Surveillance video captures the brutal kidnapping of a tech executive — but what happened off camera?
CBSN
This story originally aired on April 2, 2022. It was updated on Aug. 19, 2023. MARIA MEDINA | KPIX NEWS REPORT: Investigators did not say what connection, if any, the suspects had with Atre. They did say, however, that his girlfriend is not a suspect. SHERIFF JIM HART: Someone out there knows something about this case, and we hope that the … information we're releasing today jogs their memory … MARIA CID MEDINA | KPIX NEWS REPORT: Breaking news out of Santa Cruz County, where investigators just announced they've made several arrests in the kidnapping and murder of a tech CEO. SHERIFF JIM HART [to reporters]: I've been in this job for 32 years. I can tell you there is compelling evidence against these four people. We have the right people. LT. BRIAN CLEVELAND [to reporters]: Their names had come up early. And then as we went through the investigation, we gathered more and more information on this group. SHERIFF JIM HART [to reporters]: When you look at the evidence that we had on October 1st and October 2nd, we had a murder scene … we had a home invasion-kidnapping scene in Pleasure Point, and we had a really grainy video. That was it. LT. BRIAN CLEVELAND [to reporters]: These people wanted monetary gain and took advantage of the situation.
Tushar Atre, a successful tech-executive-turned-cannabis-entrepreneur had a multimillion-dollar home on the California coast, where he spent his free time surfing. His dream house turned into a crime scene in October 2019 – grainy surveillance video from that time shows he was attacked and kidnapped near his home. He was later found stabbed and fatally shot on his cannabis farm in the Santa Cruz mountains. LT. BRIAN CLEVELAND [to reporters]: 23-year-old Joshua Camps … 22-year-old Kurtis Charters … 22-year-old Steven Lindsay … and 19-year-old Kaleb Charters.
The two crime scenes provided few clues, though guests inside Tushar's home told detectives they heard the intruders demanding to know the location and combination of his safe.
