“Our only interest is that due process be respected and that actions be taken with the fairness that the situation requires,” it concluded. “We ask everyone to pray that Sudiksha be found and returned home to her family.”

Riibe said in his interview with Dominican authorities viewed by E! News that his friend, Konanki and her five friends had gotten shots at the bar before heading to the beach, where he and Konanki, 20, were “talking and kissing a little” in “waist-deep water.”

He recalled a “big wave” crashed over them and swept them into the current, and after surfacing, the pair “tried to call for help, but there was no one there.”  

“When I finally reached the ground on the beach, I pulled her in front of me,” Riibe, who said he swam them both to the shore, told investigators. “She went to gather her belongings since the sea had moved us. She wasn’t out of the water, as it was up to our knees.”