SANTA CRUZ — Unnamed private parties are offering a $25,000 award for tips related to the Oct. 1 kidnapping and fatal shooting of tech entrepreneur Tushar Atre.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed the validity of the offered reward, which will be available through Nov. 30 for anyone assisting the department in the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects involved.

Atre, 50, was kidnapped from his Pleasure Point home around 3 a.m. in what investigators believe started out as a robbery. According to findings of a county medical examiner, Atre died from wounds inflicted during a shooting. His body was found later that morning in a parked BMW at property he owned in the Santa Cruz Mountains. No arrests have been made in the three intervening weeks, with the department reportedly seeking multiple suspects in the case.

“Several people were involved in this murder and someone out there knows who they are,” Sheriff Jim Hart stated in a released statement. “That is a terrible secret to keep.”

Atre was CEO of web-design company AtreNet, which he founded in 1996. He was also the owner of Interstitial Systems, a Santa Cruz-based licensed cannabis manufacturer, according to state records.