Everyone who dies is heartbreaking, but when things like pain and suffering are added into the mix, especially if it’s a heinous crime, the grief grows even more. This is what happened in the horrifying case of Tushar Atre, who was kidnapped and killed in 2019. That’s what CBS talked about on its show, “48 Hours: Who Shot the Tech Exec?” Those who want to know more about the case, including who the victim was before he died and what caused him to do so, can read on to find out what we know.
What caused Tushar Atre’s death?
At the age of 50, Tushar Atre was not only the founder and CEO of an internet marketing company called AtreNet, but he was also experimenting with the cannabis business. Until the early morning hours of October 1, 2019. The Indian-born self-made tech millionaire and outdoor enthusiast had everything going for him, but then it all fell apart. After all, at around 2:45am on that day, burglars broke into his posh Pleasure Point, Santa Cruz, California, home, where he lived alone. The noise woke Tushar up, after which the attackers forced him into his girlfriend’s BMW SUV and then drove off.
Someone on Tushar’s property is said to have seen the kidnapping, so they called 911 right away. Officers arrived at the scene in just a few minutes, only to find a pool of blood right in front of the house. The search for the well-known tech exec went on for a long time, but his body parts were found at 9am near his own marijuana farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains. According to official records, the man who was always so angry had been stabbed a lot before he died from a gunshot wound to the back of his head, which killed him.
Who was responsible for Tushar Atre’s death?
Surveillance footage showed three men walking toward Tushar Atre’s home by the ocean at the time of the incident, but there were no concrete leads at first. While it was clear that one of the likely attackers was carrying a duffel bag and another was holding a rifle, neither of their faces could be seen. As a result, there were no signs of a forced entry and no indications that a place was ransacked. Detectives had to rely on interviews with Tushar’s friends, family and employees as well as tips from the general public to figure out who did this.
Officials released the footage in the hope that someone would recognise one of the three from their clothes or mannerisms, but it didn’t work. They thought the three were responsible for the crime. They only came up with the answer when they started looking into Interstitial Systems, Tushar’s company that makes cannabis. The names of two former employees kept coming up over and over again. In August 2019, this duo worked at the facility for less than two weeks, but there was still a lot of hostility between the people at the top.
Stephen Nicolas Lindsay and Kaleb Charters are said to have lost a set of Tushar’s car keys, which led the entrepreneur to stop their paychecks. That wasn’t enough, though. The other was also known to make his employees do push-ups as a punishment, which is what happened to this pair. Eventually, Stephen and Kaleb were able to find the keys to the car, and he paid both of them to close this chapter. It was only part of the story.
Investigators believe that Stephen and Kaleb eventually hired two more people before they went on a savage hunt for the millionaire to either get their money or get revenge, or maybe both. They were arrested and charged with murder, kidnapping and robbery in May 2020. They were also charged with some of these crimes under very special circumstances. This is why Stephen and Kaleb were arrested in May 2020. All of them have now said they’re not guilty and come up with different defences, which means they’re just waiting for the trial to see if they’re really innocent or not.