"Rockefeller" Linked To LA Murder

LA Police Say Boston Kidnap Suspect Is A German National Tied To 1985 Disappearance Of Couple

(CBS/AP)  A Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman says a Boston kidnapping suspect is a German man who lived in the guesthouse of a San Marino couple who disappeared in 1985.

Steve Whitmore told The Associated Press on Monday that investigators "positively identified" Christian Gerhartsreiter as the man being held in Boston and wanted for questioning in the disappearance of Jonathan and Linda Sohus.

Whitmore says Gerhartsreiter went by the name "Christopher Chichester" when he lived at the Sohus property at the time they went missing. He was recently using the pseudonym "Clark Rockefeller" when arrested for allegedly kidnapping his daughter in Boston.

Investigators have requested new forensic tests on skeletal remains found at the Sohus property.

Rockefeller's attorney says his client can't remember anything in his life prior to his 1995 marriage, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace, but prosecutors in the kidnapping case aren't buying it. They're calling Rockefeller more of a schemer than someone having trouble with memory.

The bespectacled 48-year-old has been jailed since being accused of abducting his daughter from Boston's high-society Back Bay neighborhood.

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.

In 1985, Jonathan and Linda Sohus disappeared without a trace fom the wealthy Los Angeles suburb of San Marino.

Sohus' mother reported receiving postcards from her son in Paris, and died in 1988, thinking her son and daughter-in-law had moved to Europe and forgotten about her.

Then in 1994, the new owners of the Sohus property 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 believed to be those of Jonathan Sohus but were never positively identified, said Lili Hadsell, a former San Marino police sergeant who took the initial missing persons report.

Jonathan Sohus was adopted, so there was no obvious way of comparing the bones' DNA to that of family members, half-brother Chris Sohus said.

Policed believe "Rockefeller", now known to be Christian Gerhartsreiter, also was a man who went by the name Christopher Chichester, who was a tenant of the Sohus'. Police explored various possibilities, including that Chichester had been in love with Linda Sohus and murdered her husband in a fit of jealousy.

According to a 1994 sheriff's department press release, Chichester was described as a con man who "surfaces in affluent neighborhoods and mingles in social circles by making friends with wealthy, influential people," a similar portrait of the country club lifestyle of Rockefeller.

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.

"We were very diligent in trying to track down as many leads as we could, but they were adults, and there were no signs of foul play," Hadsell said of the initial investigation. "Adults can go ahead and disappear."

Neighbors in San Marino remembered Chichester as a smooth talker who was well-dressed and seemed well-educated. He did all the right things to ingratiate himself with his upscale neighbors, including volunteering at the local library, said Ray Cornwall, a neighbor who has lived in the community since the 1970s.

"He's a prototype con man. He's really good at it," said Cornwall, whose daughter dated Chichester briefly in the mid-1980s. "It's going to be hard to prove anything, because he's not left any permanent trail. It's all smoke and mirrors."

[erasmus81]

"On balance, you appear to be more SHREW!!! than bimbo. . ." Posted by tuckerndfw at 05:54 PM : Aug 12, 2008

I take offense to that! You are saying that I am MORE shrew, but that means that you think that I am partly a bimbo! I am NOT a bimbo. I am very intelligent. I can spot a guy who''s an idiot, a mile away!

[erasmus81]

"there" should be "there are". I have been getting bad lately. Must be brain fade.

[erasmus81]

"YOU are a shrew; she is a bimbo!!!" Posted by tuckerndfw at 03:42 AM : Aug 12, 2008

Why thank you,tucker,.......I think.

I think I might actually agree with you on the bimbo part. In fact I didn''t realize that there actually are a lot of bimbos. I can''t believe how many women that have been posting about this subject, really believe not knowing anything about their husbands is okay!

[emmer94]

This is not the average arrangement for visitation rights. Was there ever a reason stated as to why he had to be supervised in order to visit his own daughter?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by getcenttered

According to the reports, he did not provide proof of identity to the court as requested. The wife must have finally figured out that the puzzle pieces weren''t fitting together. She hasn''t spoken publically from what I can tell.

Poor Tucker, he still hangs on to that one line. Again, a background check just would have come up with no criminal record for that name. the violin strings are starting to get pretty worn.

[meanbiker]

To bad our court system will let him go with a slap on the hand..

[getcenttered]

Here is a REAL BIG CLUE: IF your intended cannot account for his past, RUN away as fast as you can.

