?????
Back when attempting to get control of automated backups, it was suggested turning off the task for automated backups. Truncate all the tables related. etc. etc. After one successful run then check/turn on the scheduled task for automatted backups again. Thought maybe you hadn't done that.
Cron job -> has individual task -> task are scheduled to run at certain times (or disabled/etc).
Once completed they no longer show as any process anywhere - unless a run-away/zombie process. And the only way of which I know where one could possibly see that is via command line on Linux - ps command with filters.
The only other way outside of the Moodle admin interface, is to setup cron job to also log to a log file. One can then review the last log and/or watch that log file in real time as it executes.
Ken