Identified! CA - Santa Cruz Co, WhtMale 17-20, UP3067, ''Eric from Florida'', Dec'98 - Eric Cupo

[JurassicParker]

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[schla]

Eric P. Cupo.

so sad. my wife bought the house he was murdered a couple of months late. from the santa cruz county sheriff's office:
Victim from 1998 Murder Identified Using Genealogy
On Sunday, December 27, 1998, a deceased adult male subject was found wrapped in a tarp down a hillside on Bear Creek Rd. The decedent was found to be in an advanced state of decomposition. An autopsy revealed the most striking aspect of injury was blunt force trauma, but due to the bodies state of decomposition – a majority of the soft tissue was gone. A subsequent investigation by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office resulted in the arrest and conviction of three subjects for the murder of this unidentified victim. During this process, the decedent’s identity was never discovered.
During the following 20+ years, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office has continued to follow leads regarding the identify of this “John Doe” decedent. In 2021, the Santa Cruz Sheriff-Coroner’s Office, including the Sheriff’s Office Forensics Services team, began utilizing forensic genetic genealogy techniques to finally identify the decedent and make notification to next of kin.
With the partnership of the California Department of Justice Jan Bashinski DNA Lab, Othram Inc, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Latent Print Unit, the decedent has now been positively identified as Eric P. Cupo, who was 22-years of age at the time of his murder.
Detectives have learned that Eric Cupo was born in California. As a young child he was adopted into a family in Philadelphia and later moved to Florida with his adopted father. Eric briefly returned to Philadelphia at the age of eighteen to live with his adopted mother. From there, Eric moved around the country, and his family lost regular contact with him. Eric is believed to have subsequently lived in both Arizona and Ohio. The timeline of his arrival back to California is not clear.
Eric Cupo’s adopted family and biological relatives have been notified of his identification and are grateful to the Sheriff’s Office for their dedicated and tireless investigation to identify Eric Cupo and bring resolution as to his whereabouts. The family respectfully asks not to be contacted as they mourn their loss.

 

[MadMcGoo]

Rest peacefully now, Eric.

 

[Bit of hope]

SOLVED: After 25 years, Santa Cruz John Doe (1998) is Identified.

This is amazing! Thank you Othram team! I always had some doubts about his name, but it turns out he really was named Eric and had lived in Florida. I'm really sad that his life was taken in such a brutal way.

Rest in the light now Mr. Eric P. Cupo.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

With the help of several state and federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation Latent Print Unit, the deceased adult male was identified as Eric P. Cupo, who was 22 when he was killed.

California murder cold case victim identified two decades later

California officials used genetic genealogy to identify a murder victim dating back to December 27, 1998 when police found a body "wrapped in a tarp."

www.foxnews.com

 

[dotr]

rbbm

Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office IDs victim in 24-year-old cold case

Known merely as “John Doe” and “Huck” for the past 24 years, a man found dead in the Santa Cruz Mountains more than 24 years ago has been identified.

www.santacruzsentinel.com

''Despite Cupo’s missing identity, detectives were able to track evidence 12 miles away, back to an abandoned Creek Drive house. Three of the residents, including couple James “Eddie Munster” Dotson and Kimberly “Rush” Labore and Jeremy “Storm” Towner, also known as Jeremy Michael Kraft, were subsequently arrested and charged with murder in the case. The three each pleaded no contest to charges, avoiding trial. Labore and Dotson faced additional charges for their role in killing Watsonville businessman Gaylord “Kelly” Chilcote, 58, believed to have occurred two weeks after Cupo’s murder.''

J
Kimberly Labore James Dotson
According to prosecutors’ court case filings, Towner and a friend approached Cupo and his girlfriend “Anna” for a ride from downtown Santa Cruz to Boulder Creek. Cupo was purportedly seeking to sell his .38-caliber handgun. Later that night while others were sleeping, however, Towner lured Capo into another room, where the trio beat him with a baseball bat and telescope and slit his throat. They later dropped a cinder block on his head, cleaned up and moved the body off the property. The next morning, the three told others that Cupo had taken a bus back to Santa Cruz.''

 

[ChatteringBirds]

What a tragedy. Great work by those who sought justice for him and helped identify him.