Unsolved Calif. Case Long A Dark 'Net Mystery

BOSTON -- Internet aficionados of unsolved mysteries have long followed the Sohus disappearance case, a decades-old disappearance about which police now want to question Clark Rockefeller.

The former San Marino police chief said Rockefeller's fingerprints match those of Christopher Chichester, a person who knew California couple John and Linda Sohus before they mysteriously disappeared in 1985.

"Anyone remember this case? Really odd, probably one the strangest dissapperances (sic). Linda and John were supposed to go on some trip and ended up and europe and never were heard or seen again," Web site poster Boodie23 wrote in 2002 on the www.sitcomsonline.com message board following an episode of the television program "Unsolved Mysteries."

"I remember this case. They found a body buried in the backyard many years later didn't they? And didn't they say it was probably John? It's been a while, but I remember this case," forum poster Brent88 wrote a year later.

Rockefeller, 48, was arrested in Baltimore Sunday, charged with kidnapping and assault and battery in connection with the alleged abduction of his daughter, Reigh "Snooks" Storrow Boss, 7, from a Boston street during a custody visit July 27.

He and the child's mother, Sandra Lynn Boss, were divorced in 2007 after a 13-year marriage in which they lived in Boston's posh Beacon Hill neighborhood and kept a vacation mansion in New Hampshire.

Divorce records indicated that Rockefeller gave up custody of the child rather than reveal his true identity.

Now, homicide detectives from California want to know whether Rockefeller is really Chichester, a man linked to the Sohus case through fingerprints Chichester once provided on a driver's license application.

A Pasadena, Calif., newspaper reported that Chichester rented an apartment from the Sohus couple before their 1985 disappearance. Some time later, postcards allegedly from the couple arrived from Europe.

Then, in 1994, a crew digging near a swimming pool in the Sohus house back yard discovered bones that may have belonged to John Sohus. DNA from the bones was never tested.

Chichester also left the area, turning up in the late 1980s in Connecticut driving a truck registered to John Sohus.

Posters on the Unsolved Mysteries Web site have blogged about their theories on the case for years.

"Some of the couple's relatives received strange postcards from Linda and John saying that are bad at geograpy and they some how ended up in France. There is also a man, forgot his name, that is a suspect. He supposedly sold John Sohas's pick-up truck after the disappearance. I wonder if this missing persons case is closed or open. I hope it's open because just because this happened almost 20 years ago doesn't mean that it should'nt be solved. Don't you agree?" poster UMFan77 wrote in 2003.

Another wrote, "I asked the same question under the post of Christopher Chichester. Christopher Chichester is a pseudonym for Christian Gerhard Streider a German citizen who is considered a suspect in the disappearance of John and Linda Sohos," said poster Rieder, from Australia, in 2003.

Another poster identified as Crystaldawn wrote in 2002 that Linda Sohus' maiden name was Linda Mayfield. She said Mayfield worked in a Los Angeles science fantasy bookstore until meeting and marrying John Sohus, described as a quiet, "nerdy guy."

"Shortly after Linda married this Sohus guy, things went south. Linda Mayfield Sohus quit her bookstore job. Soon, she and her husband disappeared. The bookstore owner, Lydia Marano, got a postcard from Linda & John saying that they were in France. They never returned," Crystaldawn wrote in the post.

She goes on to write, "John’s alcoholic mother, Didi, had claimed that John and Linda’s former tenant Christopher Chichester was providing her with exclusive information that John and Linda were on a top secret “mission”. Then just as mysteriously Chichester broke off contact and he too vanished. In a final bizarre twist in May of 1994 the remains of John Sohus were found buried underground on his own property.”