The mysterious missing person’s case of a 30-year-old Brooklyn cafe owner who vanished on Halloween has become a puzzling case of murder.
Joshua Rubin, who disappeared from his Kensington apartment, was identified by authorities yesterday as the man found shot to death and burned in the woods in eastern Pennsylvania the next morning on Nov. 1.
Rubin — whose body was only recently ID’d through DNA and dental tests — opened the Whisk Bakery Cafe on Newkirk Avenue a month before disappearing.
A day or two after his body was found near Allentown., his credit card was used at the Woodbury Commons retail outlets in Orange County, NY, sources told The Post last night.
“I’m devastated. He was a wonderful guy,” said Jan Rosenberg, the real-estate broker who handled the cafe lease for Rubin. “He just seemed like an open, sweet, loving guy with a lot of energy to do this project.”
But a month before opening the cafe, “actually running it began to seem overwhelming” to Rubin, said Rosenberg.
Rubin, who was diabetic, also recently was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, and had told friends about it, she said.
He last was seen leaving his apartment without the insulin needed to control his diabetes.
His sister, Hilaire Rubin, reported him missing shortly afterward.
On Nov. 1, around 8:30 a.m. a man’s smoldering body was found by a South Whitehall township worker .
In mid-November, Rubin’s family posted a $5,000 reward for information about his whereabouts.
In early December, Pennsylvania authorities contacted the NYPD to tell them that the body found there matched Rubin’s description.
An autopsy found the victim had been shot to death. DNA tests later confirmed it was Rubin.
New York law enforcement sources last night said they believe Rubin was shot near the location he was set afire.
A man at the home of Rubin’s mother in Rhode Island declined to comment.