Tushar Atre, a profitable tech-executive-turned-cannabis-entrepreneur had a multimillion-dollar dwelling on the California coast, the place he spent his free time browsing. His dream home become a criminal offense scene in October 2019 – grainy surveillance video from that point reveals he was attacked and kidnapped close to his dwelling. He was later discovered stabbed and fatally shot on his hashish farm within the Santa Cruz mountains.
The 2 crime scenes offered few clues, although friends inside Tushar's dwelling advised detectives they heard the intruders demanding to know the placement and mixture of his protected.
Investigators from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Workplace did have that grainy surveillance video, which captured what occurred on Tushar's avenue from the second three shadowy figures entered the neighborhood and walked towards his home. Minutes later, Tushar is seen working after which is tackled. He's repeatedly stabbed and finally pushed right into a BMW the suspects stole from his driveway, earlier than all of them drive away.
Who have been these figures, and why would they need Tushar Atre useless? As "48 Hours" contributor Tracy Smith stories, it is a thriller that investigators would spend greater than seven months unraveling.
WHAT HAPPENED ON PLEASURE POINT DRIVE?
Within the hours after Tushar Atre went lacking on October 1, 2019, his tight-knit Pleasure Level neighborhood was on edge.
Reporter Maria Cid Medina coated the story for the Bay Space's native CBS station KPIX.
Maria Cid Medina: We began knocking on his neighbors' doorways. … Everybody was spooked. You can actually see the concern in folks's eyes whenever you talked to them.
Who would goal the 50-year-old tech exec-turned-cannabis entrepreneur, and would they be again for anybody else? The crime scene offered few clues.
Tracy Smith: You've got bought a lacking businessman, a pool of blood, lacking automobile, what are you pondering?
Steve Cercone: What I'd be pondering … is that … It is a very uncommon case, and probably a really, very critical felony has simply occurred.
Steve Cercone is a former California police chief and a "48 Hours" guide who's reviewed the case.
Tracy Smith: Was there anybody else in the home on the time when he was kidnapped?
Steve Cercone: There have been a number of folks in the home.
Amongst them considered one of Tushar's staff who heard a commotion round 3 a.m.
Mary Fulginiti: One witness … hears three totally different voices, considered one of them is Tushar's and the opposite are two unidentified males.
Legal professional Mary Fulginiti is a former federal prosecutor and likewise a "48 Hours" guide.
Mary Fulginiti: He hears Tushar screaming at occasions.
Steve Cercone: He heard the suspects inform him to get on the bottom …
Mary Fulginiti: "Put your palms behind your again." "The place is the protected and what is the mixture?"
Steve Cercone: Tushar pleading with them … "how can we make this proper?"
Tracy Smith: Tushar knew these guys?
Steve Cercone: It looks as if … he knew these guys.
The worker in Tushar's home known as 911 at 3:34 a.m., half an hour after the attackers had pushed off with Tushar in a white BMW belonging to his girlfriend Rachael Emerlye.
Tracy Smith: So, Rachael's BMW's lacking, the place's Rachael?
Steve Cercone: Apparently Rachael was again east in … Massachusetts when this occurred.
Rachael says she discovered about Tushar's kidnapping when investigators known as her.
Rachael Emerlye: I used to be attempting to piece collectively what this all meant over the cellphone. "I used to be simply there. What do you imply? He did not look like he was in peril."
Investigators discovered Rachael wasn't simply Tushar's girlfriend, she was additionally his accomplice within the hashish enterprise, which they'd began collectively after they met in 2017.
Rachael Emerlye: They requested me straightaway "The place's the pot farm?"
The "pot farm" was 60 acres of open land nestled within the Santa Cruz mountains often called the Summit property, the place Tushar may legally develop hashish for analysis. He was planning to fabricate medicinal hashish merchandise.
Claire Machado: Who would kidnap him? … You already know, who would take this man?
Claire Machado, Tushar's proper hand in his hashish enterprise, discovered the information in regards to the disappearance from Rachael.
Claire Machado: I known as his cellphone. I stated, "wherever you're, we'll discover you."
Rachael Emerlye: I had such hope. Each (crying) second I held on to that, for hours and hours.
