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http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17187419/detail.html

DNA Tests Under Way On Bones In Rockefeller Case
Remains Discovered In 1994 After Couple's Disappearance

POSTED: 5:49 am EDT August 14, 2008
UPDATED: 6:01 am EDT August 14, 2008

(http://www.thebostonchannel.com/2008/0806/17104752_240X180.jpg)

LOS ANGELES --  Investigators are conducting DNA tests on an unearthed skeleton and examining remnants of a blood stain that may be related to the case of a missing California couple in which a Massachusetts kidnapping suspect has been named a "person of interest."

The bones are thought to belong to Jonathan Sohus, who with his wife Linda disappeared in 1985 when a man now known as Clark Rockefeller was a tenant in their family's San Marino guesthouse.

The bloodstain was found in the guesthouse soon after the bones were unearthed.

Though Sohus matched the general description, investigators were unable to definitively identify the bones because Sohus was adopted and his dental records were lost.

There are no known biological relatives, so investigators have sent DNA from the bones to a national database in hopes of finding a match, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

The bones were discovered in 1994, nearly 10 years after Sohus and his wife disappeared, when contractors were digging a hole for a swimming pool.

Wrapped in several small shopping bags tied together with twine, the remains were buried about 4 feet deep and close to the guesthouse, said Tricia Gough, a detective with the San Marino Police Department at the time.

"I feel pretty certain it was John Sohus," she said. "The physical similarities were very striking."

Gough said that a few months after the bones were found, investigators detected blood in the guesthouse that was too degraded to tell whether it was from a human or an animal.

The remnants of the stain will be "one focus" of the new investigation and analyzed again, Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

"All evidence that was collected back in '85, back in '94, and evidence that has been recently collected by way of interviews and everything else will be examined with every modern technology we have available to us," Whitmore said.

Sohus and his wife had shared the home, about 10 miles northeast of Los Angeles, with Jonathan's mother. After the disappearance, she moved away, and the home's new owners refurbished it.

Rockefeller was arrested Aug. 2 in Baltimore after allegedly kidnapping his daughter from Boston during a supervised visit.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has said Rockefeller is really Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. A man of many aliases, he was known as Christopher Chichester while living in California.

No one has ever been charged in the Sohus case, and Rockefeller has denied any involvement in the couple's disappearance.

DNA analysis was not carried out in 1994, Gough said, because the technique was not widely used at the time.

The remains dug up in 1994 included a nearly complete skeleton, with only a couple of small bones missing, Gough recalled. The skeleton was clothed in socks, a flannel shirt and jeans, and appeared to have been hastily wrapped in the bags, she said.

"It was like if you or I were to commit a murder and say, 'Oh my goodness, what have we done?"' she said. "Like someone had run round the house and picked up lots of different plastic bags."

Sheriff's officials said late Wednesday that they would not release any other information on the investigation, perhaps until the case is solved.

"Detectives have decided there's too much information out there," Whitmore said.
Edit to add note to subject line.  MB

Disappearance of San Marino couple in 1985 mystified friends
Family members and others tried in a variety of ways to contact or locate Linda and Jonathan Sohus but without success.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
August 21, 2008
Kathy Jacoby knew something was wrong soon after her half-sister Linda Sohus disappeared along with her husband Jonathan in the spring of 1985.

Sohus told Jacoby they were going on a job-hunting trip to Connecticut. But they never returned to their San Marino home. Linda Sohus abandoned her job at a bookstore as well as her four cats.

Jacoby, then 22, lacked the money to hire a private investigator. So she became her own detective. That April, she called her sister's boss, mother-in-law and friends and filed a missing-persons report with San Marino police. Jacoby eventually received a postcard purportedly from her sister postmarked from France, but that only heightened her concern.

Nothing came of her detective work, and her sister's case languished for decades. Jacoby looked for Sohus in crowds, stopping each time she saw the back of a tall, stocky blond, waiting until the woman turned, hoping that it might be her sister.

It never was.


The case of the young couple was largely forgotten until this month, when investigators named a Boston man who is being held there on unrelated kidnapping charges as a "person of interest" in the disappearance and suspected killings of Linda, 28, and Jonathan Sohus, 26. Authorities believe that the man, Clark Rockefeller, lived in the Sohus' guest house as Christopher Chichester at the time the couple disappeared. Rockefeller has denied any involvement with the disappearance.

The reopening of the long-cold case has forced friends and family to reexamine memories of the couple's disappearance.

John and Linda Sohus were both avid science-fiction fans, and their disappearance fueled rumors and speculation among those who knew them from the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society and Dangerous Visions Bookstore in Sherman Oaks, where Linda Sohus worked. Friends believe they met either at a society meeting or at the bookstore.

The bookstore's owner, Lydia Marano, 56, of Northridge, received a postcard from France similar to Jacoby's after the couple disappeared, which made no sense, she said. Linda Sohus was a clerk at the bookstore, and John Sohus had a low-level job working with computers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. They could not afford a trip to France, Marano said.

Marano said she wondered at the time how the couple could have gotten the money for the European trip.

"They were both very naive," she said.

Linda Sohus was well-known within the society as a fantasy artist who drew mystical cover art for society publications under the name "Cody," and friends said she sold a small illustration to the New Yorker magazine for $700.

