Search for missing Baruch student resumed

Last week investigators re-opened a 12-year-old case in the search for Kristine Kupka, a missing Baruch student, when they were finally granted access to the basement of a suspect shop in Queens.

Kupka, 28, last contacted her sister on October 24, 1998, when she was five months pregnant, and romantically involved with then Baruch chemistry professor Darshanand Persaud.

Detectives believed that Kupka may have been murdered at the store in Jamaica, Queens and possibly buried there. But the shop had been owned by Persaud's cousin, Khemraj Maraj, who denied police access to the building. The police did not have enough evidence to obtain a warrant.

When the shop was leased to a public supply company, police were finally able to reopen the case.

During the search last week, an NYPD cadaver dog indicated that someone might be buried in the concrete in the shop's basement, but further digs have produced no results so far.

According to the Daily News, the NYPD is maintaining Persaud as the lead suspect. Persaud, who is working as a dentist in Florida, has refused to co-operate with officials.

Before Kupka went missing, the relationship between her and Persaud had soured after she found out that he was married. He also insisted that she had an abortion, claiming that it would "destroy his family," according to a 48 Hours report.

According to a kristinekupka.org, a website ran by Kupka's sister Kathy, Kristine had warned her roommate; "If anything happens to me, Rudy [Persaud] did it."