Kensington Police Offer Reward to Solve Cold Case

KENSINGTON, CA - Police are asking for the public's help in identifying people who may have information about a man killed five years ago in an affluent community in Contra Costa County.

A police review of surveillance revealed that people in several vehicles had contact with a 50-year-old man found dead in a park in Kensington, an unincorporated part of the county in the Berkeley Hills.

Erik Elliot's body was found on March 12, 2011 at 10:35 a.m. on a grassy hillside in Kensington Park at 59 Arlington Ave., according to Kensington police. An autopsy established that he was killed by blunt force
trauma to the head, police said.

There were up to seven people who had contact with the man near the time of his death, which police said they determined through a review of surveillance footage in the area.

The individuals were spending the night in their vehicles on the park's south side, near a dead-end on Windsor Avenue, according to police.

They may have believed they were in Berkley or El Cerrito and not Kensington, police said.

Kensington police in a news release today said they are seeking the owners or occupants of four vehicles in the area on the day Elliot's body was found or the day before.

The vehicles were described as a black Chevrolet Xtreme pickup truck, a green Nissan Altima or a similar vehicle, a Chevrolet Suburban or a similar GMC model, and a dark-colored compact car with a white racing strip running along the driver's side of the vehicle.

All of the vehicles, except for the possible Chevrolet Suburban, were described as models from the late 1990s to early 2000s.

Anyone with information potentially relevant to the case has been asked to call Kensington police at (510) 526-4141.

--Bay City News