August 2008 Archives

LA PUENTE -- A 14*-year-old boy was hospitalized in serious condition Sunday after he was stabbed by apparent gang members, authorities said.

The crime occurred just before 6 p.m. in the 700 block of Tonopah Avenue, Sgt. S. Bracken of the sheriff's Industry station said.

The wounded teen, who is not believed to have gang ties, was approached by a group of male Latinos who shouted out "Bassett" -- referring to an area street gang -- before attacking the boy, Bracken said.

The victim was stabbed three to four times in the abdomen, he said.

The attackers were last seen fleeing the area in a dark, 2-door compact car, Bracken said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's Industry station at (626) 330-3322.

A man dubbed the "Irreconcilable Differences Bandit" was sentenced to 13 years in state prison Friday for his role in 13 Los Angeles County Bank robberies, including a Jan. 4 heist at a Pasadena Bank of America branch, as well as a residential robbery.
Alan Freidbaum, 56, of New Jersey entered a guilty plea at Pasadena Superior Court and was immediately sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz, a DA's office spokeswoman said.
He was also ordered to pay more than $38,000 in restitution to his victim's and the state's Victim's Restitution Fund.
Freidbaum earned his moniker by talking to one of the tellers he robbed about his divorce.
In addition to Pasadena, Freidbaum also robbed in Burbank, Encino, Glendale, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Torrance, officials said.
He was captured on June 5 after robbing a Wells Fargo branch in Glendale.
As part of a plea bargain agreement, other counts of burglary were dismissed.

As you know by now the search for remains at 1920 Lorain Road in San Marino has begun. Officials expect it to last several days, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Here's some pictures I shot at the scene. They dont' say much , but interesting nonetheless.

Several neighbors had fascinating recollections of Clark Rockefeller, who was Christopher Chichester back in the 1980s. He's a person of interest int he 23-year-old missing persons case/homicide investigation.

Anyway more posts later, Here's my photos (taken with a Palm Treo):

 

 Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore speaks about the case. 1920 Lorain is in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neighbors watch the search commence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Marino PD officers patrol near the former Sohus estate on Lorain Road.

Willene Garcia, whose son Albert wsa shot and killed in Montebello on June 21, heard today that a juveniule suspected of involvement in the slaying has been arrested. Here's a letter from Willene:

Earlier today I received a phone call from the Chief advising the arrest of one suspect.  I was told a follow-up call would be placed to me later on today.
 
I'm very happy that they caught this guy. I'm curious to find out who he is and what he looks like.  I cannot wait to see him face to face.  I want him to know exactly what he has taken from me and my family.  Albert's brother Dominic cries himself to sleep almost every night, and so do I.  Dominic started school this week and it was rough.  Usually Albert would give him a Pep-talk before starting school and he wasn't there this time to do that. 
 
The thing I miss most about Albert is how loving he was.  He would tell me he loved me all the time and give me a big hug.  When I was sick he would be the one to take care of me.  He was like the little man of the house.

LA Weekly this week chronicles the case of a serial killer on the prowl in south Los Angeles. The killer who was prolific in the mid 1980s resurfaced in 2002 and 2003, according to the Weekly, who gave the person or persons the moniker Grim Sleeper:

Local journalists haven't even assigned him a creepy nickname, like Night Stalker (Grim Sleeper was chosen by the Weekly to mark his 13 years of inactivity before killing again).

It's coincidental that I began my column this week on the crime wave of 1985 and 1986, because apparently the Grim Sleeper was most prolific during this period. Going through teh Tribune archives over the past several days, I believe I read some news accounts of the at least three of the slayings. I'll post up scans later this week.

 

 

Montebello police Chief Dan Weast called to say that officers have made an arrest in the double homicide that shocked the city over summer.

Twelve-year-old Albert Anthony Garcia and his father Juan were gunned down at a graduation party on June 21. Two others were injured in the shooting. Several weeks ago I wrote a column criticizing the Montebello PD for a lack of progress in the case.

Looks like they've proved me wrong.

