Higuy, Dominican Republic – The last person believed to have been missing from University of Pittsburgh student Suddiksha Conanki and the American who said he wanted to return to the US was not under police supervision, a Dominican judge ruled Tuesday, but the issue of passports still has to be resolved.
The verdict was a partial victory for Joshua Libe, 22, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, who said he was kept in a hotel room and was not allowed to leave without supervision after Conanki disappeared.
“He’s an eyewitness. He’s been working together and working together,” Magistrate Edwis Lyo Delgado said in Spanish on Tuesday as he gave a habeas-protected petition.
The Libe is believed to be the last person seen along with 20-year-old Conanki on a beach in the Dominican Republic on early March 6th.
Her parents said Tuesday that authorities said they believed she had been drowned and that there were high sea waves when she disappeared. When she disappeared, she was on a spring break trip with five female friends. Her body has not been found.
The judge added that his court was not a suitable venue to sort out Ribe’s passport issues, and that he could only control whether Riibe should be allowed to move freely.
Prosecutors didn’t answer when NBC News asked where the Riibe’s passport was outside of court and which agency had it.
“I don’t know about passports,” said Eduardo Belazuquez, a prosecutor with the Dominican Republic’s Attorney General’s Office. Looking for an answer, he added in English, “I don’t speak English.”
It is unclear where the Riibe passport is and how and where the issue will work.
The judge had scheduled a meeting in court on March 28th.
Libe has not been charged with a crime and Dominican national police said there are no suspects in the loss of Conanki. Libe said he wanted to return to the US.
“I can’t go anywhere, so I just want to be able to get home,” Libe said previously.
Libe’s lawyers say they have been locked up at the resort where Conanki was staying before he disappeared since the investigation began.
National Police did not confirm or deny that Libe’s passport had been confiscated or that he was unable to leave the hotel. On Tuesday, prosecutors denied Libe being held in the hotel.
Upon entering the court on Tuesday, Riibe immediately flocked to international media, but refused to answer questions.
Sometimes hearings that had been stretched for hours were controversial. The Libe seemed calm and concentrated.
According to a transcript of an interview obtained by NBC News, Liebe said in an interview with local government last week that he was on the beach with Conanki just before he disappeared.
According to a transcript translated from Spanish by NBC News, he said he and Conanki were “talking a bit and kissing in the deep waters of their waists.”
“I kept trying to make her breathe, but it didn’t allow me to breathe all the time, and I swallowed a lot of water,” Libe said.
Despite the struggle, Libe told investigators, he was able to help Conanki go to the shore before she disappeared.
“The last time I saw her, I asked if she was okay. I didn’t hear her answer,” he said. “I looked around and saw no one. I thought she grabbed hers and left.”
Libe added that she was surprised she learned about her loss later.
He said Conanki’s family recently met him at a hotel and described their interaction as positive and said goodbye to him when the family left the resort.
“‘Thank you for saving my daughter for the first time,” he recalled Conanki’s mother told him.
Speaking to reporters outside their home in Loudon County, Virginia on Tuesday, Conanki’s parents told them that authorities believe their daughter owned.
“It has a deep sorrow, sadness, heavy and heavy heart. We reach the fact and conditions that my daughter owned,” said Subbarayudu of Conanki. “This is very difficult for us to handle.”
Conanki’s father added that both US and Dominican authorities showed the family how high the ocean waves were when Conanki disappeared. They did not comment on the Libe hearing or specifically name him, but authorities said “it made it clear that anyone interested was not a suspect from the start.”
On Monday, Conanki’s parents sent a letter to the National Police Department, asking authorities to declare her death, police said.
“Initiating this process allows the family to begin a grief process and address issues related to her absence,” they write. “While the declaration really does not relieve the sadness, I believe this step will bring some closure and allow us to respect her memory.”
Dominican authorities said Thursday that no one was considered a suspect and that they did not use the term “person of interest” as the Loudoan County Sheriff’s Office described the Ribe. The Sheriff’s Office has dispatched staff to assist authorities in Punta Cana, but has no jurisdiction over the investigation.
Conanki, a junior biology student at the University of Pittsburgh, was staying at Riu República, a five-star hotel in Punta Cana.
The morning she disappeared, her friend left the beach and returned to her hotel. Authorities say Conanki fell behind with people he met on the trip.
Police say no signs of violence have been found on the beach. A red flag indicating “there was a strong current and very high waves in the ocean,” according to a hotel spokesperson, was flying when Conanki disappeared.
Jesse Kirsch, Debra Jones and Carlos Catire reported from Matt Lavietes, New York, from Higüey.
