California tech exec was shot to death after kidnapping: Authorities
California-based tech executive Tushar Atre was fatally shot to death after he was abducted from his beachside home, officials announced.
“Following an autopsy, our pathologist determined the cause of death is a gunshot wound and has confirmed this to be a homicide,” said Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Ashley Keehn in an emailed press release late Monday.
Atre, the 50-year-old founder and CEO of AtreNet Inc, was abducted “during a crime” at his home on Pleasure Point Drive in Santa Cruz around 3 a.m. on Oct. 1, police said.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the next day that Atre’s body had been found in his girlfriend’s abandoned 2008 BMW around 10 a.m. that day in Soquel – approximately 10 miles away from his beachside mansion.
The release did not name any suspects and did not indicate any arrests had been made.
In 1996, Atre founded AtreNet Inc, a “boutique web design agency specializing in corporate websites for top Silicon Valley clients,” according to his Twitter page.
He also owns a licensed cannabis manufacturing facility, the City of Santa Cruz told local news station KRON4.
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“There’s still a lot of moving parts in this investigation,” Keehn, a spokesperson for the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office, told the station at the time. “We do know that Mr. Atre was in the cannabis industry. We don’t know if that is connected to this murder."
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Police previously said they suspected the motive was robbery. Authorities had not provided any updates to the case as of early Tuesday morning.