She Disappeared Without A Trace And The Police Took 15 Years To Prove Who Was Her Killer

In 2008, Krista Robin Lueth was studying a degree in Horticulture at Cornell University in Michigan to complete her training since she had previously graduated in botany.

On November 11, she left his class at 5 p.m. and took a bus to get to Her house.

When she arrived, she was talking to a friend who lived in the apartment downstairs. According to this girl, Krista told her that day that she was going to accept a job as a waitress because she had broken up with her boyfriend and that when he left the house she had to take care of his part she would be more in a hurry with money.

After talking to her friend at 6.30 p.m she left her house and no one else saw her alive again.

Not knowing anything about her, Krista’s family began to worry so they decided to tell the police to report her disappearance.

The agents went to the young woman’s house and there they discovered that Krista had closed the door and left her cat alone. In addition, the lights were on and she had food in a pot. It seemed as if she had left the house but with the intention of returning right away.

Her loved ones describe her as a reliable and responsible woman who would never have abandoned her pet or left without warning.

The friend who saw her on the day of her disappearance told the police that when she talked to her she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary in her behavior. And she hadn’t heard anything strange in his house either.

The investigators immediately focused their attention on Krista’s ex-boyfriend, a man named Brad Cournaya.

The couple started dating at the beginning of 2008 and immediately went to live together, but they broke up after a few months.

After the breakup, Krista told her father that Cournaya was chasing her and calling her constantly, even when she had already told him to leave her alone.

Interestingly, as the records show, Cournaya was the last person to call Krista on the phone, and investigating the man’s cell phone they were able to find out that he placed him very close to his ex-girlfriend’s house that night.

They also discovered that he had several backgrounds. In 1986, when he was only 18 years old, he entered a house and abused a woman, so he was sentenced to spend between 10 and 15 years in prison.

In the year 2000 he was released and went back to crime. On this occasion he abused another woman again and was in prison for 8 years. In 2007 he was released on parole and shortly after he met Krista.

It is important to mention that during the investigation a sheriff’s assistant recalled that the night Krista disappeared helped Cournaya when his truck broke up on the U.S. 127 road, and months later, very close to this road the investigators found the mobile phone and Krista’s driver’s license.

Because of all this, in 2009, Kista’s disappearance was classified by the police as a homicide.

Cornuella was interrogated on several occasions and in 2014 he was declared the main suspect in the alleged murder of Krista.

The investigators had the theory that this man picked up Krista at her house, took her to a secluded area where they argued and there he took her life.

But despite this hypothesis they did not have enough evidence to accuse him, among other things because the young woman’s body had not appeared. So the case ended up getting cold.

However, in 2021, Cornwall was officially charged with the alleged murder of Krista. Although it is not yet clear what has led the detectives to do this, or what new evidence they have found, they have managed to accuse this 53-year-old man.

Anyway, Cornwall was already in prison because in 2017 he was sentenced to spend between 17 and 40 years in prison for child trafficking. In this case, the prosecutor’s office said that it had “almost no potential for rehabilitation, something that was later ratified by the judge.

Conualla said that he was not guilty of the disappearance or death of his ex-girlfriend.

In June 2023, the trial for the death of Krista was held. According to the prosecutor, although the body had not appeared, they had enough evidence to confirm that the woman had been murdered by her ex-boyfriend.

“There is only one conclusion (to draw) beyond a reasonable doubt, and, tragically, that conclusion is that Krista Lueth is dead,» Deputy Chief Assistant Ingham County Prosecutor Bill Crino said during closing arguments in Cournaya’s trial on a murder charge. «We don’t know the mechanism; we do not have to prove that … We only need to prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant committed an act that caused Krista Lueth’s death.”

For all that, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Roy Lueth, Krista’s father, stated the following:

“I lost my daughter, and this is not going to bring her back. But my point over the last 15 years has been to absolutely make sure that it has been put in a place where I can’t keep hurting people.”

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Sources:

https://eu.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2023/06/26/krista-lueth-disappearance-death-murder-trial-brad-cournaya/70357590007/