Round 9:30 that morning — six hours after Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputies had responded to the 911 name from Tushar's Pleasure Level tackle — investigators positioned the white BMW 14 miles away at his Summit property. There was blood on the inside and outside of the automobile. And 20 to 30 yards away, they discovered the bloody physique of Tushar Atre.
Steve Cercone: Face down, and his palms have been handcuffed within the again with flex-ties … An obvious gunshot wound to the again of the pinnacle … He had been stabbed a number of occasions. … and close by additionally they discovered 5 shell casings from a .223 rifle. … That is an assault rifle.
Tracy Smith: Did it appear to be an inside job?
Steve Cercone: That is what … I am positive was working by means of … the investigators' minds … how would they know the place to go? They discovered him at his home … introduced him as much as his secondary property. So … they knew Mr. Atre.
Nothing in regards to the kidnapping or the homicide indicated this was a random act, says Cercone.
Tracy Smith: It needed to have been somebody near him?
Steve Cercone: It seems that it was undoubtedly somebody near him.
Rachael was on her solution to catch a flight again to Santa Cruz when she bought the information that Tushar was useless.
Rachael Emerlye: Worst cellphone name of my life (crying) … While you're in your automobile you may simply scream.
However detectives had extra questions for Rachael as quickly as she bought to Santa Cruz.
Tracy Smith: Fairly customary to speak to the girlfriend?
Mary Fulginiti: Oh, completely.
Rachael Emerlye: I believe they needed to know … "are you proud of this individual?"
It was difficult.
Rachael Emerlye: It is undoubtedly onerous to be in a relationship and run a enterprise collectively.
For the previous six months, Rachael and Tushar had been residing on reverse coasts whereas Rachael says she was engaged on increasing their medicinal hashish enterprise. They have been centered on getting the Meals and Drug Administration to approve their hashish product.
Rachael Emerlye: We would gotten it to the purpose the place we felt like that is the product we have been attempting to make.
The couple had met two years earlier whereas she was renting considered one of his many Santa Cruz properties.
Rachael Emerlye: He … got here in and requested, "do you wanna log on?" … and newbie's luck, caught a wave … and he was like, "yeah, yeah! Superb, you are wonderful."
And Tushar was intrigued by Rachael's background on this planet of hashish, the place her experience was in agriculture and enterprise improvement.
Rachael Emerlye: It simply appeared pure that he would decide my mind about my trade.
They finally moved in collectively into his multimillion-dollar waterfront home. And Rachael says she invested her whole inheritance — about $300,000 — of their new hashish enterprise.
Rachael Emerlye: Tushar helped by means of my mother passing. While you see that aspect of any individual, you could be positive they love you.
However mixing love and enterprise got here with some dangers. Rachael's contributions to the enterprise weren't documented on paper, and that, says Claire, turn out to be a supply of friction within the relationship.
Claire Machado: She did not have something to indicate the extent of funding, and he acknowledged that with me.
And Claire says having casual agreements wasn't uncommon for Tushar.
Claire Machado: He performed onerous and quick and wasn't actually good at documenting it in writing.
Nonetheless, Claire and Rachael say Tushar was engaged on including Rachael's identify to the enterprise, and that issues have been going effectively.
Rachael Emerlye: Tushar at all times had the intentions for us to have written agreements. He was very variety to me in enterprise.
Claire Machado: Rachael was nonetheless in love with him, she wasn't that pissed off. She needed to work it out with him.
Now each girls have been attempting to determine why anybody would need Tushar useless.
Claire Machado: Everybody liked Tushar … most everybody liked Tushar.
Claire Machado: Rachael had expressed to me … that Tushar was receiving threatening cellphone calls.
Steve Cercone: This was a whodunit from the beginning.
Maria Cid Medina: There weren't speedy suspects …. you bought a way that investigators didn't have any leads on this case.
However there was one lead — grainy surveillance video of three figures approaching Tushar's dwelling.
A LONG LIST OF POTENTIAL SUSPECTS
Maria Cid Medina: What set the tone about this story is that there have been a whole lot of rumors … We needed to sift what was fact and what was rumor.
Whereas investigators weren't naming any suspects in Tushar's case, rumors persevered about Rachael.
Maria Cid Medina: That was our first query, was Rachael related to his homicide?