It''''s just that simple.

Posted by tuckerndfw at 09:43 AM : Aug 12, 2008

In one of the past recent stories about this, it was stated that he had "supervised visits" with his daughter.

This is not the average arrangement for visitation rights. Was there ever a reason stated as to why he had to be supervised in order to visit his own daughter?

[jennasmith2]

this will soon be a made for tv movie

[getcenttered]

"It''s going to be hard to prove anything, because he''s not left any permanent trail. It''s all smoke and mirrors."

George Bush, what''s wrong with you, man??

[emmer94]

Well, at least Tucker is consistant and doesn''t waffle. But there is a point where you have to ''fess up and say that maybe you were wrong about this guy. I''m still trying to figure out how the mother of his child is responsible for his past. If she had done a records check on him, all it would have said was he had no criminal past. Fake names are done for a reason. He didn''t change his name through legal channels so there won''t be way to track him down. I guess the world is flat, too, isn''t it?

[smurfcrusher]

polly123789 has been reported for SPAMming, in violation of Terms of Service.

I suggest that all viewers of the blog never go to the site that a SPAMmer suggests.


Only by showing that their despicable SPAMming is ineffective, can we end it.

[erasmus81]

"whack" should be "whacko"

[erasmus81]

The guy looks like a whack killer. I say he''s guilty.

"The bimbo is an unfit parent regardless what the guy did or does." Posted by tuckerndfw at 01:37 AM : Aug 12, 2008

You were doing so well tucker, but now I see you are back to using the word "bimbo". I think you should go back to using "shrew".

[publicspeech]

I did quite like the note (and found it amusing) about finding the "Chichester" character in the "late ''80s"(?) in Greenwich, CT driving Mr. Sohus'' pickup!!?? [hint: this was no investigative reporter writing this story.]

[publicspeech]

Detective? Cattlekate: Your math and time line are off. First, you have this guys age wrong by 10 years! Second, as for your comment about the nose job... well let me say, "you are looking in the back door and out the front." Also if you reread this poorly written mystery novel (a la poor CBS news reporter) you will determine that this man has not spent all his time during the last 20 years inside the US!? Katie dear if this man is the dangerous psychopath that perhaps you are assuming (if he is one person) he is also a better chess player (or whatever his game is)than you and has you beat and maybe already buried. This mystery is too complicated for your investigative skill level; and its still going to stump the professionals for a time too.

[cattlekate]

Ann Rule! Please write a book about this guy!

PS - Some wires are getting the John and Linda Sohus timeline wrong. John''s remains were only found almost a decade after he disappeared. His poor Mother died thinking her son had disowned her. Linda has never been found. My heart breaks for her family at this time.

Go to the Boston Herald. Go thru ipl.org.

Christian Karl Gerhartstreiter was one smart, sociopathic guy, at the young age of 18, to realize he could skip thru America by changing his name slightly, and answering a nefarious ad for obtaining a Green Card illegally.

I wonder if the nose-job doctor will come forward?

I want Kevin Spacey to play the older Christian. Who can play the young Christian as the Bay City Roller lookalike?

[susanhelit]

It would be quite the movie - little boy with delusions of superiority leaves home, gets to America, jumping from place to place, identity to identity, a job as a stock market type, leaving the wife at the altar, getting in with all these different people - running as soon as he is found out - but the last time he tries to run, he''s got a daughter - and this is his downfall - taking her makes him high profile enough to at long last be caught.

He must have had a good line for that stock market job - he wasn''t making sales and didn''t know the job, and still had that job for awhile - and you don''t keep jobs in sales if you don''t sell, unless you''re an extremely good talker.

[cattlekate]

Go to the Boston Herald or Boston Globe to see a pic of Christian Karl in High school. He DOES look like a member of the Bay City Rollers! He looked pretty hot.

Obviously, he had that tip of his nose cut off. But his teeth and facial structure are the same.

That Talented Mr. Ripley!

Geeesh - can you imagine the bidding Lifetime, HBO, and Imagine are doing right now?

[wellhell3]

They''re lucky they got the little girl back safe...this is one sociopath goon!

He really does look like a rat who''s facing the bottom of the toilet for a flush down! Geezus!

[o2bewealthy]

I quite like the glasses, but I think a Malcolm X look would suit his face better.

[marshall_nee]

Whats with those glasses? Is he trying to model himself on the character Michael Douglas played in Falling Down?