Galen Tripp, a member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society who worked with Sohus at the bookstore, described her as a strong, outgoing woman -- no pushover.

"She was very self-assured," Tripp said. "The idea that anyone could con her doesn't seem right to me."

Some of the couple's friends in the society also received postcards from France, fueling the mystery.

"I think the handwriting on the postcard I've seen isn't the same as Linda's handwriting," said a 49-year-old computer engineer and science fiction fantasy art collector, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because he didn't want to become embroiled in the case. "It is someone trying to pretend to be Linda."

The collector said he met Sohus in 1984 at a science-fiction convention in Los Angeles. He commissioned her to do a piece of art featuring centaurs -- but then she disappeared without a word after conversations in January 1984.

"Then all of a sudden I cannot reach her," he said. "I have dealt with a lot of artists. She wasn't a flaky artist. She wasn't anything like that. She was very quick about sending stuff. She was very excited to be doing the work."

Married on Halloween

The couple married on Halloween 1983 and moved in with John Sohus' mother, Ruth "Didi" Sohus, whom they cared for at her home on Lorain Road.

Martha Harvey, 77, a former neighbor, remembered Jonathan "Johnny" Sohus as an undersized child, a quiet, creative outsider who struggled in school and had few friends. He grew into a science fiction fan who volunteered at the local library as an adult and often went to see Ray Bradbury speak, she said.

After the couple disappeared, Didi Sohus did not initially believe they were missing. Former San Marino police detective Tricia Gough, who worked the case, said Didi Sohus told investigators that her son and daughter-in law disappeared in February 1985, but she did not initially report them missing because the man staying in the guest house, Chris Chichester, told her that they were on "a secret mission" in Europe.

Didi Sohus later sold the house, moved to a trailer park and died of a heart attack in 1988.

Meanwhile, her ex-husband, Robert Sohus, John Sohus' adoptive father, suspected that John had come to harm.

Robert Sohus had moved to Phoenix with daughter Ellen after divorcing his wife, but John still called him weekly. After the couple disappeared, the weekly calls stopped, Ellen Sohus said.


Robert Sohus hired a private investigator to track down Chichester, hoping that he could tell what happened to the couple, Ellen Sohus said in an interview. But the private eye could not find him.

The case went cold until 1994, when the new owners of the Sohus home on Lorain Road began digging a pool in the backyard and discovered human remains buried in three plastic bags.

Investigators told Jacoby the bones belonged to a "small-framed man," which fit the description of John Sohus.

Investigators have not been able to make a forensic match to Sohus, but the bones were enough to persuade Jacoby that the couple was no longer missing. She stopped looking for her sister in crowds.

"I just determined in my mind at that time that they were both dead," Jacoby said, although she never learned how they died and her sister's body was never found.

Earlier this month, Boston police and FBI agents arrested a man who fit Chichester's description, Clark Rockefeller.

Investigators have since said the two names are aliases used by the same man, whom they identified through fingerprints as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German national who came to Connecticut as a student in the 1970s.

Rockefeller's attorney has said his client lived in San Marino but that he knows nothing about the couple's disappearance.

Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide investigators said they were trying to see if they could link forensic evidence from the remains as well as from blood found in the San Marino guesthouse to either Jonathan Sohus or Rockefeller.

"My hope is that investigators will be able to link the pieces together and we will finally have justice for my brother's murder," Ellen Sohus said. "With the new developments, there's some hope to see a resolution."
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-sanmarino21-2008aug21,0,466552.story?page=2

Not much found in missing persons case, resident says

Article Launched: 11/02/2008 10:07:15 PM PST

SAN MARINO - A woman whose home was the site of an intense search for evidence in a 23-year-old missing persons case in August finally has opened up about the ordeal.

Martha Parada said she doesn't believe much of anything was recovered by detectives, who were looking for more clues in the case of John and Linda Sohus. Bones believed to be those of John Sohus were found in Parada's backyard in 1994. Linda Sohus' fate remains unknown.

What was uncovered in the August search?

"I have no idea," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said. "If there was anything, it's going to be very, very challenging to piece it together."

Parada praised investigators for their handling of the search, saying they were considerate and gracious during the process.
"It seems this time it was a bit more organized," she said, adding investigators' kindness helped the family. "They were very nice and very accommodating."

Parada's home in the 1900 block of Lorain Road once was the residence of the Sohuses and their mysterious tenant, a man who went by the name of Christopher Chichester.

The Sohuses disappeared in 1985. When authorities began to search for the couple, Chichester vanished as well.
Eventually, the Parada family bought the home and during a 1994 swimming pool excavation, bones were discovered in their backyard.

"I was coming home from picking up my son, and there was all this crime-scene tape," she said of the 1994 discovery. "They found human remains, they were in bags, I think."

In July, Chichester resurfaced - as Clark Rockefeller, a man wanted by authorities in Boston for the alleged abduction of his daughter, Reigh "Snooks" Boss.

Rockefeller was captured in Baltimore and authorities piecing together his identity determined that he had been Chichester and was wanted for questioning in connection with the Sohus case.

Police later determined that Rockefeller/Chichester was in fact Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German national who came to the United States in the late 1970s as a foreign exchange student.

Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives were rebuffed in their attempt to interview Gerhartsreiter after his arrest. Subsequently, they returned to the former Sohus home to conduct another search.