Claire Machado: I really feel probably the most sorry for Rachael. She's needed to grieve … in addition to defend herself.
MARIA MEDINA | KPIX NEWS REPORT: Investigators didn't say what connection, if any, the suspects had with Atre. They did say, nonetheless, that his girlfriend shouldn't be a suspect.
Tracy Smith: So, it was straightforward to rule her out fairly early on.
Mary Fulginiti: I believe so.
Mary Fulginiti: If something, she loses extra with him being deceased than she does with him being alive.
Maria Cid Medina: You bought this sense that investigators didn't have any thought who his killers have been. Three weeks later … investigators introduced that there can be a $25,000 reward for data resulting in an arrest.
However because the weeks become months, and after a number of appeals by Sheriff Jim Hart for the general public's assist, the investigation appeared to stall.
Maria Medina: There was a determined plea to the general public to seek out these killers.
In mid-November, almost a month-and-a-half after Tushar was murdered, the sheriff's workplace raised the reward to $150,000, and this time they requested for assist in figuring out three suspects seen within the eerie surveillance video as they approached Tushar's home moments earlier than the assault.
Maria Cid Medina: It was the primary time that we ever heard investigators had … any form of proof from that scene.
One of many three shadowy figures, investigators say, is carrying an assault rifle.
Tracy Smith: What sort of criminals stroll by means of a residential neighborhood with an assault rifle in plain sight?
Steve Cercone: Yeah, not actual sensible. … at any second they might have been noticed.
Maria Cid Medina: You felt goosebumps, since you knew what was going to occur subsequent.
However the video did not generate any new leads, deepening the thriller across the homicide, Tushar, his enterprise dealings and the individuals who labored for him. Reporter Maria Cid Medina dug deeper into his background.
Maria Cid Medina: Tushar had a unique aspect to him, a darker aspect. I began to go looking on-line after his neighbor stated that he had made enemies … related to his enterprise dealings.
There have been accusations from Tushar's buyers that he was dealing within the hashish black market, although Claire insists he was doing every thing by the e-book.
Claire Machado He wasn't a gang-related mafia-related drug lord sort of a man.
Even when Tushar wasn't a mob boss, he had fairly a repute as a nasty boss – and never simply within the hashish enterprise, in line with on-line opinions by ex-employees.
Maria Cid Medina: I found on Glassdoor.com, his firm, AtreNet. … One worker wrote, "The CEO, Tushar Atre, would not worth anybody however himself." … One other … wrote, "Complete abusive nightmare. The worst employment expertise of my life. You've got been warned. Run away now."
Even buddies advised investigators the charismatic businessman loved being confrontational.
Claire Machado: He challenged his staff to attempt to at all times do their finest. And despite the fact that that was powerful, I appreciated that about him lots.
However not everybody appreciated it.
Mary Fulginiti: He had a lotta folks apparently in his previous that had it out for him … folks that had rammed into his automobile, folks that had taken his property and … destroyed it.
Steve Cercone: Loads of it needed to do with cash. Cash that was not paid.
Investigators discovered Tushar was infamous for withholding folks's pay. When he did it to Claire, she stop.
Claire Machado: He got here and located me and employed me again. And at that time, he was lots nicer to me.
Claire says she was serving to him change his administration type.
Claire Machado: He needed loyalty, and also you may get loyalty by means of concern, however not the identical sort of loyalty that you just get by means of love … I consider he discovered that ultimately, and he was attempting to make various issues proper.
Rachael Emerlye: He would give you these challenges for himself … and he stated, "I am on day 13 of no yelling" (giggles).
Because the listing of Tushar's disgruntled staff and associates grew, so did the potential suspects. From buyers who'd poured over $4 million into his hashish firm and have been sad with the best way Tushar was managing the funds to a subcontractor with whom he'd had a heated argument the night time of the homicide, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's detectives must discuss to all of them.
Tracy Smith: As investigators began digging and speaking to folks, have been there any names that saved developing?
Steve Cercone: Two of the names that saved popping up have been Stephen Lindsay and Kaleb Charters. …who did not work for him very lengthy.
Tracy Smith: As a result of they'd a beef with him?
Steve Cercone: That they had a major beef with him over a cost.
