Santa Cruz County, Calif. (KION-TV) – A man found murdered and wrapped in a tarp on a Bear Creek Road hillside on December 27, 1998 has used a new DNA identification. has been identified, Santa Cruz County said. Sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office said the victim was found in an advanced state of decomposition and an autopsy revealed blunt force trauma. Due to the body’s decomposing state, most of its soft tissue had disappeared, the agent said.
Three people were arrested and, following an investigation, charged with the murder of a then-unidentified victim. In the process, the victim was identified as Eric P. Cupo, who was 22 years old at the time. He was born in California and adopted by a family in Philadelphia.
Investigators said Cupo later moved to Florida with his adoptive father and briefly returned to Philadelphia when he was 18 and moved around the country after taking in his adoptive mother.
After that, Eric is believed to have lived in both Arizona and Ohio. Detectives are unsure when he returned to California.
“In 2021, the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Coroner’s Office, including the Sheriff’s Office Forensic Services team, will utilize forensic genetic genealogy techniques to ultimately identify the decedent and notify next of kin. We started,” the sheriff’s office said.
Eric Cupo’s adoptive and biological relatives have been notified of his identity, detectives said.