Parada said she does not believe authorities found anything significant in her yard this August. She said they searched mainly near the back wall, close to where the remains were found in 1994.

She added investigators also searched inside the guest house, where once lived. In a previous search of the tiny quarters, a blood stain was discovered, Whitmore said.

Officials continue to examine clues from the home and yard.

Several items of trace evidence remain under examination in the Los Angeles County crime lab, Senior Criminalist Dr. Lynne Herold said.

It remains unclear if that evidence was recovered during the latest search or during the 1994 excavation.

Part of the problem facing investigators is that the home and grounds have been completely made over since John Sohus' mother, Didi, sold the family estate and moved to La Puente.

Parada said the family remodeled the home right after buying it from Didi Sohus.

She said another male tenant was living in the back house when the purchase was made, but she did not recall his name.

"We gutted out the entire house," she said. "We did not move in until the house was complete."

What once was a weed-filled lot with a small home now contains a nearly 4,000-square-foot, Tudor- style manor sitting squarely on a well-manicured and well- maintained property that has several plants, a new garden wall and swimming pool.

The swimming pool has been recently drained. Beyond that, any damage to the grounds caused by the sheriff's recent search has largely been restored.

http://**/news/ci_10884263

Pasadena Star-News (California)
March 24, 2009 Tuesday 
 
Grand jury ro examine Rockefeller investigation

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has convened a grand jury investigation into the 1985 disappearance and possible murder of a San Marino couple, officials said Tuesday.

Clark Rockefeller, 48, facing trial in Boston in connection with the abduction of his daughter last July, has been named a person of interest in the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus 24 years ago.

The case became a homicide investigation in May 1994. It was then that bones, believed to be those of John Sohus, turned up in the back yard of the home the couple shared with Rockefeller, then known as Christopher Chichester.

Attorney Jeffrey Denner, who is representing Rockefeller, did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

DA spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said she could neither confirm nor deny that a grand jury had been impaneled in the case.

"Those proceedings are secret," Gibbons said.

At least two handwriting experts have been asked to submit materials for the inquiry, which is being handled by Deputy District Attorney Catherine Brough of the Major Crimes Division, said a source close to the investigation, who asked not to be identified.

One of those experts, Sheila Lowe, said Tuesday she has been asked to submit materials, including a handwriting analysis chart she prepared for this newspaper.

"I have given lots of opinions before and never been called to testify before a grand jury," Lowe said. "It was quite a surprise."

Another expert who has been asked to submit materials was identified as Kathie Koppenhaver. She did not comment Tuesday.

Koppenhaver and Lowe were among three experts who examined a letter and a receipt known to have been written by Linda Sohus prior to her disappearance. The third expert was Karl Schaffenberger.

All three have experience testifying in court. The trio also scrutinized a postcard mailed from France after the couple vanished from their Lorain Road home in February 1985.

The undated postcard, postmarked April 29, 1985, bears the salutation, "See you later, Linda and John."

While Koppenhaver and Schaffenberger said the postcard was not written by Linda Sohus, Lowe said she is nearly certain it was written by Linda.

Detectives believe that Linda Sohus' postcard to her boss Lydia Marano could be a key piece of evidence in the case to determine what happened to the newlywed couple.

Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, used the alias Christopher Chichester when he lived with the Sohuses in San Marino in the mid-1980s. Several weeks after John and Linda disappeared, Chichester vanished.

He has been linked to the case through a variety of evidence, including fingerprints, authorities said.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:945603689&start=1

'Rockefeller' wants trial moved outside Boston
April 04, 2009 8:50 PM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — Lawyers for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller are asking a judge to move his kidnapping trial to western Massachusetts because of "saturation coverage" of the case in Boston.

The defense requested the move from Boston to Springfield in a change of venue motion filed Friday in Suffolk Superior Court, arguing it was the only way to ensure a fair trial.

Attorney Jeffrey Denner said a polling company hired by the defense found most Suffolk County residents know about the case and almost half of those polled already believe he's guilty.

Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley, said prosecutors had not seen the motion yet and would have no comment.

Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, is accused of kidnapping his daughter, Reigh, from a Boston street during a supervised visit last July after losing custody to his former wife.

The 7-year-old girl's disappearance sparked a search from Long Island marinas to Caribbean islands.

Father and daughter were found in Baltimore six days later.

After his arrest, authorities said Gerhartsreiter was really a German national who has used various aliases since moving to the United States in the 1970s.

Authorities in California also identified Gerhartsreiter as a "person of interest" in the 1980s disappearance of Linda and Jonathan Sohus. Gerhartsreiter, who called himself Christopher Chichester at the time, rented a guesthouse at the home of Jonathan Sohus' mother in San Marino, a wealthy Los Angeles suburb.

Denner said the defense polling showed that residents of the Springfield area, in Hampden County, have not seen as many media reports about the case and appear less likely to have already formed an opinion about Gerhartsreiter's guilt or innocence than Suffolk County residents.

"Boston is ground zero for the publicity this case has received," he said. "It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible for him to get a fair trial in Suffolk County."

A judge will hear arguments on the motion April 22.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090404/NEWS/904040350/-1/NEWS01

May 11, 2:30 PM EDT

'Rockefeller' wants to use that name at trial

By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
 BOSTON (AP) -- A man accused of kidnapping his daughter wants jurors at his upcoming trial to know him as Clark Rockefeller, one of the many identities he assumed since moving here decades ago from Germany.