Kaleb Charters, 19 and Stephen Lindsay, 21, could be seen in video engaged on Tushar's Summit property in August of 2019, only a couple months earlier than Tushar's homicide.
Tracy Smith: What did staff say about them?
Steve Cercone: They stated they weren't very proud of Mr. Atre. … apparently, he'd made them do push-ups … in entrance of different folks, which … if that have been the case, they have been most probably humiliated.
Tracy Smith: Tushar truly made them do push-ups as, like, a -- punishment?
Mary Fulginiti: Yeah. … After which finally would not pay 'em.
Steve Cercone: After they acquired the test, the test had been canceled.
In December 2019, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's detectives traveled to Las Vegas the place Kaleb Charters and Stephen Lindsay had moved, to query them.
Mary Fulginiti: Throughout that interview … Lindsay did say … He needed to get right into a battle with this man … He needed the cash that Tushar owed him … And he truly needed to get right into a bodily altercation, and he advised the police this.
Steve Cercone: He lastly paid them once more. However this time, he paid them solely partially.
Lindsay was proven the grainy surveillance video of the three suspects and denied realizing them. Each males stated they hadn't even been again to Santa Cruz since they stopped working for Tushar in late August.
Tracy Smith: Did they make it sound like, oh, the meat was throughout?
Steve Cercone: Yeah. They stated … they'd … settled it and so they weren't gonna work for him anymore.
Detectives left Las Vegas with out arrests, and by January 29, 2020, the sheriff elevated the reward once more, to $200,000.
SHERIFF JIM HART: Somebody on the market is aware of one thing about this case, and we hope that the … data we're releasing in the present day jogs their reminiscence …
Investigators additionally shared the abductors' suspected route from Tushar's dwelling to the Summit property.
Maria Cid Medina: It appeared that they have been determined for any clues from the general public.
However what police weren't sharing with the general public was extra surveillance video that captured what occurred on Pleasure Level Drive that night time.
Maria Cid Medina: Tushar did put up a battle. And in some unspecified time in the future he was in a position to get away from his kidnappers.
FOLLOWING THE DIGITAL TRAIL
Whereas investigators had solely launched to the general public a small portion of the surveillance video displaying these shadowy figures approaching Tushar's dwelling, there was much more video from that night time they have been analyzing for clues.
Steve Cercone [watching the surveillance video]: As you may see right here, Mr. Atre breaks from the driveway, and he runs. He is pursued by one of many suspects. He tackles him proper right here. After which as you may see … there is a battle.
A couple of moments after his attackers depart him, Tushar one way or the other finds the power to drag himself up and make another sprint for freedom – till one of many suspects stops him once more.
Moments later, the BMW seems and Tushar is pushed into the entrance seat earlier than the automobile speeds away.
For months, investigators analyzed the video and pictures from different cameras close to the crime scene and alongside the path to the Summit property the place Tushar's physique was discovered.
Lastly, greater than seven months later, arrests.
MARIA CID MEDINA | KPIX NEWS REPORT: Breaking information out of Santa Cruz County, the place investigators simply introduced they've made a number of arrests within the kidnapping and homicide of a tech CEO.
On Could 19, 2020, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Workplace had 4 suspects in custody.
SHERIFF JIM HART [to reporters]: I have been on this job for 32 years. I can let you know there may be compelling proof towards these 4 folks. We've got the correct folks.
LT. BRIAN CLEVELAND [to reporters]: 23-year-old Joshua Camps … 22-year-old Kurtis Charters … 22-year-old Steven Lindsay … and 19-year-old Kaleb Charters.
That is proper – the identical Stephen Lindsay and Kaleb Charters who had labored for Tushar and admitted they as soon as had a bitter pay dispute with him. Keep in mind, detectives had interviewed the pair simply two months after the homicide.
LT. BRIAN CLEVELAND [to reporters]: Their names had come up early. After which as we went by means of the investigation, we gathered increasingly data on this group.
Suspects Kurtis and Kaleb Charters have been brothers and Lindsay was their brother-in-law. Joshua Camps was a pal.
Maria Cid Medina: These have been 4 younger guys.
All 4 suspects charged with homicide, kidnapping, and theft.
