Just a heads up that the guy who went by the names Clark Rockefeller/Christopher Chichester kidnapping trial is underway. You can watch it on TRU TV & there is a live feed on CNN.com

Just a heads up that the guy who went by the names Clark Rockefeller/Christopher Chichester kidnapping trial is underway. You can watch it on TRU TV & there is a live feed on CNN.com
:wave:
Thanks for the heads up!

Trial Begins:

http://abcnews.go.com/News/story?id=7672617&page=1

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7709285&page=1

Hmm, met his wife at a Clue party and spoke Klingon to each other...

Hmm, met his wife at a Clue party and spoke Klingon to each other...

Trekkies sure aren't the first people who come to mind when you think of a greusome double homicide, such as the killing of Jonathan Sohus and the disappearance (and presumed murder) of his wife, Linda.

A muderous nerd. New genre?

Trekkies sure aren't the first people who come to mind when you think of a greusome double homicide, such as the killing of Jonathan Sohus and the disappearance (and presumed murder) of his wife, Linda.

A muderous nerd. New genre?

All those stories in his head, he should have written a couple novels instead of being a con artist.

Hmmm... what are your opinions on this matter? Anyone got a guess at what his motive was?

http://wbztv.com/local/clark.rockefeller.trial.2.1035461.html

Trial ended, case off to the jury...

Link (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/06/rockefeller.html)

With the jury out in the kidnapping trial of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller, speculation grew today about whether he would be charged in connection with the disappearance of a San Marino couple 25 years ago.

If Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, was found not guilty on charges in the Boston area related to the kidnapping of his daughter last year during a supervised visit, he could face immediate deportation to Germany unless he is charged in Los Angeles County.

A Boston TV station today reported an indictment was pending in Los Angeles. But local prosecutors said the investigation into Jonathan and Linda Sohus’ death and Rockefeller’s role remains ongoing.

“Nothing has been filed. It is ongoing investigation,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney’s office.

If Rockefeller avoids serious time in prison in the New England kidnapping case, he would face deportation and would likely not fight that move, forcing L.A. prosecutors to act before he leaves the country, sources said.

In Los Angeles, prosecutors rarely use a grand jury to indict suspects and generally charge them directly. A Los Angeles County grand jury has interviewed witnesses in the case. But that grand jury probe, according to sources, was done to gather information, not to bring a charge.

Gerhartsreiter’s arrest last year in the kidnapping prompted the L.A. County Sheriff's Department to reopen the San Marino investigation. He rented a guest house from the Sohuses in the early 1980s, using the name Christopher Chichester.


But in 1985, the couple disappeared, and soon after, Gerhartsreiter also left. Police investigated the disappearance, but the case didn't go far. Nine years later, though, as a new homeowner constructed a swimming pool, workers uncovered what is believed to be Jonathan Sohus' skeleton from the backyard.

But the trail again went cold until last summer, when Gerhartsreiter -- now using the name Rockefeller -- was accused of kidnapping his daughter during a supervised visit. Authorities eventually determined that Chichester and Rockefeller were the same person.

They traced his roots to a small town in Germany, where he was born. L.A. County sheriff's detectives declared him a "person of interest" in the disappearance and suspected killing of the Sohuses

And best I can remember from the Sohus case, they tore up the carpet in the guest house, (and used luminol, too, I think) and found enormous amounts of blood. Enough so that the contributor of the blood could not have survived.

I can't remember if it was found to be Jonathan Sohus' blood or not, but chances are it was, as his remains were found in the back yard.

Also, best I rember, Jonathan was adopted, so no DNA matches to family could be done on the remains. And... either he had never been to a dentist or else the files were missing to do a dental comparison. But it seems like he'd never been to the dentist, which was kinda odd for a man his age.

Either way, the body in the back yard was a murder victim. He was dismembered and placed in separate garbage bags, then buried in the yard. That's just not the usual way people handle a natural death. And IMO, the dismemberment could explain all the old blood found in that conman, chichester/gerhart/rockefeller's guest house.

Guilty

Kidnapping, Assault and Battery

Goody! Now at least he'll stay put while they pull the case together that's been dormant for so long.

Hmm, met his wife... and spoke Klingon to each other...


They should add 20 years to his sentance just for this fact alone! :lol:

Now that he will remain where they can keep track of them, I sincerely hope they can investigate the missing couples' case- he's not necessarily guilty, of course, but the least they can do is look into the matter.

