Eugene Cervus was a property developer in and Mayor of San Atanasio when the identity of the South Bay Strangler was discovered. His father had previously been mayor of the town and his younger brother currently was on city council. Cervus met with Lt. Colin Ferguson, the local PD officer in charge of the Strangler case prior to Ferguson meeting the press. He discussed ways of minimizing embarrassment to the city and the department and floated the idea of appointing Ferguson as the new Police Chief replacing the deceased Mike Pitcavage.