None of them had a prison historical past. Actually, Stephen Lindsay and Kaleb Charters have been members of the Military Reserve. On the time of the arrest, Lindsay, who goes by Nick, was attending a metropolis school in Los Angeles, together with Kurtis, the place they have been producing scholar movies. Kaleb was in Michigan, and Josh Camps was about to get married.
But when Lindsay and Charters have been on Santa Cruz County Sheriff's radar again in December, why had it taken one other 5 months to arrest them?
SHERIFF JIM HART [to reporters]: While you take a look at the proof that we had on October 1st and October 2nd, we had a homicide scene … we had a house invasion-kidnapping scene in Pleasure Level, and we had a very grainy video. That was it.
However at a preliminary listening to in October 2021, prosecutors would got down to show these shadowy figures within the grainy surveillance video have been their suspects. Cameras weren't allowed on the proceedings.
The state needed to persuade a decide they'd sufficient proof to attempt Stephen Lindsay, Joshua Camps, and Kaleb and Kurtis Charters for robbing, kidnapping and finally murdering Tushar Atre. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Workplace laid out their monthslong, meticulous investigation, piece by piece.
Steve Cercone: I believe the … proof right here … could be very compelling. And the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Workplace, the investigators did a tremendous job.
Tracy Smith: How essential was digital proof on this case?
Steve Cercone: Digital proof could make this case.
Early on, detectives had recognized a blue sedan. It was seen on a number of surveillance cameras on October 1, 2019, heading to Tushar's dwelling earlier than the kidnapping after which minutes later heading in direction of the Summit property. That piece appeared to fall into place after they discovered Josh Camps owned a blue Camry. And positive sufficient, after they confirmed as much as arrest him …
Steve Cercone: The blue Camry was additionally there.
Tracy Smith: The automobile that bought them to Santa Cruz.
Believing they'd the suspects' trip parked in his driveway, investigators additionally had a search warrant for the remainder of Camps' home -- not realizing simply how a lot clearer the image was about to turn out to be.
Tracy Smith: What did investigators discover after they searched Josh Camps' home?
Steve Cercone: Yeah. They discovered a whole lot of — lotta firearms. They discovered some flex-cuffs. … And so they had the identical … manufacture date that have been on the wrists of Mr. Atre.
Tracy Smith: Did any of those weapons match the homicide weapon?
Steve Cercone: They didn't.
Despite the fact that Camps did not have the homicide weapon, investigators say he did have ammunition that matched the spent rounds discovered close to Tushar's physique.
And prosecutors revealed investigators had additionally discovered different forensic proof.
Mary Fulginiti: What we discovered … from the preliminary listening to is that there have been two prints — palm prints of Kurtis Charters' that have been discovered on the BMW.
Tracy Smith: And that is it?
Mary Fulginiti: That is all of the forensic … proof that was launched on the preliminary listening to.
Putting Kurtis within the BMW was a begin. However needing extra, investigators turned to the suspects' cell telephones.
They did not discover any information for Stephen Lindsay for the night time of the homicide.
Tracy Smith: So why do not we now have Stephen Lindsay's mobile phone information?
Steve Cercone: Yeah. So, the investigators came upon that Stephen Lindsay — his cellphone had been shut off from the twenty seventh of September until October fifth. In order that's about eight days. And I do not know anyone … of their early 20s that may have their mobile phone off for eight days.
When detectives talked to Lindsey in Las Vegas again in December 2019, he advised them he was dwelling the night time of the homicide. However in a bunch textual content from that night time, Lindsay's spouse suggests she did not know the place he was.
Steve Cercone: She was texting Stephen, her husband, and her two brothers, Kaleb and Kurtis, for hours, questioning the place they have been. … That reveals the three of them have been possible collectively as a result of she is reaching out to all of them collectively.
Investigators hoped cell tower information for Kaleb and Kurtis Charters, in addition to Josh Camps, would assist join the dots. They have been in a position to plot their places on a map, offering the routes every system took. And there it was.
Steve Cercone [pointing to map]: So, that is the surveillance digicam displaying … the Camry going in direction of Mr. Atre's home at Pleasure Level Drive.
Then, at round 2:48 a.m., their telephones ping off a tower overlaying Tushar's neighborhood at precisely the purpose these figures have been caught on digicam rising from the alley heading in direction of Tushar's home.
