Police dig up remains to crack cold case of cousins killed in 1982, CA cops say

Police in Fremont, California, have cracked a 37-year-old cold murder case using DNA technology.

Clifton Hudspeth, who died in October 1999 due to a medical condition, has been identified as the man who killed two California 16-year-olds in 1982, according to a Fremont police department release.

His remains were exhumed and a DNA match confirmed him as the suspect. He is believed to have acted alone and his motive is unclear.

On Dec. 20, 1982, someone reported a body in Fremont. When police arrived, they found Jeffrey Flores Atup dead and determined that it was a homicide.

About two hours later, officers received a second call. They found the body of Mary Jane Malatag and determined that she also was the victim of a homicide.

The teens were cousins and were last spotted walking to Atup’s house in Milpitas, but never made it there. The police launched an investigation, but the case went cold.

In 2018, Fremont Police Dept. Detective Jacob Blass looked at the case again and said new DNA technology, including the process that identified the Golden State Killer, could be used.

DNA testing at labs in San Leandro and Richmond narrowed a suspect to Hudspeth, who was dead, ABC 7 reported. Hudspeth lived near the victims at the time of the killings and could have been involved in other unsolved crimes.

Sources confirmed to authorities that Hudspeth was on the street where Atup and Malatag were last seen. His house was four minutes from where Atup’s body was discovered.

“We are a family that has been grieving for almost 37 years,” the family said in a statement on Twitter, CBS San Francisco reported. “We are attempting to put our lives back together as we re-mourn the loss of our beloved Jeffrey Atup and Mary Jane Malatag…Our family over the years had lost hope in believing that we would ever have justice in knowing, who did this and as to what had happened to them.”