Feature

The Vanishing

By summer's end, to the relief of Kristine's friends, Rudy and his wife had slipped out of her life, which seemed to return to normal. But at the beginning of October, Rudy was back. His parents were out of town, he said, and his wife had kicked him out. He was staying with a cousin, Kristine told friends. One day, he met Kristine on her porch -- he was "disheveled," she said -- and told her he was hungry, that he was waiting for Dunkin' Donuts to throw out its leftovers. Did she believe him? Her mother says: "She doubted that he was actually kicked out, but it made her feel bad." Nevertheless, others say she wanted to help him. "She said they would spend days together and kind of walk around," Valerie Santos says. "That they were affectionate but not sexual. She encouraged Rudy to get back with his wife."

He was cool toward the pregnancy, Kristine reported to her confidants. It bothered her that he would pat her head but never touch her stomach. Yet he also seemed to embrace paternal involvement. According to what Kristine told friends, he offered to be the birthing coach. And he said he wanted to give the baby a Hindu name. Still, "she was very confused," Valerie Santos says, "because Rudy had gone from one extreme to another in a really short amount of time. She was not listening to her gut anymore, because his nice behavior had swayed her." Yet she never entirely surrendered her skepticism.

During the last two weeks before she disappeared, in "every conversation we had," Nick says, her wariness of Rudy "always came up. She was afraid of him; she was afraid he was going to get somebody to punch her in the stomach." Ozlem and Kathy say Kristine discussed such fears with them too. But she usually concluded that he wouldn't hurt her, because if something happened to her, it would be too obvious; all fingers would point to him.

The third week in October, Kristine was feeling upbeat. She had $7,000 in her savings account, and she had chosen a birthing center on West 14th Street. Just before she disappeared, she stopped by to visit with Anthon Grant at school. They sat together in the student-government office and talked about her future. "She looked so good pregnant," he remembers ruefully, "and she seemed so happy."

If you have any information on the disappearance of Kristine Kupka, please call the police -- 800-577-TIPS -- or log onto the family's Website: www.kristinekupka.com