Michigan State Police have named a new suspect in the disappearance of MSU student Krista Lueth, a 6-year-old case that began on Nov. 11, 2008, when Lueth was last seen.
Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Tom DeClercq said Mason resident Brad Cournaya, a boyfriend of Lueth’s and convicted rapist, is now a prime suspect in her disappearance.
Besides phone records indicating Cournaya was the last to speak to Lueth, police also say Cournaya dumped Lueth’s identification cards, credit card and a busted cell phone near College Road the day of her disappearance.
Before her disappearance, Lueth, a horticulture student, left a dish of food on her stove and locked her home with her cat inside, according to previous articles in The State News. She was last seen by her longtime friend, Rick Stilgenbauer. Stilgenbauer lived in a unit below Lueth on the 1100 block of Eureka Street in Lansing. She left her car parked in the driveway, and friends began to worry when she didn’t show up for class at 6:30 p.m.
Lueth was on her way to completing a second undergraduate degree in horticulture and had plans to earn a master’s degree.
Lueth’s case is now classified as a homicide, and DeClercq said his department is working to bring justice to Lueth’s family and locate her body.
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