L.A. Lawmen To Grill Accused Kidnapper Dad
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has confirmed it is sending two homicide detectives to Boston to interview the father accused of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a visit in Boston.The man known as Clark Rockefeller was arraigned in Boston on charges stemming from his July 27 disappearance with this daughter, Reigh. He was caught Saturday in Baltimore, and the girl was found safe.
Los Angeles authorities confirmed to CBS station KCBS-TV in Los Angeles that they are looking into a possible connection between Rockefeller and the 1994 discovery of human remains in Southern California.
California homicide detectives have been wanting to talk to Rockefeller for some time, but they didn't know him as Clark Rockefeller, a source tells CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston.
According to the Pasadena Star News, California authorities they knew him as Christopher Chichester - yet another of his numerous aliases.
Pasadena Star News reporter Frank C. Girardot, said a growing number of investigators are convinced Rockefeller and Chichester are the same man.
WBZ-TV reporter Jonathan Elias spoke with Girardot, who has been following the case of the missing California couple for years. Girardot said detectives are in Massachusetts because they have a link between Rockefeller and that missing couple.
"Law enforcement officials have been telling me that the fingerprint they have links Rockefeller to Chichester," Girardot said.
Chichester was being questioned in the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus - a young couple he was renting a room from in San Marino, an upscale suburb of Los Angeles.
John and Linda vanished and Chichester told their families they were doing work for the government and were on a top secret mission. Linda's mother even got a letter supposedly from her daughter with a postmark from Paris.
Police were called in and they began questioning Chichester. And then he vanished.
Four years later, in 1989, Chichester surfaced again. "He was stopped in Greenwich, Connecticut driving a car registered to Sohu... Police in Greenwich notified the police department that they had this truck linked to a missing person from Los Angeles County, but the case never went anywhere and Chichester disappeared again," Giradot said.
Then, five years later, in 1994, new homeowners of the Sohus' home started digging a pool and found bones. Investigators strongly believe they are the remains of John Sohus.
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis confirmed that a fingerprint match places Rockefeller in California in the 1980s.
However, investigators in California told WBZ-TV they actually recognized Rockefeller's picture. ....
AND:
Boston man questioned in 1985 Calif. mystery
SAN MARINO, Calif. — When Clark Rockefeller was arrested on the East Coast on charges of kidnapping his daughter, he told police he didn't remember anything about his past.
Police think otherwise and they want him to fill in the blanks that could connect him to a bag of human bones and a married couple who vanished nearly a quarter century ago in this wealthy Los Angeles suburb.
Two homicide detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were in Boston on Wednesday to question Rockefeller about Jonathan and Linda Sohus, who vanished without a trace in 1985.
After his arrest in Baltimore, police realized Rockefeller's fingerprints matched those on an old license application submitted by Christopher Chichester — a man who lived in a guesthouse on the Sohus' property and was a target of the initial investigation.
"We have begun the interview process," Steve Whitmore, sheriff's spokesman, said Wednesday. "The hope is when we come back, we have more information involving the Sohus missing person case."
The development was the latest in an intriguing case that has repeatedly frustrated investigators since Jonathan Sohus' mother filed a missing persons report 23 years ago.
Police explored various possibilities, including that Chichester had been in love with Linda Sohus and murdered her husband in a fit of jealousy, Frank Wills, San Marino's former police chief, told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
But then Chichester disappeared, too, and Sohus' mother died in 1988 without any answers.
Lili Hadsell, a former San Marino police sergeant who took the initial missing persons report, said the mother later reported receiving postcards from Linda Sohus from Paris. She died believing her son and daughter-in-law had moved to Europe and forgotten about her.
Then, in 1994, the new owners of the Sohus house were digging a swimming pool when a backhoe uncovered human remains in three plastic bags. Investigators also found horse and chicken bones.
The badly damaged remains were those of a man believed to be Jonathan Sohus — but were never positively identified, Hadsell said. No sign of Linda Sohus was ever found.
The case eventually faded from the public eye, but investigators have searched for Chichester for years.
In 1994, homicide detectives circulated a news release that described Chichester as a con man who "surfaces in affluent neighborhoods and mingles in social circles before making friends with wealthy, influential people."
They never found him and never interviewed him, Hadsell said.
"I thought my jaw was going to hit my desk," Hadsell said Wednesday of the possible connection to the Rockefeller case in Boston. "I was absolutely shocked and very, very pleased. It was really thrilling to see that maybe we've got him and maybe we're going to come to some kind of resolution for John and Linda."
Authorities came close to Chichester in the late 1980s when he was pulled over in Greenwich, Conn., driving Sohus' truck. But by the time the Department of Motor Vehicles had confirmed it was Sohus' truck, Chichester and the vehicle had vanished.....
...When the Los Angeles detectives came to the Boston jail where Rockefeller is being held without bail, Rockefeller refused to meet with them. "He's not accepting any communications. He's not granting any interviews," said Peter Van Delft, a spokesman for the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department. Rockefeller's attorney, Stephen Hrones, said he advised his client not to speak to the Los Angeles investigators. He said Rockefeller "denies absolutely" any connection between him and the California case....
The Suspect Known as Clark Rockefeller on Wall Street
Dave Copeland, who knows something about criminals and New York, makes some calls to learn about "Rockefeller's" less than illustrious career on Wall Street back in the Gordon Gekko days:
... But after two days at Lehman, Rockefeller told his supervisors that he needed to take time off to search for his parents, who he said had gone missing in Afghanistan. Sources said Rockefeller – who told co-workers at Nikko he was film director Christoher Crowe – was dismissed by Lehman. Rockefeller even invited co-workers to the Greenwich, Conn. guest house he was renting for screenings of “his” movies. Rockefeller claimed he was living in the guest house because his own home was being renovated, a claim that co-workers assumed was one of his tall tales.
Within days of his dismissal from Lehman, Connecticut State Police detectives arrived at the offices of both Lehman and Nikko looking to question Rockefeller. ...
One guess what they might have wanted to question him about. Yep.
MORE:08/01/08 The Fake Rockefeller Has A Greenwich Connection In Doctor Hedi Leistner
AND:
08/06/08 Did The Greenwich Police Department Question Clark Rockefeller And Then Let Him Go Free?
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