Two Men Found Dead in Abandoned Truck; Social Media Post Possible Clue
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The deaths of two men found in the back of a pickup truck in the Santa Cruz Mountains are being investigated as homicides by the California Highway Patrol.
The truck was discovered and towed away by investigators on Tuesday afternoon following the grim discovery.
One of the victims has been identified as 45-year-old Sean Pfeffer of Boulder Creek. His sister, speaking to KSBW from Texas, expressed her shock and grief over the phone. “It’s awful and just knowing that he was in the back of an abandoned truck and that’s not where obviously the murder was. So somebody had to put him in the back of the truck, you know,” she told the station. “Was he alive? I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s just terrible.”
Investigators have not released many details about the murder investigation, including the cause of death and whether any suspects have been identified. A local resident remarked on the unusual nature of the crime, telling KSBW, “Well, especially the way it happened, found in the back of a truck that very odd up here I might have seen something similar 30 years ago, but. Yeah. Very, very odd.”
A possible key piece of evidence is a social media post Pfeffer made just two days before his body and that of his friend were discovered off Highway 35, several miles from Castle Rock State Park. Investigators are examining the post, which may contain a prediction of his fate and identify a possible suspect, though the name has been withheld.
Pfeffer’s family is pleading for answers. “Nobody deserves this,” the victim’s sister said. “If Boulder Creek is a close-knit little community, somebody knows something. This needs to be solved so we can have some closure.”