Mary Fulginiti: That was vital. That really places these people, or not less than their telephones, in the correct location, in the correct place to have the ability to begin to corroborate this video that basically reveals a big chunk of the crime.
On the identical time, Kaleb Charters' cellphone and the blue sedan are seen touring away from Tushar's home in direction of the Summit property.
Tracy Smith: So now we're in a unique location. That is on the best way as much as Summit?
Steve Cercone: Yeah … now the detectives … have positioned Kaleb's cellphone — on the best way to the Summit proper right here … off of Freeway 17— within the Santa Cruz mountains.
Adopted 17 minutes later by Kurtis Charters' and Joshua Camps' telephones and the white BMW carrying the stabbed and gravely injured Tushar.
Tracy Smith: What will we see right here?
Steve Cercone: So now you might have all three cell telephones of the suspects positioned in an space … across the Summit property. That is fairly clear. At 3:36, 3:35, 3:36 within the morning on the day of — the homicide.
The mobile phone information bolstered the investigation idea that Kaleb Charters had dropped off his codefendants and waited for them on the Summit property. And that Kurtis Charters and Joshua Camps had participated within the kidnapping at Pleasure Level Drive. However there was no direct proof putting Lindsay at both crime scene.
Mary Fulginiti: There is not any eyewitnesses, there is not any fingerprints, there is not any DNA, there is not any bodily proof linking him to the crime.
However investigators believed that video confirmed what Stephen Lindsay had carried out.
A PERFECT TARGET?
Rachael Emerlye: He had a very vivid flame … I do not know why anyone would need to boring that.
Tushar's flame may nonetheless be burning brightly, if not for an opportunity encounter lower than two months earlier than his homicide that had led Stephen Lindsay and Kaleb Charters on to the profitable CEO's waterfront doorstep.
Claire Machado: He had the dream seaside home, he was a surfer, he was driving a Porsche … anyone taking a look at that way of life who did not have it might be simply jealous of it.
Tushar had employed Lindsay and Charters after considered one of them had made a telemarketing name to considered one of Tushar's associates.
Steve Cercone: It was very random. … And so they got here as much as Santa Cruz. And … he allow them to … into his dwelling.
That is when former police chief Steve Cercone says they bought a glimpse of Tushar's lavish way of life.
Steve Cercone: They bought shut sufficient to him to study lots about his operation, about his wealth.
And in Tushar Atre, the suspects had discovered an ideal goal.
Tracy Smith: He truly gave them a tour of his dwelling?
Steve Cercone: Yeah … and confirmed 'em the place his bed room was.
The bed room was the place Tushar saved his protected, and in it, say investigators, greater than $80,0000 in money.
Steve Cercone: That is very uncommon. And really dangerous.
Tracy Smith: What does that say about Tushar Atre?
Steve Cercone: I believe Tushar was fairly naïve at occasions.
Was that protected one of many causes they focused Tushar that night time?
Steve Cercone: That is the alleyway that they got here down …
If the thought was to rob the millionaire, the plan had gone horribly awry. On the preliminary listening to, the prosecution would lay out their case, enjoying that surprising surveillance video. Investigators say the three shadowy figures strolling in direction of Tushar's dwelling that night time have been Stephen Lindsay, Kurtis Charters, and Joshua Camps – seen within the video, they are saying, carrying an assault rifle. Cameras had been rolling from the second they entered Tushar's neighborhood on Pleasure Level Drive.
Tracy Smith [walking with Cercone on Pleasant Point Drive and pointing to a security camera]: Down this manner … So, the primary digicam … that captures them is correct over there?
Steve Cercone: Proper. Proper.
What occurs subsequent is chilling.
Steve Cercone [pointing to monitor with surveillance video]: Proper right here is 70 yards from there to there.
Steve Cercone: Mr. Atre is gonna dash from his driveway … he is gonna run down Pleasure Level … as quick as he can go along with his palms tied behind his again. And he will get tackled.
Tracy Smith: Who's that?
Steve Cercone: That proper there may be … Stephen Lindsay … It is a brutal, brutal assault.
In keeping with the investigators, Lindsay is the primary to assault Tushar.
Steve Cercone: And in the event you watch the suspect's palms, it appears like he is stabbing him repeatedly.
Tracy Smith: Yikes.