 

This from the US Department of Justice in Los Angeles:

   Special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation this morning arrested a Culver City man on charges that he violated federal copyright laws by posting nine songs from Guns N' Roses' unreleased album Chinese Democracy on his website.
        Kevin Cogill, who uses the online moniker "Skwerl," admitted to investigators that he posted the songs on his website, www.antiquiet.com, according to a criminal complaint.
        Cogill, 27, is expected to make his initial court appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles. If Cogill is convicted of the copyright infringement charges, he faces a maximum statutory sentence of three years in federal prison, or five years if proven that he did it for financial gain.

This from Jan Williams:

September 25, 2008 is the USA's annual observance of the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims. ...

I noted on an FBI website that a study in 2005 estimated the number of Americans who lost their lives to murder that year alone (not manslaughter, but murder) was more than 16,000! That's an average of nearly 2 per minute! This is not acceptable, it's outrageous, and people should be talking about it!

Even one murder per year is too many, and can be utterly devastating to the families and friends of the victim. I know that many people assume that these are gang members and others who live a dangerous lifestyle, but you and I know that murder takes the innocent as well - even small children like Devon and Ian.

So, please, when September 25 comes around, remember them and all the others who have had their lives and futures stolen by murder.

Jan Williams Mother of Neal Williams (27), Oma of Devon (7) and Ian (3) Williams murdered August 8, 2007

After a suggestion from yours truly, the FBI has christened an bank robbery believed to have struck two Arcadia banks in recent months the "Goldilocks Bandit."

The robber is believed to have robbed a Bank of the West branch on Aug. 8 and a Wachovia bank on July 18.

While speaking to FBI officials about the seemingly connected robberies several weeks ago, I suggested the name Goldilocks Bandit might be fitting, since the robber was seen wearing a blond wig. Apparently they agreed.

This from Judy Hammond downtown:

WEST COVINA - Until at least Thursday, August 28, 2008, the West Covina Courthouse at 1427 West Covina Parkway will remain closed due to flooding.The problem's origin is unknown.

Case management contingencies are under discussion and will be outlined in future advisories from the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Part two of Natalie Morales' interview with Clark Rockefeller features an interesting confrontation between Morales and Rockefeller's attorney Stephen Hrones.

Morales, to her credit, asks some tough questions about Rockefeller/Chichester's relationship with John and Linda Sohus. She gets immediately interrupted and reprimanded by Hrones.

Rockefeller also shares some of his fondest childhood memories, including a trip to Mt. Rushmore in a "woody" station wagon. The interview:

The London Telegraph reports on a second installment of Dateline's interview with Clark Rockefelelr, aka Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Here's a bit of their story, and a photo of Rockefeller posing with reporter Natalie Morales:

The bespectacled father, who police say is actually a German-born national called Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, gave an interview to NBC, due to be broadcast in two parts next week.

In an excerpt shown on Thursday night, Rockefeller says he hoped to live a life of obscurity in Baltimore with his daughter, Reigh Storrow Boss, who he is accused of snatching from a Boston street on July 27 before fleeing to New York and then Maryland.

During the six days they were missing, he did not think about returning Reigh to her mother, Sandra Boss, he says, because being with her was "almost like a drug".

The couple's marriage ended last year and Reigh was on a social worker-supervised visit to see her father from the UK at the time of the alleged kidnapping, their first contact in seven months.

Rockefeller told NBC he took his daughter to Baltimore because he could not afford the life he wanted in Boston.

Asked if he planned to go into hiding, he said "That's perhaps an extreme way of saying it. I just wanted to live an obscure life in Baltimore."

Robert Hong pieced together a powerful account of Jennifer Avina-Ortega's last moments. The woman was shot to death Tuesday night standing at a pay phone in the 1800 block of East Villa. Police are releasing very few details about the case, implying they are close to catching the killer or killers here's an excerpt:

Shot in the back and bleeding profusely, Avina-Ortega crawled on the pavement and screamed out in Spanish in the moments before she died, witnesses said.

"Ayudenme!" - "Help me!" Avina-Ortega screamed. "No me quiero morir!" - "I don't want to die!"

Seconds after the gunfire, a witness, who declined to give her name, said she saw a car speed out of the parking lot adjacent the barbershop and a small market that is part of the same building.

