Video from Russia misrepresented as clip of missing US student

Published on March 24, 2025 at 18:54
3 min read
By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA

Social media users are claiming a video of surging waves pulling a woman into the ocean shows Sudiksha Konanki, the 20-year-old US university student who went missing during a March 2025 spring break trip to the Dominican Republic. This is false; the clip circulating across platforms depicts a different person who was swept away in Sochi, Russia in June 2024.

"CAUTION: The family of Sudiksha Konanki now fears she drowned near the RIU Republica Resort in the Dominican Republic," says a March 19, 2025 post sharing the footage on X. "WATCH how quickly waves become DANGEROUS."

The video shows a man and woman embracing in knee-deep water before crashing waves knock the couple over, carrying the woman away and out of sight as the man frantically tries to rescue her.

Screenshot from X taken March 20, 2025

Similar posts shared the video across X and other platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube.

The posts spread as Subbarayudu and Sreedevi Konanki said in a letter to Dominican authorities that they believed their daughter Sudiksha had drowned. The parents asked that she be declared dead so they could "begin the grieving process."

The younger Konanki, an Indian woman and US resident, was last seen March 6, three days after arriving at a Punta Cana resort with a group of friends.

American Joshua Riibe, 22, is believed to have been the last person with Konanki after hotel cameras captured them together the morning of March 6. US media reports said he told authorities he met Konanki the night before her disappearance, and that the two were kissing in the water when a strong wave hit them.

After reaching the sand, Riibe said he saw Konanki walking in shallow water before he vomited and passed out. There has been no criminal investigation against Riibe, who has since been allowed to return to the United States.

The video spreading on social media does not show those moments, however.

Reverse image searches revealed the clip is months-old and shows a different man and woman in Sochi, Russia (archived here).

Russian news outlets and other media and social media posts said the woman was swept away June 16, 2024 at Riviera Beach in the resort city along the Black Sea (archived here, here and here). The woman's body was recovered days later, per the reports.

Photos on Google Maps and Russia's Yandex Maps show what appears to be a matching coastline at Riviera Beach (archived here, here, here and here). The Dominican Republican beach where Konanki disappeared looks different, photos show.

The X user who shared the footage later acknowledged in a series of comments under his post that the clip captured the drowning episode in Russia, not Konanki.

AFP has debunked other misinformation here.

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