Steve Cercone: With a poking movement.
Mary Fulginiti: And then you definitely begin to see … a bit of little bit of a darkish substance, which … later they have been in a position to decide was blood.
Subsequent, say investigators, comes Josh Camps.
Mary Fulginiti: You see Josh Camps working, dealing with one thing to Stephen Lindsay. Stephen Lindsay runs again to the home.
Tracy Smith: What do you assume was handed off between Stephen and Josh?
Mary Fulginiti: If I needed to guess I'd say … keys to the white BMW.
Seconds later, investigators say, after Lindsay runs again towards the home, the BMW headlights come on as Camps continues the assault.
Steve Cercone: [describing the surveillance video]: Camps then holds him down and … Now he appears like he is stabbing him instantly, viciously
Mary Fulginiti: Jabbing him and jabbing him. … After which Stephen Lindsay comes driving automobile, which we find yourself studying was the white BMW.
Because the glistening pool of blood will get larger, the BMW pulls up.
Steve Cercone: Now, watch what Mr. Atre does. That is —in a survival mode proper right here. In actually good condition.
Tracy Smith: Oh my gosh —
Steve Cercone: He will get up. He is handcuffed, pool of blood there, and he runs.
Wounded and bleeding, Tushar makes an attempt to get away a second time, however investigators say Kurtis Charters goes after him.
Tracy Smith [pointing to surveillance video]: And that is Kurtis?
Steve Cercone: That is … Kurtis, yeah, working after him.
Tracy Smith: Tushar was combating for his life.
Steve Cercone: Yeah … I am positive he was doing every thing he may to get away from these guys.
Mary Fulginiti: They go after him with the automobile this time. …And … Kurtis is the one which finally grabs him and places him within the automobile. After which all of them drive away.
About six hours later, Tushar's physique can be discovered 14 miles away at his Summit property, riddled with stab wounds and a deadly wound gunshot wound to the pinnacle.
On the time of the arrests, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's investigators introduced that Tushar's kidnapping and homicide was a theft gone incorrect.
LT. BRIAN CLEVELAND [to reporters]: These folks needed financial achieve and took benefit of the scenario.
However the brutality of the case suggests there could also be extra to the motive.
Steve Cercone: It is a very, very curious case … a whole lot of it would not make a lotta sense.
Tracy Smith: If this was a theft, why chase him, sort out him, and take him away?
Mary Fulginiti: If that is actually only a easy theft and all you care about is the cash in the home and nothing else, as soon as he runs away you let him go. You seize the cash then you definitely get out of dodge.
However as investigators would later study, what set in movement the assault that night time was something however easy.
Tracy Smith: That is about extra than simply cash.
Mary Fulginiti: It is undoubtedly about extra than simply cash.
WHO SHOT TUSHAR ATRE — AND WHY?
The harrowing surveillance video of Tushar Atre combating for his life gave investigators compelling proof – a file of what occurred on the street.
However what occurred off digicam? The largest questions: Who shot Tushar? And why?
The solutions could come from Kaleb Charters, Kurtis Charters and Josh Camps. They began speaking the day they have been arrested. However Stephen Lindsay by no means stated a phrase.
Tracy Smith: What was Kaleb's function on this?
Steve Cercone: His function, he admitted was to drop them off … and he went as much as the Summit property.
Kaleb Charters' admission he was the motive force matches his cell information and that surveillance video of the blue automobile heading within the path of the Summit property. With their trip 14 miles away, Steve Cercone suggests the group had deliberate to steal a automobile all alongside.
Tracy Smith: That they knew … they might take that BMW.
Steve Cercone: That they knew that they might take that BMW.
Kaleb Charters' interview offered investigators his model of how the theft was presupposed to play out.
Mary Fulginiti: Kaleb's interview truly talks in regards to the plan. And he has two plans, a Plan A and a Plan B. So, Plan A … they did not count on … Tushar to be there.
Plan A concerned utilizing the entrance door code to Tushar's home that Kaleb stated he remembered after working for him months earlier and gathering all cash and valuables they might discover. Plan B, if Tushar was there, concerned forcing their method into his bed room protected — the one investigators later discovered held over $80,000 in money. Kaleb Charters additionally revealed how they'd open that protected.
