Police are holding four suspects for the 2019 murder of tech and cannabis CEO Tushar Atre, according to a Silicon Valley Business Journal report.
The suspects include 22-year-old Kurtis Charters and 19-year-old Kaleb Charters, two brothers, as well as 23-year-old Joshua James Camps and 22-year-old Stephen Lindsay. While Camps, Lindsay, and Kurtis Charters are currently being held in the Santa Cruz County Jail with no bail, Kaleb Charters is awaiting extradition to California from Michigan.
Both Lindsay and Kaleb Charters are former employees for Interstitial Systems, Atre’s cannabis manufacturing company.
Police say that Atre was forcedly abducted from his Santa Cruz home on October 1, 2019 by three suspects and was moved to the rural location of his cannabis business in an SUV stolen from his house. Atre was found several hours later in the SUV, dead from a gunshot wound.
“We believe this was a robbery for monetary value,” Santa Cruz Sheriff Lt. Brian Cleveland Cleveland told KPIX 5. “We do believe this was a planned event.”
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office said none of the four suspects have prior criminal records.
“We had a huge suspect pool that we had to narrow down. … We have the right people, we have compelling evidence. This man was sleeping in his home, people entered the home, kidnapped him, and murdered him.” — Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart, via KRON 4
Atre was best known for his role as founder and CEO of the successful corporate web design firm AtreNet. He was a relative newcomer to the cannabis space at the time of his murder.
Get daily cannabis business news updates. Subscribe
End
