Man found murdered in Santa Cruz County identified 25 years later

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV)- A man who was found murdered and wrapped in a tarp down a hillside on Bear Creek Road back on Dec. 27, 1998, was identified using new DNA identification, said the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office said the victim was found in an advanced state of decomposition, and the autopsy revealed that he suffered blunt force trauma. Due to the body's state of decomposition, a majority of the soft tissue was gone, said deputies.

Three people were arrested and charged with the murder of the then-unidentified victim after a subsequent investigation. During that process, the victim was identified as Eric P. Cupo, 22 at the time, born in California but adopted into a Philadelphia family.

Detectives said Cupo later moved to Florida with his adoptive father, briefly returned to Philadelphia when he was 18 to olive his adoptive mother, and then moved around the country, and that's when his family lost regular contact with him.

Eric is believed to have lived in both Arizona and Ohio after that. Detectives are unsure when he returned to Califronia.

"In 2021, the Santa Cruz Sheriff-Coroner’s Office, including the Sheriff’s Office Forensics Services team, began utilizing forensic genetic genealogy techniques to finally identify the decedent and make notification to next of kin," said the sheriff's office.

Eric Cupo’s adopted family and biological relatives have been notified of his identification, said detectives.