Mary Fulginiti: The muscle was Josh Camps. Josh got here armed with a weapon. Why? … Effectively, in line with Kaleb, Effectively, to scare him, in case he was there. Simply to scare him, in order that he may open the protected.
Tushar was dwelling – and Kurtis Charters admits he restrained him.
Mary Fulginiti: He admits, and he takes accountability for, you understand, placing the flex-cuffs on him, and gagging him.
However as soon as they took Tushar as much as the Summit property, Kaleb and Kurtis Charters made it clear capturing Tushar was by no means a part of the plan. In his interview, Josh Camps initially tried to pin the capturing on the others.
Steve Cercone: It is very obvious that Josh, initially and for fairly some time, saved mendacity to them … Josh then decreased his mendacity … and finally he began to fess up.
He makes what quantities to probably the most damning admission of all of them.
Mary Fulginiti: He finally admits to capturing Tushar, and to killing him.
Tracy Smith: And he finally tells investigators the place the weapon is?
Mary Fulginiti: Appropriate.
However he stated there was a motive he pulled the set off -- an act of mercy.
Mary Fulginiti: He says it was a mercy killing, although. He would not say it was an intentional killing. It was one which, you understand, they did as a result of they thought he was gonna die. …as a result of he was bleeding so closely.
Mary Fulginiti: A mercy killing shouldn't be a protection to homicide. And, you understand, he nonetheless pointed the gun at his head, and he killed him.
And on the preliminary listening to, the attorneys for Kaleb Charters, Kurtis Charters and Stephen Lindsay jumped on that assertion. They argued that their purchasers by no means meant to hurt Tushar throughout the theft — that all of it went horribly incorrect when Tushar tried to run away, and that Joshua Camps acted alone. However Mary Fulginiti says, even with Camps admitting to being the shooter, the opposite defendants aren't off the hook.
Mary Fulginiti: They're charged with what they name felony homicide, which suggests if a homicide is dedicated throughout the fee of a felony, and right here we now have a few them — we have got theft and kidnapping, then below sure circumstances, all of these concerned can be … held accountable for the homicide. And that is -- that is vital right here.
And Kurtis Charters shared with investigators that this might need been greater than a theft from the beginning.
Mary Fulginiti: What he did say … is that he did assume that Stephen Lindsay needed to kill Tushar, and that he thought Stephen Lindsay had a vendetta.
Tracy Smith:After we speak about motive, does this story of Tushar humiliating Stephen Lindsay and Kaleb Charters level to motive?
Mary Fulginiti: Sure. Undoubtedly.
Fulginiti speculates it goes again to Tushar making enemies of the 2 former army males.
Mary Fulginiti: With regard to Lindsay, he was fairly upset with the best way Tushar handled him.
Mary Fulginiti: While you take a look at … the army … respect is a big part of how they lead their lives … Tushar humiliated them … he made them do push-ups … He paid them after which withdrew cost … he's feeding into that disrespect … and mistreatment.
On the finish of the preliminary listening to, the decide determined all 4 suspects ought to face trial on all counts. "48 Hours"reached out to their attorneys; they declined to remark. All 4 suspects have pleaded not responsible.
If convicted they might face a most sentence of life in jail.
They did not get the $80,000 within the protected. Primarily based on their statements, they bought a number of thousand dollars that they present in the home, a digicam and a guitar … for allegedly taking a person's life.
Maria Cid Medina: Individuals are wanting ahead to this trial beginning. And so they need to see justice served, particularly Tushar's buddies.
Justice, no matter that may appear to be, won't ever be sufficient to make up for all Tushar Atre had left to present.
Rachael Emerlye: His charisma was infectious. … It is insane. It isn't meant to be understood.
An entrepreneur and an adventurer with so many mountain trails left to climb, waves nonetheless to surf, and melodies but to strum on his guitar.
Rachael Emerlye is suing Tushar Atre's property to recoup what she says is her rightful share of the hashish enterprise.
Produced by Gayane Keshishyan Mendez and Richard Fetzer and Chuck Stevenson. Michelle Fanucci is the event producer. Lauren Turner Dunn is the affiliate producer. Ken Blum, Joan Adelman, Wini Dini, Grayce Arlotta-Berner and Diana Modica are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.