Fact Check: Old clip from Russia shared as 'Indian-origin student Sudiksha Konanki drowning'
The viral video is from June 2024 and shows a woman being swept away by strong waves during a storm on Riviera Beach in Sochi, Russia
Fact-Check
The Verdict: False
The viral video is from June 2024 and shows a woman being swept away by strong waves during a storm on Riviera Beach in Sochi, Russia.
What is the claim?
A video circulating on social media shows a man and a woman standing on a beach attempting to enter the water amid high waves. It is being shared with the claim that it shows Indian-origin U.S. student Sudiksha Konanki, who went missing on March 6, 2025, while vacationing in the Dominican Republic.
In the video, the couple can be seen playing and moving deeper into the water. As the waves hit, only the man emerges from the water while the woman is swept away.
An X user shared the video with the caption: “The family of Sudiksha Konanki now fears she drowned near the RIU Republica Resort in the Dominican Republic. WATCH how quickly waves become DANGEROUS. Joshua Riibe was the last person to see her on March 6 at 4:50 a.m. in the surf on the beachfront of the hotel (sic).”
Archived versions of similar posts on X, Facebook, and YouTube can be accessed here, here, here, and here.
Screenshot of viral posts circulating on social media. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)
The video surfaced after Sudiksha’s parents, who had initially sought an investigation into her disappearance, requested that authorities declare her dead, saying she may have drowned at Punta Cana beach.
Sudiksha, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, was on spring break in the Dominican Republic and was last seen at the Riu Republica Resort in Punta Cana. She was seen with Joshua Riibe, a student at St. Cloud State College, with whom she reportedly went for an early morning swim. Riibe, earlier named a person of interest, was questioned and later released. He has been allowed to return to the United States and is not considered a suspect.
However, the viral video is old, and the person seen drowning in the clip is not Sudiksha.
What did we find?
A reverse image search of a screenshot from the viral clip led us to an X post (archived here) shared by News.Az, a local media outlet in Azerbaijan, dated June 18, 2024. The caption read: “A young woman was swept into the open #sea during a #storm in Sochi, #Russia. She was on the beach with her boyfriend. At one moment, the waves knocked the couple off their feet. The man managed to get out, but the young woman was swept back into the sea by the current. So far nothing is known about her fate, rescuers are looking for her for the third day. (sic)”
Screenshot of the X post shared by News.Az (Source: X/News.Az/Screenshot)
A Google search using this information led us to a report published on June 19, 2024, by Moskovskij Komsomolets, a Russian newspaper. The report included a screenshot from the viral video showing the same couple. It stated that strong waves in Sochi, Russia, swept away a 20-year-old tourist. Eyewitnesses reported that the waves knocked down both individuals, but while the man stood up, the woman was pulled into the sea. The report added that a complaint was filed and rescuers searched the coastline but could not locate her.
A separate report by Russian media outlet Fontanka, published on June 18, 2024, also featured the viral clip. It stated that the incident occurred on Riviera Beach on June 16, 2024.
Further investigation revealed CCTV footage showing Sudiksha with Riibe and four other friends walking at the hotel where she was staying. Another video showed Riibe and five women leaving the beach without Sudiksha. However, there is no video evidence of Sudiksha on the beach. Authorities have yet to locate her or recover her body.
The verdict
The video showing a woman being swept away by waves during a storm in Russia in June 2024 has been falsely shared as footage of Indian-origin U.S. student Sudiksha Konanki, who went missing during her vacation in the Dominican Republic.
(This article was first written by Logically Facts, and republished by Deccan Chronicle as part of the Shakti Collective Fact Check initiative)