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Picture In Calif. Disappearance Deepens Rockefeller Mystery

Rockefeller 'Person Of Interest,' Police Say

POSTED: 8:10 pm EDT August 5, 2008
UPDATED: 7:39 am EDT August 6, 2008

While the true identity of the man calling himself Clark Rockefeller continued to baffle Boston police and the FBI, California homicide detectives traveled to Boston to question him about the 1994 discovery of human remains in a California swimming pool excavation.

Those detectives will try to determine if Rockefeller is the same man who once called himself Christopher Chichester.

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The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday night they now consider Rockefeller "a person of interest in the case."

Pasadena Star News

An undated picture of the man calling himself Chichester published on the Web site of the Pasadena Star News showed a man the sheriff's department said bears a resemblance to Rockefeller.

“Our homicide investigators are en route to interview this individual (Rockefeller) in connection to a missing person's report from the early 1990s out of San Marino, Calif.," said Steve Whitmore, of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

Workers digging a swimming pool in the back yard of a home found the remains in May 1994. Officials said the victim may have been Jonathan Sohus. In 1985, he disappeared with his wife, Linda, before they were scheduled to travel to Europe for a honeymoon.

Chichester was living as a tenant in the couple's house at the time of their disappearance, officials said. At the time, he was sought in connection with the case.

Chichester was a “con man who often surfaces in affluent neighborhoods and mingles in social circles by making friends with wealthy influential people. He often volunteers for good causes like raising money for charity," a sheriff's press release said at the time.

Police at the time said Chichester was using several aliases including Christopher Crowe, Chris Chichester, Christopher Crowe Mount Batten, the newspaper reported. He was described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, 150 to 160 pounds with a slight frame, fair and thinning hair.

At his arraignment on charges of kidnapping his daughter Reigh Boss in Boston Tuesday, prosecutor David Deakin said they have no idea who Rockefeller really is.

"From the time of the abduction to today, special agents from the FBI as well as Boston police detectives have worked around the clock trying to figure out who Rockefeller is," Deakin said. "It's been roughly nine days since they started this process and before 1993 we are no closer to knowing who this defendant is. He has used various aliases."

Rockefeller’s attorney Stephen Hrones told reporters that his client said allegations he was involved in the California case were “garbage.” However, his fingerprints, taken after his capture in Baltimore Saturday, were linked to a homicide case in California, The Boston Globe reported.

Rockefeller, who has used several aliases over the years, does not appear to have a previous work history, Social Security number or driver's license. During hours of interrogation, he refused to give police any information about his identity, answering most questions by saying he doesn't remember, a police official said.

"We cannot even verify that he is a United States citizen. We cannot find even basic documentation of that fact. He has simply no ties to anywhere. The only ties that he has are to Sandra Boss and Reigh. There is no record of any Clark Rockefeller before 1993, and he has not provided any information for us to document who he is," Deakin said.

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Chichester was reportedly last seen in 1989 in Greenwich, Conn., the Pasadena newspaper reported. He was stopped by police there driving a vehicle registered to John Sohus.

ABC News' Good Morning America reported Wednesday that California authorities said a man who once applied for a driver's license there under the Chichester name used as identification a passport with the name Christian Gerhard Streider, a German citizen.


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