On an overcast winter day 24 years ago, a worker walking into a brick contracting business in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania came across a grisly scene: a man’s body wrapped in a trash bag.
It was Jan. 21, 1993 when the body of Octavio Hupperterz, father of Temple University killing suspect Josh Hupperterz, was discovered outside the Altomare Sewer Brick Contracting Company along Queen Street, a Philadelphia Inquirer report from the time said.
The 32-year-old died from a gunshot to the back of the head. The 5-foot-9 man had his hands tied behind his back when he was shoved into the garbage bag.
A month later, 4-year-old Josh Hupperterz would learn his father was gone forever after his mother identified the body.
Sources tell NBC10 that investigators believed the elder Hupperterz, who lived in Philadelphia’s Germantown section, was killed at another location and his body dumped in Montgomery County.
His murder remains unsolved.
Kate Delano, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, stopped short in calling the case cold, saying that investigators are "always working all outstanding murder cases."
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The fatal shooting wasn’t the first time Octavio Hupperterz ended up on the wrong end of a gun barrel. A Inquirer report from October 1989 said he took the brunt of a shotgun shell to the stomach as he walked into his home along the 5100 block of Pulaski Avenue. He was returning home from work as manager of Splash, a restaurant in Center City.
The shooting left Hupperterz critically hurt, but he survived only to be gunned down three years later.
While Octavio Hupperterz’s killer remains at large, the man’s son is confined to a Philadelphia jail cell.
Police contend the 29-year-old murdered Temple student Jenna Burleigh inside his apartment just off the university's North Philadelphia campus early Thursday. The 22-year-old's body was then stuffed in a plastic storage bin and transported to Wayne County, Pennsylvania in the trunk of a Lyft ride-hailing car, sources said.
Josh Hupperterz's grandfather discovered Burleigh's body Saturday while doing maintenance in a lakeside shed on the property.
Investigators are looking into whether others were involved in Burleigh's killing.
It's unclear what kind of relationship Josh Hupperterz had with his father.
NBC10 has not yet been able to speak with him or his family about the cases.
