After 24 years, an unidentified young man who was brutally murdered by a couple in Santa Cruz has finally regained his name.
When Eric P. Cupo came to California in 1998, he was just 22 years old. James He ran into Erwin Dotson, 25, and his girlfriend Kimberly Lee Labore, 26, while he was walking around the cruise. pair.of Santa Cruz Sentinel Cupo reportedly “wanted to sell for $25 or a pack of heroin.” That meeting would “ultimately cost him his life.”
Investigators believe Cupo was invited to Dotson and Labouré to stay in the abandoned house they used on Boulder Creek. There, a forensic team later found a puddle of blood on the bed. The two are believed to have beaten and stabbed Cupo to death and stole his gun. They weren’t secretive about what they did either. One witness testified that Dotson went around asking friends to help dispose of the corpse, and Labouret pantomime “grabbed her by the throat, gargled, made fun of a child.” Help me.’ And they were all laughing about it. eyewitness said.
In December 1998, a driver pulled up off Bear Creek Road and noticed a blue tarp going down a steep canyon. Inside, the police found a badly decomposed corpse.
Detectives were able to pin down the man’s killer, but forensic evidence was also found on a corpse matching the fibers and sequoia dust in the Boulder Creek house, but who the victim was. I didn’t understand. Everyone they asked only knew him as “Hack”.
In 1999, Dotson, Labore, and several other friends were put on trial for the murder of an unidentified man and Watsonville businessman Gaylord “Kelly” Chilcote, 58.Two weeks after killing Cupo, the couple Circote house to rob himHe was found dead from blunt force and stab wounds, bound and gagged.
Faced with the death penalty, Dotson and Labor plead guilty in exchange for life imprisonment. Dotson received a life sentence without the possibility of parole while serving his sentence at Murray Creek State Penitentiary. Labore has been eligible for parole since 2017, but remains incarcerated at a women’s facility in Central California. Her alleged third accomplice, his 16-year-old man, said he took part to risk his own life, and claimed he did not file a complaint in exchange for a shorter prison term.
During the trial and sentencing, no one knew who the friends had killed.But the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office wouldn’t give up trying to identify the man.In 2021, the office contacted a genetic genealogy firm. OSRAM See if you can create a profile for John Doe. Clues generated by Osram’s work led the sheriff’s office to Kyupo’s family.
Eric Cupo, 22, was recently identified as the man murdered in Santa Cruz County in 1998.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office/Handouts
According to the sheriff’s office, Cupo was born in California and was adopted “infantly” by a family in Philadelphia. Afterwards, he wandered around the country and his family lost contact with him. Investigators believe he moved back to California after living in Arizona and Ohio.
“Eric Cupo’s adoptees and biological relatives have been notified of his identification and have taken security measures against them for their dedicated and tireless investigation to identify Eric Cupo and resolve his whereabouts. We thank the sheriff’s office,” the sheriff’s office said. statement“The family mourns the loss and is politely asking them to refrain from contacting him.”
