American last to see missing Pitt student alive in Dominican Republic lands in U.S.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — An American who was the last person believed to have been seen with missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki in the Dominican Republic was back in the United States on Wednesday, nearly two weeks after, he said, authorities forced him to stay in the Caribbean nation and confiscated his passport.

NBC News saw Joshua Riibe at Las Américas International Airport in Santo Domingo, the country’s capital, where he boarded a plane and took off Wednesday evening. NBC News was first to report that he had landed back on U.S. soil.

He was with a man whom Riibe's attorney's have identified as his father. They were accompanied by a woman at the check-in area who stayed behind as they went through the security screening.

NBC News saw an airport employee assisting in boarding.

Riibe's departure ends what his attorneys allege was a dayslong detainment in the Dominican Republic as investigators questioned him in connection with Konanki’s disappearance on March 6.

Riibe, 22, has been kept under police supervision at the hotel where Konanki was staying on a spring break trip when she vanished, according to Riibe and his attorneys. Local authorities also confiscated Riibe’s passport, they said.

Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, has not been charged with a crime, and no suspects in Konanki’s disappearance have been named, according to the Dominican Republic National Police.

A Dominican judge ruled Tuesday that he was no longer required to be under police supervision.

Riibe would have needed to go to the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo to obtain an emergency U.S. passport in the country.

“The US Embassy is in communication with him and his family and his lawyer, and we are providing consular assistance as well,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a briefing Wednesday before Riibe’s departure.

One of Riibe's attorneys said in a statement Wednesday evening that the La Altagracia Prosecutor’s Office told Riibe after Tuesday's hearing that it was prepared return the passport Wednesday; however, Riibe decided to apply for a new one through the U.S. government for "privacy reasons."

A new passport was "issued urgently," the attorney said.

Prosecutors had said in open court Tuesday that they did not know where Riibe's passport was.

National Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Riibe's departure. The country's attorney general did not immediately respond to a request for information about his passport.

Konanki's disappearance has drawn widespread attention in recent weeks.

Konanki, a junior at the University of Pittsburgh, was on spring break with five friends at a beach resort in Punta Cana when she disappeared early March 6. That morning, her friends returned to the hotel from the beach, but she stayed behind with people she met from the trip, authorities said.

Riibe, who is from Rock Rapids, Iowa, told local investigators in an interview last week that he was on the beach with Konanki shortly before she disappeared, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by NBC News.

The transcript says Riibe and Konanki were “in waist-deep water, talking and kissing a little,” before a wave crashed, taking them both “out to sea.”

Police have said they found no signs of violence at the beach. A spokesperson for the hotel where Konanki was staying also said red flags, which indicate “that the sea had a strong current and very high waves,” were flying on the morning she vanished.

Konanki's parents told reporters outside their home in Loudoun County, Virginia, that they have given up hope that their daughter is still alive.

“We are coming to terms with the fact that our daughter has drowned,” her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, said through tears. “This is incredibly difficult for us to process.”

Her parents called on local police to declare their daughter dead earlier in the week. Her father added Tuesday that they came to reason that their daughter drowned based on the information U.S. and local authorities gave them.

“Both sides of the authorities have shown us how high the ocean waves were at the time of [the] incident,” he said. “And both sides of the authorities also clarified that the person of interest is not suspect from the beginning.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com