His lawyers argued Monday that it would be unfair for the jury to hear him called by his real name - Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter - because one of the charges against him is providing a false name to police.

Attorney Jeffrey Denner said it could hurt his credibility with jurors if prosecutors call him Gerhartsreiter when he has called himself Clark Rockefeller for the last 15 years.

"We take the position that his name is Clark Rockefeller ... to start off saying his name is Gerhartsreiter is prejudicial," Denner said.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano said he would review a defense motion to have him called by the Rockefeller name, but noted that appellate courts refer to a defendant by the name on the indictment, which in this case is Gerhartsreiter. The trial is scheduled to begin May 26.

Gerhartsreiter, 48, is accused of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in Boston in July after losing custody to his ex-wife. Their disappearance sparked an international manhunt. Father and daughter were found six days later in Baltimore. The girl was unharmed.

Authorities say Gerhartsreiter has used a string of false names - including Christopher Crowe, Christopher Chichester and Chip Smith - to work his way into wealthy circles in Los Angeles, New York and Boston since moving to the United States in the 1970s.

California authorities have labeled him a "person of interest" in the 1980s disappearance of Linda and Jonathan Sohus. Gerhartsreiter, who then went by the Chichester name, rented a guesthouse at the home of Jonathan Sohus' mother in San Marino, a wealthy Los Angeles suburb. Gerhartsreiter has denied any involvement in their disappearance.

Gerhartsreiter lost a bid to move his kidnapping trial from Boston to Springfield. His lawyers had argued that it would be difficult for him to get a fair trial in Boston, where the case has received intense media coverage.

But in a ruling made public Monday, Gaziano said Gerhartsreiter had not shown that it would be impossible to pick an impartial jury in Boston. The judge also criticized Gerhartsreiter and his lawyers for generating a "great deal of pretrial publicity" themselves.

Gaziano cited media interviews Gerhartsreiter granted after his arrest and numerous comments made to reporters by his former and current lawyers, saying their "calculated efforts" to get media attention "diminish the argument that it is necessary to move this trial to avoid pretrial publicity."

The judge said Gerhartsreiter's lawyers could renew their motion to move the trial if it becomes too difficult to pick an impartial jury in Boston.

In addition to the parental kidnapping and false name charges, Gerhartsreiter also faces two assault charges. He is accused of pushing a social worker who was supervising the father-daughter visit and putting the girl into a waiting car. The social worker received minor injuries when he tried to grab onto the car and fell to the ground.

Gerhartsreiter's lawyers have said they will use an insanity defense.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ROCKEFELLER_MYSTERY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

May 17, 2:50 PM EDT

'Rockefeller' lawyers prep for kidnapping trial

 BOSTON (AP) -- Lawyers in the upcoming kidnapping trial of a German national accused of kidnapping his daughter in Boston are filing their list of witnesses and questions they want to ask potential jurors.

Monday is the deadline for defense lawyers and prosecutors to file pretrial motions and other documents before jury selection begins May 26 in the trial of a man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller.
<snipped>
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ROCKEFELLER_MYSTERY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ROCKEFELLER_MYSTERY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
May 29, 4:19 PM EDT

'Rockefeller' getaway driver says he duped her

By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
 BOSTON (AP) -- She knew him as Clark Rockefeller, a casual friend she met while they both took sailing lessons. They went to a couple of boat shows together, had lunch, and he introduced her to his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh.

Aileen Ang didn't think much of it when he asked her if she would drive him to New York so he could go see his new boat, a 72-foot catamaran named Serenity. But on July 27, Ang became his unwitting getaway driver when he allegedly snatched his daughter during a supervised visit in Boston.

Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (GAYR'-hahrtz-ry-tur), is charged with kidnapping his daughter after losing custody of the girl in a divorce. Their disappearance set off an international manhunt. They were found in Baltimore six days later. The girl was unharmed and now lives in London with her mother.

Testifying at his kidnapping trial Friday, Ang said she had no idea he had abducted his daughter.

"He said he'd purchased the boat and he wanted to go look at it," Ang said.

He asked her to pick him up at the Boston Sailing Center, where the two had first met the summer before. He arrived minutes later with his daughter, nicknamed "Snooks."

Ang said Gerhartsreiter spent part of the ride lying on the back seat with his daughter, explaining that the girl had a headache and they both wanted to take a nap.

During the ride, he insisted that she not use her cell phone, saying that it made him nervous, she said. Twice when she picked it up to make calls, it had been shut off, she said.

He also refused her repeated requests that they stop to use the bathroom and get gasoline.

"He said he was getting nervous that he'd miss his boat launch and that he was getting antsy," Ang said.

When they arrived at Grand Central Station in New York City, he got out of the car with his daughter.

"I said, 'Well, have a nice trip,' and he just slammed the door," Ang said.

She said her cell phone rang almost immediately. A friend was calling her to tell her that an Amber Alert had been issued for the girl. Ang said she called police and was questioned by the FBI for 12 hours.

Prosecutors say Gerhartsreiter, 48, is a German-born con man who has been changing his identity and fabricating elaborate stories about himself since moving to the United States as a teenager in 1978.

