Body of Kidnapped Tech Entrepreneur Found, Police Say

The body of a California tech businessman, Tushar Atre, was discovered on Tuesday, just hours after he was kidnapped from his home in Santa Cruz County, Calif., according to the police.

At the time of the episode, several people were inside the home, Sgt. Brian Cleveland of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday, though it wasn’t immediately clear what their relationships were to Mr. Atre, who owned AtreNet, a web design firm that works with tech companies in Silicon Valley.

The investigation is continuing and more than one suspect has been identified, the sheriff’s office said.

“We think that this was not a random act by any means,” Sergeant Cleveland said.

The episode may have been motivated by robbery, according to a news release posted to the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page. Sergeant Cleveland declined to comment on whether any property was taken from the home.

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CreditSanta Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, via Associated Press

Around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, someone called the police to report that Mr. Atre had been kidnapped, Sergeant Cleveland said.

Mr. Atre, 50, was last seen getting into his girlfriend’s white BMW SUV early Tuesday morning, Sergeant Cleveland said, adding that the girlfriend was not inside the home at the time.

Hours later, during the course of the investigation, the police arrived at an address on a two-lane road about 10 miles from Mr. Atre’s home, Sergeant Cleveland said. “It was still in our county, but the northern part of our county,” he said, describing the area as “mountainous.”

There, the authorities found the vehicle and the body, he said. He declined to say where exactly the body was found or describe its condition.

Santa Cruz County is about 70 miles south of San Francisco and has a population of 274,000, according to census data.

When asked if Mr. Atre had any enemies, Sergeant Cleveland said detectives were investigating the entrepreneur’s “background and who he was involved with.”

Mr. Atre started AtreNet in 1996; the organization has worked with companies like Itron, Signal Sciences, Rainforest and GitLab, according to its website.

Calls to AtreNet were directed to voice mail and attempts to reach Mr. Atre’s family were not successful.

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