Maria, or the Pyre Case

In 2000, Lourdes Gruart disappears from her home in New York City. Her brother says she told him she was off to Europe for a job, but she didn’t have an active passport and she didn’t mention this trip to anyone else.

Lourdes Gruart’s Early Years

In 1960, Lourdes and her parents, Mario and Lourdes, leave their home in Havana, Cuba. Fidel Castro had just overthrown Batista the year before, and the Gruarts were part of what was known as the golden exile of Cubans as families fled the country.

The Gruarts first ended up in Texas and moved around the southern part of the United States until they settled in Plantation, Florida. While in America, they had three more children. There is a 15 year difference between Lourdes and her youngest sibling, her brother M.

During her time in Florida, Lourdes was active in her high school serving on the homecoming court and as a cheerleader. By 14, she was already 5’7” tall, so she also worked seasonal fashion shows in Florida.

When she graduated high school, she went on to study international affairs at the University of South Florida while still keeping active in local modeling shows and dancing. Once she graduated college, though, she decided to try to make a career out of modeling and ended up in New York City. There, she tried to get her modeling career off the ground and supported herself by working as a restaurant hostess. 

From there, she decided to move to Milan, Italy, where fashion houses had moved only a few years before. She was picked up by Why Not? A modeling agency, and began working runways for brands such as Missoni, Armani, Valentino, and Fendi. Despite this success she, like other early career models, earned little for each show.

Lourdes spent much of her time in Italy working and going to clubs with fellow models and Italian Playboys. She mostly connected with Black models who are household names today, but she wasn’t achieving the same level of success they would. Despite her Cuban heritage, she told people she was a Spanish princess and kept her Cuban identity secret.

During her time modeling, she lived in Paris and worked shows in Paris, Milan, and Tokyo. By 1988, though, she was appearing in fewer shows and eventually returned to New York where she worked various jobs, usually as a fit model or on the staff of agencies.

Looking for a Partner
Lourdes dated during her modeling and New York days, preferring to date men who had a lot of money and were public figures. She met Bob Marx, stepson of Zeppo Marx and Frank Sinatra, in 1989 and dated him briefly though she worried to friends that he might not be as affluent as she would like.

Lourdes was surprised when it was Marx who ended their relationship. First she attempted to win back Marx, and when this didn’t happen she set her sights on his friend Muhammed Khashoggi, son of a wealthy arms dealer and businessman. While dating Marx, Khashoggi had asked Lourdes to his place. She hoped she could encourage a connection between him again.

While it’s unclear how much of a connection the two had, Lourdes spent a lot of time trying to establish this possibility, imagining scenarios where he may need her assistance and visiting local Santeria practitioners to create spells that would lure him back.

She became convinced that her roommate was preventing her efforts and also became convinced that one of her close friends also wanted Khashoggi for himself. 

When things didn’t progress with Khashoggi, she also set her sights on then Barney chairman Gene Pressman. 

Lourdes Gets a New Roommate
Shortly before her disappearance, Lourdes’s brother, M, moved into her small apartment with her. He had recently been arrested on a marijuana charge and soon after his benefactor died of natural causes. Looking for a place to land, he ended up with Lourdes.

M had a history of trouble with law enforcement including armed burglary and resisting arrest without violence. According to her friends, Lourdes felt like she should help her brother but also painted him as an opportunist.

While living with her, he was supposed to find a job and a place to live, something that wasn’t happening fast enough according to her friends who said they argued about it. 

Lourdes Gruart Disappears
On October 13, 2000, Lourdes was supposed to pick up her paycheck but never did. Her brother said that he saw her the next day and that she had gone to the gym. When she returned she told him that she had a modeling job in Europe and packed a duffel bag before getting in a taxi and leaving.

Lourdes did not have a current passport nor did she take her modeling book with her. Her mother says they Lourdes would have told her that she had a job if she’d had one.

When police questioned M, he said he hadn’t heard from her. Her couch was also missing from the apartment, and he said he got rid of it on Lourdes’s request as she’d ordered a new one. A new couch never arrived.

Though investigators say that M’s actions are strange, there’s nothing to tie him to Lourdes’s disappearance. Searches for her include her local neighborhood and the nearby East River. Lourdes Gruart is not, at the time of writing this, in the NamUs database.

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People and Cases Mentioned in this Episode:
Lourdes Gruart (unsolved missing person case)