His lawyers say he is mentally ill with a delusional disorder that makes him not guilty of a crime. They say he had a "psychotic break" when he lost custody of his daughter to his ex-wife, Sandra Boss, in December 2007.

Liza Brooks, a Brookline psychologist who provided therapy for Reigh Boss during her parents' divorce and also worked to coordinate her father's supervised visits, testified Friday that she found the man she knew as Clark Rockefeller "weird."

Prosecutors said Gerhartsreiter refused to provide proof of his identity during his divorce and ultimately agreed to accept a settlement of $800,000 from his wife and to have three supervised visits a year with his daughter.

Brooks said he canceled his first scheduled visit with her in the spring of 2007, saying he was too busy with construction contracts and travel. Brooks said that as they discussed the second scheduled visit in July, she asked him what he would say if his daughter asked him why he hadn't had any contact with her in six months.

"He said he would say, 'sorry,'" Brooks said.

She said he also told her he had another family, something authorities have said is another fabrication.

In a status letter on the case she wrote in September 2007, Brooks said she was concerned that Gerhartsreiter "appears fairly willing to give up lots, including his daughter, in exchange for monies," an apparent reference to the divorce settlement.

Defense attorney Tim Bradl, in questioning Brooks, repeatedly suggested that his client's lack of contact with his daughter and his willingness to give up custody of her for money was "probably not rational for a father to do, right?"

But Brooks said she did not have an opinion on whether it was rational behavior.

Also testifying Friday was Julie Gochar, a Baltimore real estate agent who said she sold Gerhartsreiter a $450,000 carriage house on July 18, nine days before he allegedly kidnapped his daughter.

Gochar said he had contacted her months earlier, identifying himself as a ship's captain from Chile who wanted to move to Baltimore with his daughter.

Gochar said she called the FBI after recognizing photos of him in news reports about the Amber Alert. He was arrested on Aug. 2 near the home.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/13/jurys_verdict_reverberates_across_the_country/

Jury's verdict reverberates across the country
By John R. Ellement
Globe Staff / June 13, 2009

"I faced a mother's worst nightmare: the possibility of losing a child without a trace," Sandra Boss said in a victim impact statement yesterday in the sentencing of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller.

When Ellen Sohus read those searing words, a flood of painful feelings overwhelmed her.

Sohus, whose brother and sister-in-law disappeared in the 1980s in California, thought of her father and of Rockefeller, Boss's former husband.

Rockefeller, who is considered a "person of interest" in the California disappearance and murder, was convicted in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday of kidnapping his daughter, Reigh.

Boss described in the written statement how she felt when her daughter was taken off a Boston street by her former husband, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, in 2008.

Rockefeller, 48, was found guilty on two of the four counts against him: parental kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was acquitted of two lesser charges, assault and battery and providing a false name to police.

In a telephone interview from Arizona last night, Sohus recalled how her father, Bob, endured that kind of pain after her brother, John Sohus, disappeared from San Marino, Calif., in 1985. John Sohus's wife, Linda, disappeared with him. At that time, Rockefeller was living in the Sohuses' guest house using the alias of Christopher Chichester.

"That was my father's worst nightmare," Ellen said of her brother's disappearance. "My father went through that very agony and pain when John disappeared without a trace. I watched my father go through that as the result of the same man's actions."

Nine years after John Sohus was last seen, construction workers digging a pool in the Sohuses' former yard found partial skeletal remains that are believed to be those of John Sohus. The cause of death was declared to be blunt force trauma.

"When my father found out that he was dead, but also the way he died, it was devastating to all of us," Ellen Sohus said.

The Los Angeles County sheriff's department has reopened its investigation, calling Rockefeller a "person of interest" in the case. Rockefeller, through his attorneys, has consistently denied having any role in the Sohus case. He was found to be driving John Sohus's car in Greenwich, Conn., months after John Sohus disappeared, according to police records.

Ellen Sohus said she wants California authorities to bring murder charges against Rockefeller as soon as they have the evidence. She said she has not been provided a private briefing but has received e-mail messages from detectives who say they are continuing to investigate her brother's death.

Ellen Sohus said she followed the Rockefeller trial over the Internet and, as a mental health professional, paid close attention to the testimony of defense experts who tried to convince jurors that Rockefeller was legally insane when he kidnapped his daughter.

"I think that the jury was very astute," she said. "I imagine they had to sort through a lot of information in order to come to their decision. But I believe they came to the right decision."

(http://mylt.ltcdn.com/files/images/cr_621x275.jpg)

Who Is Clark Rockefeller?
Premieres Saturday, March 13 at 9 pm et/pt | Encores March 14 & 15 at 9 pm et/pt

http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/who-is-clark-rockefeller

I just want to bump this up cause it will be replayed tonight on LMN.........8 pm Eastern time I think.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/03/post_114.html?rss_id=Top+Stories
'Clark Rockefeller' charged in 1985 Calif. murder
March 15, 2011

The man who called himself "Clark Rockefeller," whose case drew national attention when his mysterious past was exposed during a parental child abduction case in Massachusetts, is now facing charges in a 1985 murder in California, Los Angeles County prosecutors said today.

