While Americans are planning spring break abroad after the disappearance of the American student Sudiksha Konanki, a veteran of the secret service and travel safety expert guidance to stay safe on vacation.
“I think that when we are talking about travel security, whether it is studying abroad or for the spring break, there are a number of things that students, or someone else, must be careful when they go to these types of locations,” said Bobby McDonald, an agent of the secret service for more than 20 years of presidential, Vice -Vice.
Konanki, a 20-year-old student from the University of Pittsburgh from Virginia, who was in the Dominican Republic, disappeared from the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana in the early morning hours of 6 March.
American student Sudiksha Konanki’s disappearance in Dominican Republic: Timeline
People enjoy time on the beach in the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic March 14, 2025. (Fox News Digital)
McDonald, professor in criminal law at the University of New Haven, advised Spring Breakers to stay close to areas they are familiar with travel abroad.
“You want to try to stay on the site, in the resort, if you want,” he said. “Once you get rid of the building, it is very quickly that you can find yourself in an area that you don’t want to be.”
Traveling in groups is also of the utmost importance, he added, and noticed that spring breakers were not allowed to separate.
“You know, we want our students to go outside and have a good time and blow off steam, but you have to be so careful. And again, run in packs with your group,” said McDonald. ‘Stay in and around the hotel. If you were in the hotel and something would go wrong, know where you would go.
“For example, I believe that one night in the hotel they had a power outage where the young lady is staying, and reports indicate that everyone went to the beach to cool down a bit. Everyone was there in a pack, hopefully, a little bit with that situation and looking at each other.”
A view of the beach in Bimini, Bahamas, May 1, 2024. (Jakub Porzycki/Nurphoto via Getty images)
Several guests of the RIU Republica during the disappearance of Konanki on their social media accounts about the electricity and water failure in the five-star resort. D’lani Sweeney, who was a guest at the resort when Konanki disappeared, Fox News Digital told the Situation was “chaotic” In the resort.
The resort said that the power outage did not play a role in the disappearance of Konanki, and said that power was being restored before Konanki was reported as missing.
“The electrical malfunction took place in the early hours from Tuesday 4 March to Wednesday 5 March, specifically at 1:27 am,” Marc Miralles Pons, a spokesperson for RIU Republica, told Fox News Digital. “Two hours later, the service was restored to 70%, while the remaining power supply was fully restored in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, especially at 2:13 pm, which is before the time of the disappearance.”
Konanki is supposed to have disappeared around 4:30 am on March 6.
Grace Bay Beach, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, overseas dependence on the United Kingdom. (Getty Images)
If a friend is missing abroad, McDonald explained a protocol to cope with the situation.
“The first thing you have to do is to report it to the hotel,” he said. “Secondly, you have to call the police at the hotel to come and help find that person, and that is the way time goes, you have to let the American consulate or the American embassy know.
“Every time we travel outside the United States, you must have the number of consulate of the United States or the American embassy where you are going, so that you can quickly pull it on your phone and let the embassy know that you need some help,” McDonald added. “You want someone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be involved fairly quickly if someone in your party is missing.”
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The last acquaintance Images of Konanki Came from a security camera and showed her walking with a group of people to the beach in her resort in Punta Cana. It was considered a case of missing person, not a criminal, the authorities said.
Disappearances of women such as Konanki and Natalee Holloway, Those who disappeared in Aruba in 2005 during a graduation trip in high school have become high -profile matters over the years. Men are not immune to these guidelines for travel safety, but McDonald warned.
“I think we traditionally think that it is more women who are the target,” he said. “But no, I think men are just as susceptible to bad activities at such locations as women. They must also be very careful.”
People enjoy time on the beach in the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, March 13, 2025. (Santiago Baez for Fox News Digital)
Although men who are the last to be seen with a missing woman are often the subject of intense research, McDonald said that security assurance is now a common part of daily life, which should give them a degree of comfort.
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People enjoy a day in Playa Delfines Beach in the Hotel Zone of Cancun, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, November 8, 2022. (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty images)
“There are security cameras everywhere now,” he said. “So whether you are on a street corner in New York City, whether you are in the Punta Cana Resort, there are security cameras everywhere. So if you do nothing that you should not do, you have nothing to worry about. But also remember that many places have no complete coverage of security cameras. In other words, there are bits and pieces on the road.”
