FBI joins search for missing US college student in the Dominican Republic: police

The FBI is now involved in searching for the 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student who went missing in the Dominican Republic, according to police in the Caribbean country.

The student, Sudiksha Konanki, was last seen on security camera footage at about 4:15 a.m. on March 6, the Dominican Republic Public Ministry told ABC News.

She was on a trip with six female students from the university. Konanki is a legal permanent resident of the U.S. and a citizen of India. The other women went back to the hotel, but Konanki reportedly stayed behind with another person.

Her parents hired a private investigator who said he doesn't think she drowned as previously reported.

"I don't think that she drowned in the ocean," said private investigator TJ Ward, according to Fox News. "I totally believe that somebody knows something where she is, or somebody took her away, or somebody's holding her somewhere."

Police have reportedly conducted several interviews with a man seen on a beach last week at about the same time Konanki went missing.

"There's bad people out in the middle of the night, and I don't know why she was out at 4:30 in the morning, or where her friends were, but you can't be by yourself like that, walking in a country that you know nothing about," Ward said. "You need to stay in groups and where you're not going to be a target."