Christian K. Gerhartsreiter, 50, a German national, has been charged with the murder of John Sohus, 27, of San Marino, Calif., prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said in a statement they had filed a felony complaint in Alhambra Superior Court seeking the con man's arrest and extradition from Massachusetts, where he is currently serving a four-to-five-year sentence for kidnapping his daughter during a custody dispute.
 ::snipping2::
Ellen Sohus, John Sohus's younger sister, said she received a call from Los Angeles authorities earlier this afternoon telling her about the charges against Gerhartsreiter.

"We feel like that this has been a very, very long ordeal over the last 25 years and it gives us hope that we will have closure, finally," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Arizona.

The statement by prosecutors today was the first time they had acknowledged that they had determined the remains found in the yard belonged to John Sohus.

Gerhartsreiter's lawyer, Jeffrey Denner, who represented him during his kidnapping trial, said his client is innocent.
 ::snipping2::
Ellen Sohus said that because there was a gag order placed on the investigation, she did not know until today that police had determined that the bones were her brother's.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-san-marino-rockefeller,0,6779388.story
Phony Rockefeller Charged in Murder of San Marino Man
March 15, 2011

SAN MARINO, Calif. -- A man who gained international notoriety when he kidnapped his daughter while leading a double life impersonating a member of the moneyed Rockefeller clan has been charged with murder.

Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint Tuesday alleging a single murder count against Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter.

Gerhartsreiter, 50, is accused of killing John Sohus, 27, who vanished with his wife, Linda, in 1985.
 ::snipping2::
Linda Sohus, then 28, has never been found. Except for a few postcards that appeared to have been mailed by the couple from Paris in 1985, her friends and family have not heard from her since.

Gerhartsreiter is serving a four- to five-year sentence in Massachusetts for kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter in 2008. He becomes eligible for parole in 2012. ::snipping2::

Much more....

Impostor charged in ’85 slaying in Calif.
‘Rockefeller’ faces extradition order

3.16.11
The long saga of the man known as Clark Rockefeller, who went from his birthplace in Bavaria, Germany, to the poshest society circles across the United States before landing in a Massachusetts prison, took another turn yesterday when he was charged with murder in the 1985 slaying of his former landlord in California.

California authorities filed a complaint yesterday in a Los Angeles County courthouse seeking the return of the German national who was born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter to the West Coast so he can face charges of killing 27-year-old John Sohus.

“We’re seeking extradition,’’ said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. “It has been more than 20 years that the victim’s family has had any justice.’’

Robison declined to describe evidence that led prosecutors to file charges or whether investigators are looking at Gerhartsreiter in the disappearance of John’s wife, Linda.

snipped
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/03/16/rockefeller_charged_in_85_slaying_of_calif_man/

 
'Rockefeller' agrees to go to Calif. to face murder charge
May 19, 2011 03:37 PM


The man who passed himself off as a wealthy socialite named Clark Rockefeller has agreed to not fight his removal to California, where he was charged in March with the 1985 slaying of his former landlord's son.


Lawyers for Rockefeller, whose legal name is Christian K. Gerhartsreiter, notified Massachusetts prison officials Wednesday that their client is not challenging his rendition, paving the way for his transfer from the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley.

"The sole issue is identification and we've decided not to fight the issue of identity and let the process move forward,'' said Brad Bailey, one of Gerhartsreiter's lawyers. He said it could take three to eight weeks for Gerhartsreiter to be transferred to California.

snipped ...... more
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/05/rockefeller_agr.html?rss_id=Top+Stories

Whittier Daily News (California)
 
August 16, 2011 Tuesday 
 
NEWS  Fake Rockefeller to face preliminary hearing in January
 
Frank C. Girardot, Staff Writer
 

ALHAMBRA - Prosecutors and defense attorneys Tuesday agreed to hold a preliminary hearing in January for a man who posed as Clark Rockefeller and is suspected in the 1985 killing of a San Marino man and the disappearance of his wife.

Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a 50-year-old German national, will return to court on Oct. 17. Gerhartsreiter spoke briefly to Judge Carlos Uranga.

When asked by Uranga if he would waive his right to a speedy trial, Gerhartsreiter answered "Yes, your honor."
 ::snipping2::
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:1480753228&start=6

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/18/murder-charge-awaits-rockefeller-imposter/
Murder charge awaits Rockefeller imposter
January 18, 2012

LOS ANGELES –  In 1985, Clark Rockefeller did not exist. The pseudonym, which was one of many fake identities assumed by a German immigrant, would surface years later when he began cutting a swath across high society claiming to be an heir to the Rockefeller fortune.

As a world class impostor, he conned people into believing he was a physicist, an art collector, a ship captain and a financial adviser who renegotiated debt for small countries. Even his wealthy wife was unaware of his true identity.

But when Christian Gerhartsreiter enters a courtroom for a preliminary hearing Wednesday, he will finally be himself: a convicted kidnapper facing a charge of murdering the son of his former landlady a quarter century ago, when he lived in California under one of his many pseudonyms.
 ::snipping2::
Like most cold cases, the murder charge stemming from the death 26 years ago may be tough to prove. Evidence deteriorates, and witness memories fade over years. But prosecutors have had time to develop theories, and the science of forensic analysis has advanced.

Much of the prosecution's case will hinge on three plastic bags of human bones found during the excavation for a swimming pool at a San Marino home in 1994. At first, it was not certain that the bones were even human. But through extensive testing, they were linked to John Sohus, 27, a computer engineer who disappeared in 1985. It was a difficult match because Sohus was adopted and DNA from relatives was not readily available.