Hi everyeone, last night (Sunday, 6/14) I watched the Dateline NBC hour-long special on Chichester and they only spoke about the Sohus'S for the last 7 minutes of the show. I wish they would've gone more in dept, spent more time on the disappearances. Linda Sohus' sister spoke for a little bit. Anyone else watch this?

http://a11news.com/454/jonathan-and-linda-sohus/

This link has several interesting photos regarding Jon and Linda Sohus and the conman.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08072008/news/regionalnews/family__we_know_who_fake_rockefeller_is_123454.htm


FAMILY: WE KNOW WHO FAKE ROCKEFELLER IS
By JEANE MacINTOSH - August 7, 2008

A Connecticut family believes the phony Rockefeller who kidnapped his own daughter and is eyed in the disappearance of a California couple, was the strange German student who lived with them in the early 1980s.

Steve Savio said he is certain that the man known as Clark Rockefeller stayed with his family in Berlin, Conn., for seven months in 1980-1981.

Savio said his family knew the man as Christian Gerhart Streiter - who hailed from Bavaria - and said his mother lived in South Africa.

Officials with the German National police said they were investigating if Streiter was a real person or just another alias.

At the time he stayed with them he was about 20, Savio said, which would make him somewhere around 48 now. Clark Rockefeller is believed to be 48, authorities have said.

Streiter ended up with the family after he met one of the Savios' neighbors aboard a train in Germany the year before. They had given the young man their address and told him to look them up if he ever came to the United States, Savio recalled.

Streiter then just "showed up at their door" one day in the fall, but the family was unable to take him in. Feeling charitable, the Savios took him in, and he ended up staying with them for seven months.

"They couldn't keep him so they put an ad in the paper looking for someone to take him in as an exchange student so my mother took him in. She had done that before."

But the man "was creepy," Savio said, and the family ultimately asked him to leave.

"He was very quirky and a bit strange. I once took a three-hour hike with him and I don't really recall exactly what happened or the conversation but I came back thinking I don't ever want to be alone somewhere with that guy again," he said.

Several years later, authorities believe Streiter turned up in San Marino, Calif. as Christopher Chichester - claiming to be a descendent of English nobility.

Savio believes Streiter took the name Chichester in honor of a popular teacher at the high school in Berlin, Conn.

Images (and text) at this link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/08/a_colorful_clue.html

A colorful clue in the deepening Rockefeller mystery
August 7, 2008 12:57 PM

By Globe Staff

It's a beautiful and cheery postcard, apparently sent by a happy couple from Paris. But is it real? Or is it part of a scheme to cover up a terrible crime?

When John and Linda Sohus disappeared in 1985 from San Marino, Calif., some friends believed they had gone on an extended sojourn to Europe.

Linda's half-sister Kathy Jacoby, who filed the initial missing persons report in April 1985, said she suspected something was not right because Linda had disappeared without her cats, which she left at a kennel.

Jacoby said she thought that John and Linda were planning a trip to Connecticut, not Europe, so that John could interview for a job, when they disappeared. But later her family received a postcard purportedly from Linda from France.

Lydia Marano also a received postcard.

Marano, who ran a science fiction bookstore called Dangerous Visions where Linda Sohus worked for her for three years until she disappeared in 1985, said the couple were "very much in love."

This article has been archived, but the photo of the conman's childhood home is still there, even with the family name, Gerhartstrieter, on a plaque on the wall.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1111857

Rockefeller revelation: ’It seems you found my brother’
By Jessica Van Sack
Friday, August 8, 2008

BERGEN, GERMANY - The man who claimed to be Clark Rockefeller and captivated a nation with his ever-changing identities is Christian Gerhartsreiter, the son of an artist who hails from this quaint Bavarian town, his shocked family told the Herald today.

“It seems you found my brother,” a wide-eyed Alexander Gerhartsreiter said upon being handed a photograph of the man known to America as an alleged child abductor and a “person of interest” in a decades-old California murder. “It is really a shock.”

Until a Herald reporter knocked on their door today, Christian’s fate had been a mystery to the family for decades.

“This is quite heavy,” Alexander said.

Christian Gerhartsreiter was born on Feb. 21, 1961 in a Siegsdorf, Germany hospital. He was raised until about 1978 in the same house his mother and brother still live in today, the house his paternal grandfather built with his own hands.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_10134801

This is the article that I had read last year regarding Jon Sohus being adopted, and no biological relatives have beein identified, to test the DNA of the remains against.

There's lots more in the article besided that info.

This article is no longer available, but this info is from a post written by me in a delphiforums forum called True Crimes and Beyond:

Two women who were friends with Christopher Chichester in the mid-1980s told the Los Angeles Times they noticed that much of the backyard at the Sohuses' home had been dug up around the time they disappeared. Chichester told them there had been plumbing problems.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/11/rockefeller.mystery.ap/index.html

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_10145984

Police to re-search Sohus home
By Frank C. Girardot and Nathan McIntire, Staff Writers
Article Launched: 08/08/2008 10:08:36 PM PDT

San Marino police said Friday they again plan to search the backyard of a Lorain Road home where human remains were found 14 years ago.

