The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department has released a new video that it hopes will help lead to the arrest of the suspects involved in the kidnapping and murder of a 50-year-old Silicon Valley businessman.
Sheriff’s officials say Tushar Atre was kidnapped from his Santa Cruz home in the early morning of October 1. His body and white BMW were found later that day.
A video previously released by the Sheriff’s department captured three suspects in front of his home at the time Atre was taken.
Now, the department released additional footage showing a bicyclist who rides up and stares at Atre’s home about 2.5 hours prior to the kidnapping.
Lieutenant Brian Cleveland with the Sheriff’s department said police are trying to identify the cyclist, because they are suspicious of the bike rider's interest in Atre's home.
The reward for information leading to an arrest has also gone up from $150,000 to $200,000.
“This just shows the importance this is to the community members, that they feel it’s important enough to offer this reward,” Cleveland said. “And hopefully this $200,000 will cause someone with information that either knows these people or that knows something about this crime, will come forward.”
Atre was a well-known tech executive with ties to a number of businesses. One of those was in the cannabis industry.
Cleveland noted that the reward is the largest ever offered in Santa Cruz County history.