"Modern technology has helped us to identify those bones as the Sohus bones," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore, declining to disclose details.
 ::snipping2::
Sohus' wife, Linda, also disappeared in 1985. No trace of her was found, though postcards purportedly written by her were sent to friends and relatives after she disappeared. The postcards were supposedly mailed from France, but the handwriting was never authenticated.

Authorities presume she is dead, but they have not charged Gerhartsreiter with her death.
The other person who disappeared from San Marino at about the same time was a tenant then known as Chris Chichester, another of Gerhartsreiter's identities.
 ::snipping2::
Last year he was convicted of kidnapping his daughter in Boston during a bitter custody dispute. Gerhartsreiter is serving a four- to five-year prison sentence. He would be eligible for parole this year if he was not awaiting trial in California on a charge that could bring him 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors have 30 to 40 witnesses ready for the two-week preliminary hearing, many of whom are forensic experts. They are seeking to convince a judge there is probable cause to believe that Gerhartsreiter is a killer and should be held for trial.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9024262/Judge-refuses-serial-imposters-request-to-be-called-Clark-Rockefeller.html
Judge refuses serial imposter's request to be called Clark Rockefeller
A man who once masqueraded as American aristocracy came to court Wednesday in a baggy prison jumpsuit to face a murder charge and was told he could not be referred to as Clark Rockefeller.
January 19, 2012

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jared Moses appeared taken aback when lawyers for Christian Gerhartsreiter asked if he could be referred to in court as Clark Rockefeller because that is the name many witnesses would know him by.

Judge Moses said he realised the defendant had many aliases, but he said Gerhartsreiter would be called by his true name in the preliminary hearing, which will determine if there is enough evidence to put Gerhartsreiter on trial for murder.
 ::snipping2::

The complaint against him lists five different aliases: Christopher Chichester, Clark Rockefeller, Christopher Crowe, C. Crowe Mountbatten and Charles "Chip" Smith.

Such a shame he won't man up and tell where he put Linda's remains.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rockefeller-20120125,0,954255.story?track=lat-pick
Rockefeller impostor ordered to stand trial in 1985 killing
Christian Gerhartsreiter is accused of murdering John Sohus, whose decaying remains were unearthed in San Marino in 1994.  Many new details of the mystery were revealed in an Alhambra hearing.
By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times
January 25, 2012

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-02-09/justice/justice_california-gerhartsreiter-rockefeller_1_jared-moses-john-sohus-clark-rockefeller?_s=PM:JUSTICE
Rockefeller impersonator pleads not guilty in California murder case
By Michael Martinez, CNN
February 9, 2012

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German-born man known for impersonating a Rockefeller, pleaded not guilty Thursday in a Los Angeles County court to a charge of murder.
 ::snipping2::
On Thursday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Candace J. Beason scheduled an April 3 pre-trial hearing in the case.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/312531/mr-rockefeller-i-presume?SESSc57b6c6d450f229b778595de342da40c=google
Mr. Rockefeller, I presume?
Con man's tale is still irresistible
By Katy Burns / Monitor columnist
February 19, 2012

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_11decf84-78dd-11e1-912a-001a4bcf6878.html
Forensic flashback: 18-year-old case thrusts Lewiston expert back into court
By Amy Gittelsohn The Trinity Journal
March 28, 2012

http://news.msn.com/us/rockefeller-impostor-on-trial-for-murder

Rockefeller impostor on trial for murder
1 day ago
 ::snipping2::

Already serving time for the kidnapping of his young daughter in a Boston custody dispute, Gerhartsreiter was close to the end of his sentence and headed for freedom when the murder charge changed that. After a quarter-century, authorities believed they had linked him to the disappearance of his old neighbor, John Sohus.

His trial, set for opening statements soon, will write the most important chapter in his colorful story, determining if he walks free or spends his life in prison.

"He is upbeat, and he's looking for closure," defense attorney Jeffrey Denner. "He's been in limbo with this case for so long. Of course, he'd like it to be resolved in his favor."

He is charged with murdering Sohus, a 27-year-old computer programmer who was linked to bones unearthed from the backyard of the home where he lived and Gerhartsreiter was a tenant. No trace has been found of Sohus' wife, Linda.

The prosecution is based on the bag of bones, traces of blood found in the cottage where Gerhartsreiter lived and the admittedly fuzzy memories of long-ago acquaintances. It is a classic cold case.

Whether the highly circumstantial evidence will convince a jury remains to be seen. Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said after a preliminary hearing that "the age of the case poses some challenges," but he  is confident of a fair verdict.
 ::snipping2::   ::snipping2::   Twelve jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court who will answer that question will start hearing evidence in the case soon.   

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Testimony-begins-in-fake-Rockefeller-trial-4365499.php
Testimony begins in fake Rockefeller trial
March 19, 2013

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors in the Los Angeles murder trial of a notorious Rockefeller impostor have seen photos of a skull and bones dug up from a yard and heard a witness describe the defendant, who she knew in college.

The first witness Tuesday described digging for a swimming pool and finding a bag of human remains. The heavy equipment operator said the 1994 discovery led him to call police.