San Marino police Lt. Steve Johnson said investigators will use equipment that can X-ray through concrete when they search the property where John and Linda Sohus were living when they disappeared in February 1985.

Human bones, believed by coroner's investigators to be those of John Sohus, were unearthed in the backyard in May 1994 by workers installing a swimming pool. Linda Sohus remains unaccounted for, officials said.
Police said next week's search will be an effort to determine whether any additional human remains are buried on the property.

Before San Marino police made the announcement, a German told Boston reporters that Clark Rockefeller, a man called a person of interest in the Sohuses' disappearance, was his brother.

After reviewing photographs of Christopher Chichester and Clark Rockefeller, Alexander Gerhartsreiter told a Boston Herald reporter he was absolutely certain both men were his long-lost brother.

Police believe in 1985 Rockefeller used the name Christopher Chichester when he lived with the Sohuses. He disappeared soon after they did. Rockefeller was arrested Saturday in Baltimore on suspicion of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter.

Alexander Gerhartsreiter identified Rockefeller as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, the son of an artist and homemaker in Upper Bavaria who felt like he was better than his modest upbringing.

Rockefeller, linked by fingerprint evidence to the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus, appears to have had a chameleon-like ability to change identity.
Chichester's various identities included Christian Gerhartsreiter, Christopher Crowe and Christopher Crowe Mountbatten, according to a bulletin issued by sheriff's homicide Detective Bob Carr in 1994.

Shown a picture from Carr's bulletin, Alexander Gerhartsreiter said: "It seems you found my brother. It is really a shock."

He said his older brother was born Feb. 21, 1961, in Siegsdorf, Germany, and was raised until 1978 in the same house where his family still lives. Gerhartsreiter said his brother moved to Connecticut as a student and never returned. Initially, he kept in contact, but he last called his parents in 1985 - the year the Sohuses and their tenant Chichester disappeared.

Rockefeller's attorney, Stephen Hrones, admitted his client speaks German but said he does not remember living there or having a German brother. He said Rockefeller remembers only "tidbits" of his childhood.

However, Rockefeller is sure that he never committed murder, Hrones said.

"Certain things you know you didn't do," he said.

Gerhartsreiter said his brother had told his family he had taken the name Christopher Chichester because his given name was too difficult for Americans.

"I think Germany was too small for him," Gerhartsreiter told a Boston Herald reporter. "He wanted to live in the big country and maybe get famous. Now that I see all this, he's really famous."

After leaving San Marino, Chichester was not seen again until police found him in Greenwich, Conn., in the late 1980s.

Police learned that the truck he was driving belonged to John Sohus, but before they could question him, Chichester and the truck disappeared again.

The Sheriff's Department's interest in Chichester intensified after the bones were discovered in '94.

Rockefeller made headlines late last month when Boston police identified him as a suspect in the July 27 kidnapping of his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh. But long before Rockefeller's arrest Aug. 2 in Baltimore on suspicion of child abduction, sheriff's homicide cold case investigators had been pursuing Chichester, according to a Wisconsin woman they interviewed.

Amy Jersild Palmer, 48, of Janesville, Wis., said she was interviewed by Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives who had mistaken her for a woman of the same maiden name who married Christian Gerhartsreiter in 1981 and provided him with a green card.

"They wanted to know if I knew where he was in February of 1981," Palmer said. "I told them I had no idea where he was then, because I've never met him."

Palmer said her husband got angry with the detectives when they insisted the woman knew more than she would admit.

"I just kept telling them, I don't recognize these pictures at all," Palmer said. "Finally they left."

The woman who actually married Christian Gerhartsreiter, Amy Jersild Duhnke, 49, of Milwaukee was unavailable for comment. In a telephone interview Friday, her husband, Eric Duhnke, confirmed that the marriage took place, but said it lasted only a day. Public records obtained by The Associated Press indicate Amy Duhnke waited 11 years before filing for divorce from Gerhartstreiter.

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

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

POSTED: 5:49 am EDT August 14, 2008
UPDATED: 7:21 am EDT August 14, 2008

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.

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.

FYI, since they are putting the DNA taken from the remains into a database, the dna can be matched against criminals, donor registries, and adoptee/birth parents who have submitted dna in the hopes of reuniting with biological relatives.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_10134801

This is the article that I had read last year regarding Jon Sohus being adopted, and no biological relatives have beein identified, to test the DNA of the remains against.

Okay, so John Sohus was adopted. I have a question and excuse me if it's a silly one, but why can't his adoption records be opened? I think this is a situation that would justify his records being opened. Anyone agree with me?