Then a second vehicle drove past slowly, its headlights off. The windows were rolled down and it appeared the occupants were looking at Avina-Ortega as she lay on the sidewalk.

The car turned right on Villa, then drove through a red light at Allen Avenue and kept going, witnesses said.

A pair of New York teenagers used a relatively simple and accessible DNA analysis to check sushi samples at Manhattan restaurants. Their findings were pretty interesting. Amateur sleuths take note of this snippet from the New York Times:

In a tale of teenagers, sushi and science, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who graduated this year from the Trinity School in Manhattan, took on a freelance science project in which they checked 60 samples of seafood using a simplified genetic fingerprinting technique to see whether the fish New Yorkers buy is what they think they are getting.

They found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled. A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming. Roe supposedly from flying fish was actually from smelt. Seven of nine samples that were called red snapper were mislabeled, and they turned out to be anything from Atlantic cod to Acadian redfish, an endangered species.

Here's the video snippet from Today's interview with Clark Rockefeller:

 

After a scathing piece in the Boston Herald about his abilities (or lack thereof) as an attorney, Stephen Hrones fired back at the paper claiming the Herald was exacting payback for his granting the Boston Globe an interview with Clark Rockefeller.

Hrones also granted Dateline an interview with his client, aka Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. 

The Herald has had a great run of stories on the whole saga, which are collected here. Don't forget our San Marino Mystery section here.

Here's some of Hrones' rant:

It's payback," he says of the front-page Herald story that appeared on Wednesday. "There is no question about it. The Globe interview was today and the Herald was furious."

After losing out on the interview, the Herald retaliated with a story about his legal troubles, Hrones says.

"This isn't a front-page story," he says. "I did nothing wrong."

Ot Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter if you prefer...or Christopher Chichester ...or Chip Smith...

Anyway, Media Bistro and the NY Post are reporting that the international man of mystery sat down for an interview with Natalie Morales. The interview will be shown on the Today show Monday, and also in a Dateline special scheduled to be aired in September.  I wrote about this in my column Tuesday. Here's a link to that.

Here's a snippet of Media Bistro's brief:

He first became news after being accused of snatching his daughter off the streets of Boston which launched an intense, international manhunt. But since the capture of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller, new questions of a mysterious past have come to light.

NBC's Natalie Morales sat down for an exclusive interview with Rockefller this morning at the Suffolk County Jail in Boston. The interview airs Monday and Tuesday on the Today show and will also be part of a Dateline special in September.

As for the Post, a slightly edgier take with a gallery of glam photos of an obviously made-up Rockefeller:

Morales was able to quiz the suspected kidnapper/con man about his marriage, life on the run and his murky past.

According to Pasadena police that's the name of the city's second homicide victim in 2008.

Avina-Ortega, 20, was shot to death in the 1800 block of East Villa street, officials said.

Police who found her were responding to reports of gunfire and heard the plaintive wail of a woman crying out for help. She died before midnight at Huntington Memorial Hospital, police said.

Family and friends of Avina-Ortega Wednesday gathered near where she fell. A memorial was erected and theories about here death were bandied about. Police said they have no witnesses and no motive for the shooting.

 

 

Here's the photo caption:

Berlin Ortega writes a message on a memorial poster for her sister
Jennifer Ortega, "I Love You Jenny", in the parking lot of Linda Rosa
Market in the 1800 block of Villa Street in Pasadena, Wednesday,
August 20, 2008.  Jennifer Ortega was shot to death at about 10 p.m.
on Tuesday night in the parking lot of Linda Rosa Market. (SGVN/Staff
Photo by Walt Mancini/SXCity)

 

We've posted a story about a young Pasadena woman who was shot to death in the 1800 block of East Villa Avenue in Pasadena Tuesday night.

The woman's name was not released. She was taken from the scene of the shooting to Huntington Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

It is Pasadena's second homicide in 2008.

Osman Villalobos, 18, was stabbed to death at 1388 Iowa Ave. in Pasadena on Sunday, June 16. Villalobos had been stabbed during an argument with another man over a girlfriend. Police later arrested Pasqual Diaz, 22, on suspicion of murder. 

