WYOMING – A Virginia male escort who is linked to the murder investigation of gay film producer Bryan Kocis is featured in a new pornographic movie with a character named “Drake.”

The name “Drake” surfaced early in the investigation regarding Kocis, who was found dead inside his burning Dallas Township home on Jan. 24.

Police released a photo of a man they said they thought had the last name “Drake” and was scheduled to meet with Kocis. Police said they believed the man was from the Allentown or Philadelphia area.

Harlow Cuadra, the Virginia male escort, has told reporters that he was the man in the photo. He said in e-mails Tuesday and Wednesday that he named a character in his movie “Drake” as a “marketing ploy.”

The movie was recently filmed on the West Coast and downloaded Wednesday on a Web site that markets and sells Cuadra’s pornographic movies.

A message on the Web site on Wednesday stated: “Introducing super young twink stud 18 year old Drake …with hot Harlow in new XXX movie uploading now.”

Almost immediately after state police released the photo on Feb. 2, it began circulating on several Web sites. Some blog contributors suggested that the picture was of Cuadra in Virginia Beach.

Cuadra later confirmed that he is the man in the picture, but denied being in Pennsylvania or with Kocis the night he was killed. Cuadra claimed he was with a client for three hours in Virginia Beach the night of Jan. 24.

Before he died, Kocis, 44, had told an associate that he was meeting the man in the photo at his Midland Drive home at 7 p.m. Jan. 24 to discuss a modeling job for Cobra Video.

Kocis owned and operated Cobra Video, a production company that produces and sells gay pornographic movies featuring young men.

About 90 minutes after the scheduled meeting, firefighters responded to Kocis’ Midland Drive home for a fire and encountered an open door.

An autopsy showed that Kocis sustained 28 stab wounds – all to the front of his torso – and a slashed throat. He was dead before the fire, said Luzerne County Coroner Dr. John Consalvo.

A folding-type knife was found inside the home near the couch where Kocis’ body was found, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the case.

The affidavit gave investigators authority to obtain Kocis’ telephone and e-mail records, and suggested that Kocis may have had a “personal association” with the suspect because there were no defensive wounds on his hands and arms.

State police Lt. Frank Hackin said Wednesday that progress is being made in the investigation. He declined to release details about the investigation’s progress, and refused to say if investigators questioned Cuadra.

Cuadra said in an e-mail that, “no one has ever tried phoning me from up north.”

Cuadra is listed in Virginia State Corporation Commission records as president of Norfolk Companions, a male escort service based in Virginia Beach.

He claimed to have met Sean Lockhart, a model for Kocis’ company, at an adult film convention in Las Vegas in mid January.

A federal lawsuit filed by Cobra Video against Lockhart and business partner Grant Roy in California has been settled and dismissed, according to federal court records.

Kocis filed the suit alleging Lockhart and Roy violated the terms of a contract and misused the trademark name of Brent Corrigan for personal gain. Lockhart appeared as Corrigan in Kocis’ films.