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

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

POSTED: 5:49 am EDT August 14, 2008
UPDATED: 7:21 am EDT August 14, 2008

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.

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.


They need to contact Troy Dunn "The Locator" and find John Sohus' biological family!

Okay, so John Sohus was adopted. I have a question and excuse me if it's a silly one, but why can't his adoption records be opened? I think this is a situation that would justify his records being opened. Anyone agree with me?

EXACTLY! I agree.

Okay, so John Sohus was adopted. I have a question and excuse me if it's a silly one, but why can't his adoption records be opened? I think this is a situation that would justify his records being opened. Anyone agree with me?

I completely understand the reason that adoption used to be layered in secrecy for so many years, including back when Jonathan was born.

But, if I were involved in this case in any manner, such as the bio parent who gave Jonathan up for adoption, I would want the adoption records to be opened. And if for some reason, I suspected that he could be my bio son, I would want to be DNA tested to know for certain if that was my child.

If the birth parent wanted to remain anonymous, I'm sure that there must be something that the court could do to protect their identity from being revealed publicly, but could still use that info to test and then say, "Hey we found Jon's biological mother. She was a DNA match, and we are now certain that the body found in the Sohus' yard was indeed, Mr. Jonathan Sohus".

Common sense should prevail here, imo, and if the bio parents want privacy (maybe they had Jonathan, moved on with their lives, and their current spouse and kids know nothing about a previous child that was put up for adoption), then their privacy should be maintained in order to ID the murder victim.

Also, if I were his adoptive parent, sibling, etc, I'd want those records opened. I'd want to know if that was my loved one who was murdered.

Now, I know for sure that Jon Sohus' adoptive mother died quite a while ago. Perhaps his bio parents have passed on by now, too. I think that would make it quite a bit more difficult to compare the DNA by convincing the authorities that an exumation needed to take place, get the state dept of health to okay the process, and then get permits and all the other stuff that goes with that kind of thing.

And what if his bio parents were cremated? There may never been any biological material to attempt a dna match.

I completely understand the reason that adoption used to be layered in secrecy for so many years, including back when Jonathan was born.

But, if I were involved in this case in any manner, such as the bio parent who gave Jonathan up for adoption, I would want the adoption records to be opened. And if for some reason, I suspected that he could be my bio son, I would want to be DNA tested to know for certain if that was my child.

If the birth parent wanted to remain anonymous, I'm sure that there must be something that the court could do to protect their identity from being revealed publicly, but could still use that info to test and then say, "Hey we found Jon's biological mother. She was a DNA match, and we are now certain that the body found in the Sohus' yard was indeed, Mr. Jonathan Sohus".

Common sense should prevail here, imo, and if the bio parents want privacy (maybe they had Jonathan, moved on with their lives, and their current spouse and kids know nothing about a previous child that was put up for adoption), then their privacy should be maintained in order to ID the murder victim.

Also, if I were his adoptive parent, sibling, etc, I'd want those records opened. I'd want to know if that was my loved one who was murdered.

Now, I know for sure that Jon Sohus' adoptive mother died quite a while ago. Perhaps his bio parents have passed on by now, too. I think that would make it quite a bit more difficult to compare the DNA by convincing the authorities that an exumation needed to take place, get the state dept of health to okay the process, and then get permits and all the other stuff that goes with that kind of thing.

And what if his bio parents were cremated? There may never been any biological material to attempt a dna match.


In that case, there may be siblings of his birth parents, or half siblings of John Sohus.

Oh, and for some juries, the fact that John Sohus went missing about that time, and there just happens to be a dead body found buried in his backyard, is enough proof. Along with other evidence.

Commenting on my own comments here, I know in this day and age where recently the DNA from the Canadian Geese that went into the engine of the plane that went down in the Hudson River was tested to prove they were indeed Geese and indeed Canadian, we rely on DNA a lot. Cases are still tried many times with circumstantial evidence and won.

So can the survivors of the crash now sue Canada for pain & suffering? :violin:

Well, we've all seen them do facial reconstruction from nothing but a skull before, and often the results are very close to the actual person. That's happened in the case of Mwivano Kupaza, who was murdered by her cousin Peter Kupaza, in WI.

The murder of Yesenia Nungaray was solved through this method. She was the girl found behind a restaurant in alameda county, CA, and the whole town took her on as their beloved Jane Doe.

Greg May was ID'd using this method. His best friend had murdered and dismembered him, leaving his body parts spread over 400 miles, just to steal his civil war memorabilia.

John List was caught through a similar method.

Then, there's the superimposing a known photograph of the victim over the skull of the suspected person. That's been a helpful forensic tool.

I know neither of these methods are DNA positives, but they could definitely narrow down the possibilities of who the victim is.