Americans have long looked to the Dominican Republic as a perfect escape. Just a few hours on a plane from the continental U.S. and visitors can lounge on white sand beaches and swim in the crystalline waters of another country.

The “DR,” as it’s called, evokes an easygoing – but sometimes dicey in terms of crime – Caribbean atmosphere. Violent crime is lowThat’s exactly why the disappearance of a 20-year-old woman there inspires such fears. Sudiksha Konanki, a University of Pittsburgh student, went missing last Thursday in Punta Cana, a resort town on the eastern edge of the island.

Her disappearance has left her parents devastated, sparked a media frenzy and wide-ranging speculation over just what could have happened to the young woman who was last seen on a beach with a man about her age. Scores of searchers and volunteers have combed the island to look for any trace of her.

Authorities deployed helicopters, drones, boats, and divers in an “exhaustive search by sea, air and land” to find her. In the week since her disappearance, details have begun to emerge about the days and hours leading up to when she was last seen: 

• Sunday, March 2: Spring break officially begins at the University of Pittsburgh, where Konanki is a pre-med student and part of the class of 2026. 
• Monday, March 3: Konanki arrives in Punta Cana with five girlfriends from Pitt. Spring break is supposed to last a week, according to a school schedule.
• Wednesday, March 5: A power outage begins at the resort where Konanki is staying, the Hotel Riu Republica.
• Thursday, March 6, 2 a.m.: Power is fully restored at the Hotel Riu Republica. Cameras capture several images of Konanki around the hotel with other young guests.
• Thursday, March 6, 3 a.m.: Surveillance footage shows Konanki and a group of other tourists – five women and two men – drinking in the resort lobby, a source with the Dominican National Police tell CNN.
• Thursday, March 6, 4:15 a.m.: Konanki and the crew she is partying with head for the beach, according to local authorities.
• Thursday, March 6, 4:17 a.m.: Resort cameras capture what might be “the last recorded image of her” as she’s headed to the beach with the others, the hotel company said in a statement.
• Thursday, March 6, 4:50 a.m.: Konanki is seen for the last time before her disappearance, according to the Dominican Civil Defense and missing person posters. They describe her as 5 feet 3 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a brown bikini, big round earrings, a metal designer anklet on her right leg, yellow and steel bracelets on her right wrist and a multicolored beaded bracelet on her left wrist.
• Thursday, March 6, before sunrise: Police say surveillance cameras captured five women and one man leaving the beach. Konanki apparently stayed behind with a man.
• Thursday, March 6, sometime in the morning: Surveillance video shows the man Konanki apparently stayed with leaving the beach without her.
• Thursday, March 6, sometime in the evening: The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, where Konanki’s family lives, says they were contacted about the disappearance. The sheriff’s office immediately followed up with federal law enforcement, the U.S. Department of State, and authorities in the Dominican Republic.
• Sunday, March 9: Subbarayudu Konanki, Sudiksha’s father, calls for authorities to pivot from the assumption that she drowned and consider “multiple options, like kidnapping or abduction.”
• Monday, March 10: Dominican national police authorities announce they will re-interview those who were around Konanki before her disappearance. 
• Tuesday, March 11: Authorities identify Joshua Riibe, a student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, as a person of interest in Konanki’s disappearance. Riibe is not considered a suspect.

Konanki’s disappearance marks a shocking turn in what was supposed to be a fun getaway with friends.

In brief interviews, her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, describes his daughter a “very nice girl” but also “ambitious,” according to CNN. She is a 2022 graduate of the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia; and she was a pre-med student at Pitt. 

“For spring break, she wanted to have a nice break with her friends in Punta Cana,” he told WTOP-FM. The family – originally from India – lives in Northern Virginia farm country. 

More: How Sudiksha Konanki’s disappearance echoes Natalee Holloway case and how it’s affecting travel