A college friend then testified that defendant Christian Gerhartsreiter lived at the home in suburban San Marino in 1984 and 1985.

Dana Glad Farrar said she attended a party in the yard and noticed dirt atop what seemed to be a large hole. She said when she asked about it Gerhartsreiter told her he was having plumbing problems.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-33816_162-57575951/is-con-man-clark-rockefeller-a-murderer/
Is con-man "Clark Rockefeller" a murderer?
March 23, 2013

Video at Link

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/02/ex-wife-of-clark-rockefeller-testifies-in-california-murder-trial/
Ex-Wife Of ‘Clark Rockefeller’ Testifies In California Murder Trial
April 2, 2013

Video at Link

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/apr/05/us-rockefeller-mystery/
Old killing remains mysterious near trial’s end
April 5, 2013

An interesting read, imo.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/04/clark-rockefeller-murder-trial-motive
Mark Seal on the “Clark Rockefeller” Trial and the Potential Murder Motive That the Jury Won’t Hear
April 5, 2013

Posted: 6:05 AM
Updated: 6:11 AM

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/Final-arguments-set-in-Rockefeller-impostor-case-.html

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Clark-Rockefeller-Impostor-Murder-Trial-Sohus-Cold-Case-Verdict-202357341.html
Guilty Verdict in Fake Rockefeller Murder Trial
April 10, 2013

The investigation into a 1985 slaying led to Christian Gerhartsreiter, who posed as a member of the famed Rockefeller family, after the victim's remains were found in a Southern California backyard

Jurors reached a verdict of guilty Wednesday in the murder trial for a man who posed as a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family after allegedly killing a Southern California man whose remains were unearthed decades later in his family's backyard.

Jurors deliberated for about one day in the case of Christian Gerhartsreiter, who used several aliases that included Clark Rockefeller -- a name that allowed him to move in wealthy East Coast circles after he left Southern California following the disappearance of John Sohus. John Sohus' remains were found by a construction crew nine years after he and his wife Linda disappeared.

Linda Sohus has never been located.

A father-son work crew found the remains -- Sohus' skull was in two plastic bags -- when they were building a pool in the backyard of the Sohus family's San Marino home.

Gerhartsreiter, a German national who moved to the United States in the late 1970s, was a tenant on the Sohus' property in the upscale community (map) southeast of Pasadena at the time of the couple's disappearance.

Gerhartsreiter left Southern California for Connecticut in Sohus' vehicle and attempted to assume another life on the East Coast, according to prosecutors.
 ::snipping2::
Gerhartsreiter was serving time for the kidnapping in Boston when investigators connected him to the Sohus case.
 

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rockefeller-imposter-guilty-20130410,0,55254.story
Rockefeller imposter found guilty of first-degree murder
April 10, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/15/us-usa-rockefeller-imposter-idUSBRE97E0YX20130815
Rockefeller imposter gets maximum sentence for California murder
August 15, 2013

(Reuters) - A German-born con man who posed for years as a member of America's wealthy Rockefeller family was sentenced on Thursday to a prison term of 27 years to life for slaying the son of his Los Angeles-area landlady and burying his dismembered remains in a backyard.

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, acting as his own lawyer after he fired his attorneys in June, professed his innocence in court as a Los Angeles judge pronounced the maximum sentence faced by the defendant.

"Your honor, I can only say once again, I want to assert my innocence. I did not commit this crime," the soft-spoken, bespectacled defendant, dressed in blue prison garb, told the judge before he was escorted from the courtroom in handcuffs.

Under the life sentence imposed, Gerhartsreiter would be eligible for parole in 27 years.

Sitting alone at the defense table, he also muttered under his breath an assertion that he has long maintained but which a jury rejected when he was found guilty of first-degree murder in April - that the victim, John Sohus, 27, was killed by his own wife.

Sohus' buried remains were discovered in 1994 in the backyard of the home he shared with his spouse, Linda, in the Los Angeles suburb of San Marino.

The couple were reported missing 28 years ago while Gerhartsreiter was renting a guest house on the property from John Sohus' mother and living under the guise of a British aristocrat named Christopher Chichester.

By the time John Sohus' remains were unearthed by a work crew preparing to build a swimming pool on the property for a new owner, Gerhartsreiter had resurfaced on the East Coast under other assumed names. Linda Sohus remains missing and is presumed dead.

Gerhartsreiter was not charged in her death, but prosecutors have accused him of trying to create the appearance that the couple were traveling abroad after they vanished by arranging for forged postcards to be sent from Paris to their friends and relatives in the United States.
 ::snipping3::
The case against Gerhartsreiter, who came to the United States from Germany as a student in the 1970s, has drawn so much attention that his story became the subject of a 2010 made-for-TV movie titled "Who is Clark Rockefeller?"

Judge George Lomeli also denied a handwritten motion by Gerhartsreiter seeking a new trial, saying there was no basis to grant one, and also refused to reduce his prison term by the amount of time he had already served.

Would admin or a moderator please move this thread over to "Solved"?  Thank you!   ::bee::

YUP
http://bangordailynews.com/2013/08/15/news/nation/rockefeller-impostor-gets-27-years-to-life-for-california-murder/?ref=polbeat

Thank you for moving the thread Nut.   ::jeep3::

It took a while, but Gerhartsreiter's ways finally caught up with him.   ::justice2nj2::