was questioned for two weeks before authorities determined there was no foul play on his part in Konanki’s disappearance, though he was the last to see her alive.

He and the pre-med student went for an early-morning swim at the RIU Hotel & Resort in Punta Cana on March 6, but the waters proved too rough for Konanki.

Riibe told cops he pulled her out of the depths so she could stand in knee-deep water before he drunkenly passed out on the beach. She has not been seen since.

The two had only met earlier that night at the hotel when Riibe’s group of friends introduced themselves to Konanki and her University of Pittsburgh girlfriends.

Suvellience footage shows the group drinking together and Riibe stumbling before they went down to the beach. The friends reportedly left, leaving Riibe and Konanki alone.

Authorities described him as a person of interest but never accused him of wrongdoing or said he was a suspect — though they still seized his passport and phone.

He was allowed to leave soon after Konanki’s grieving parents asked Dominican authorities to let him go and to also declare their daughter legally dead, saying they were convinced she drowned even though her body has not been located. 

“Both sides of the authorities have shown us how high the ocean waves were at the time of the incident, and both sides of the authorities have clarified the person of interest was not a suspect from the beginning,” Subbarayudu Konanki, the missing co-ed’s father, said from the family home in Virginia.

“It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that we are coming to terms with the fact our daughter has drowned,” he said.

“This is incredibly difficult for us to process.”