Cold Case Killing Of Two Teens Solved With DNA: Police – Fremont, CA Patch

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DNA

FREMONT, CA — The bodies of two murdered teens were found in Fremont in 1982. For 37 years, their families have been waiting for justice. Now, thanks to new DNA technology, their parents finally know who killed their children, but they will never know why — the man identified as the killer died in 1999. His body was exhumed to get a DNA sample to confirm the initial match.

Mary Jane Malatag and Jeffrey Flores Atup were cousins, both just 16 years old, when they died. They lived with their families in Milpitas.

Atup worked at the Serra Theaters. On Dec. 19, 1982, Malatag was at the movie theater with some friends. After Atup closed up for the night, they walked to a local 7-Eleven store with a friend and bought some food. According to a police investigation, Malatag and Atup were last seen walking toward Atup’s home on Horcajo Street. They never arrived.

Around 6 a.m. the next day, Fremont police were notified that a body had been spotted near the intersection of Green Valley Road and Scott Creek Road in Fremont, near the Milpitas border. It was Atup. Police said in a release, “It was immediately apparent based on visible injuries he was the victim of a homicide.”

At 8:35 a.m., Malatag’s body was found near the intersection of Hunter Lane and Mission Boulevard. “She, too, had visible injuries and was believed to be the victim of a homicide,” police said

Despite an intense investigation at the time, no arrests were made.

DNA crime databases were created in the mid-1990s. Fremont police gathered DNA evidence from the case and uploaded it into the state and national DNA databases in 1999, but nothing resulted from it.

In 2018 came the reports by police that California’s Golden State Killer had been identified, decades after his reign of terror, through new a DNA technology called Investigative Genetic Genealogy. The arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo in Sacramento, who still awaits trial, sparked renewed hope that other cold-case murders could be solved. Among investigators who lept at the chance to use the new technolody was Jacob Blass, the Fremont Police Department’s cold-case homicide detective.

Blass contacted Parabon Nanolabs to analyze DNA from the killings of Malatag and Atup. An in-depth investigation identified Clifton Hudspeth as the suspect, authorities said. He was 31 years old at the time of the crimes and lived close to Atup in Milpitas. His background included bank robberies, sexual assaults and attempted homicide.

It wasn’t hard to locate Hudspeth — he died of natural causes in October 1999 at the age of 48.

Clifton Hudspeth (Courtesy of Fremont Police Department)

The Fremont Police Department obtained a search warrant to exhume Hudspeth’s body from a cemetery in Santa Clara. His DNA matched the killer’s, police said. Police believe he acted alone, and the case is now closed.

Detectives met with the families of Atup and Malatag last week. The families released a joint statement that reads, in part, “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.

“We will be forever grateful to Detective Blass in never forgetting about these two innocent children. His dedication and determination truly went above and beyond. We would also like to thank the Fremont Police Department as well as the initial detectives who worked on this case.”

The families also said they were re-mourning the loss of their children and asked for privacy.

As for Hudspeth, he was known to be in San Diego and Arkansas in the months preceding the killings. Anyone who believes that Hudspeth might have been involved in other cases is asked to contact Blass at 510-790-6963.

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