Hungarian's Fate Unknown After ID Found
By S.U. Mahesh Journal Northern Bureau
18 Mar 1998,
SANTA FE State Police officials are asking for public help in locating a Hungarian woman whose passport was found in a truck owned by murder suspect Robert Bryant. Bryant is the prime suspect in the killing of Reymunda Baca, whose half-naked body was found in another truck owned by Bryant in Tesuque earlier this month. He also is a suspect in the July 4, 1996, disappearance of Sandra Payne, a Santa Fe woman. Baca, 28, of Albuquerque, was strangled to death and there is a strong indication that she may have been raped, according to the Office of the Medical Investigator and court documents.
During the course of investigating Baca's death, State Police officials last week executed a warrant to search a second truck owned by Bryant. In that truck they found a fanny pack containing a Hungarian passport and a South African identification card, both belonging to the same woman, State Police Capt. Pat Nolan said Tuesday during a press conference. The passport was issued to Dr. Gaborne Kis, 41, and it expired on July 31, 1997. The passport also contained a visitor's visa issued by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on Aug. 11, 1994, with an expiration date of July 31, 1997. The South African identification card issued on May 7, 1992, had the name of Katalin Kis, but contained the same picture. Kis and a male friend of hers reportedly were living on the property owned by Bryant's father in Tesuque since the summer of 1996, Nolan said. Her male friend has been located, but the whereabouts of Kis are not known yet and investigators are trying to determine when she left Tesuque, he said.
Officials also are talking to Hungarian Consulate officials in Los Angeles to determine whether Kis was issued another passport, Nolan said. There is no evidence to link Kis' disappearance with Bryant at this point, but finding her belongings in his truck appears suspicious, he said. "If she didn't leave the country, she definitely could be a victim and something might have happened to her," Nolan said.
Investigators also recovered two to three pairs of panties from the truck which they believe belong to Kis. Kis reportedly was known to hang her clothes outside to dry and the undergarments have been weathered for a long time, Nolan said. Kis and her male friend stayed on the Bryant family property in exchange for helping the family with menial jobs, he said. Also found in the truck was a fuzzy Polaroid picture of Bryant's girlfriend who lives in Albuquerque, he said. Police also found a bag of pornographic material, a bag of sex toys, a black book titled "The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil" and other items in the truck, according to a search warrant affidavit. Bryant has hot been charged with Baca's death yet because officials are awaiting results of forensic tests to link him to her death, Nolan said, and also because he is already in custody for probation violation. "We have enough evidence to charge him with Reymunda Baca's murder," Nolan said. "Had he not been in custody, we would have issued an arrest warrant, charging him with her murder." Investigators have collected hair, blood and saliva samples from Bryant and are awaiting results to match those with evidence recovered from the crime scene.
Nolan said those results could take from two days to several months depending on the workload at the state crime lab. Bryant allegedly was driving with Baca's body when he was arrested for drunken driving by a Santa Fe police officer on Feb. 20, Nolan said. According to court documents: During the DWI arrest, Bryant told Santa Fe police officer Roger Romero, "My whole life is in the back of this truck." His truck was impounded, but the camper shell where Baca's body was later found was never opened because it was secured with a chain and three padlocks, court documents say. Bryant's father picked up the truck from the impound lot on Feb. 28, but his brother discovered the body on March 5 after he cut the padlocks, the documents say. Initially, Bryant's father and brother thought Baca's body was a mannequin. But on March 6, they called Bryant's attorney, Robert Cole of Albuquerque, to report they may have found a dead body in the truck. Cole told a State Police officer about the body, which was later identified as that of Baca. One of the arrest warrant affidavits says Bryant "has been implicated in several disappearances of young females in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque area." However, Nolan said he didn't want to mislead the public that every missing person in both areas is linked to Bryant because there no evidence to support that claim.