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EL MONTE -- Coroner's officials said Tuesday that a man found dead outside an office building Sunday committed suicide.
Jerry Huang, 39, was pronounced dead at the scene from "multiple traumatic injuries," Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Lt. John Kades said.
Huang's city of residency was not known, he said.
Homicide detectives responded to investigate the death after a security guard discovered the body about 1:15 p.m. in the 9600 block of Flair Drive.

From reporter Nathan McIntire:

MONROVIA - A reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for killing Sammantha Salas has been increased to $20,000, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich announced Tuesday.

Salas, 16, was fatally shot on Peck Road near Longdon Avenue in the unincorporated area of Monrovia on January 26.

The two suspects in the slaying are described as African-Americans in their late 20's wearing dark-colored bandanas or hooded sweatshirts. The suspects are believed to be members of the Du Roc Crips gang.

From reporter Ruby Gonzales on the 211 beat in Whittier:

LA HABRA - A man arrested for allegedly robbing a La Habra bank last week is a former Pasadena police officer.

The FBI said it is also investigating if the man, 44-year-old Vincent Cantu of Whittier, could be the apologetic "Polite Bandit" who hit three local banks in 2006.

"There are similarities," said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. She said the "Polite Bandit" robbed Banco Popular branches and the La Habra robbery was at a Banco Popular.

The bandit was seen with a gun during the 2006 heists and told victims he was sorry.

EL MONTE -- The mysterious death of a man whose body was found outside an office building in the 9600 block of Flair Drive is looking more like a suicide.

The death was listed with the coroner's office as a "possible suicide."

Coroner's officials said the death was due to blunt force truama.

The afternoon of the discovery, detectives took measurements of a large mechanical lift being used for construction at the site, and spent a good deal of time with their eyes trained upwards toward the lift and the nearby multi-story building.

The dead man is being described only as an Asian man in his 30s pending notification of family members.

*Lt. Gil Carrillo of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau said Monday that until an autopsy has been performed that determines the incident was a suicide, detectives will continue investigating.

Lions, Nazis, millionaire music producers, hard-boiled crime fiction authors and dead brides.

The SGV's got it all apparently, just ask Esotouric. They're putting together another blood and dumplings tour. Press release on the jump:

 

A summary of some items we've been covering over the weekend:

1. EL MONTE -- Homicide detectives are investigating the mysterious death of a man whose body was found on the property of an office building Sunday.
2. ROSEMEAD -- The man who died in a fiery crash at the end of a police chase Saturday was driving an SUV that belonged to a woman found shot to death at her Gardena business.
3. LA PUENTE -- A man allegedly shot and wounded two of his roommates during an argument at their house Saturday.
4. SOUTH EL MONTE -- Officials have released the name of a man found who was fatally shot in his car last week.
5. NORWALK -- A man was shot and wounded in the parking lot of a convenience store Sunday.
6. SONORA -- The Montrose Search and Rescue Team rescued a 34-year-old man Sunday after he spent two nights at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft.

HACIENDA HEIGHTS -- Two 17-year-old boys were arrested Friday on suspicion of auto theft and hit-and-run after they allegedly crashed into a car full of Army soldiers, sheriff's officials said.

The teens were cruising in the car, which was reported stolen out of Fontana, in South El Monte when they struck the car with four soldiers in it and fled the scene.

The soldiers followed the car, phoning the location and license plate number of the suspects' car to sheriff's officials.

Deputies quickly realized the car was stolen, and a helicopter began following the car as well before it crashed into a tree in Hacienda Heights.

The teens ran but were quickly caught.

From the Associated Press (as if we didn't know already):

BOSTON (AP) -- The FBI says it has identified the kidnapping suspect who calls himself Clark Rockefeller as a German man who came to the U.S. as a youth and later took on several aliases.

The FBI told reporters it pulled fingerprints from immigration documents from the early 1980s of Christian Gerhartsreiter (GAYR'-hahrtz-ry-tur). The prints match those taken from Gerhartsreiter around the time of his Aug 2. arrest in Baltimore.

Earlier this week, authorities in California identified Rockefeller as Gerhartsreiter, though they did not provide forensic evidence.

Gerhartsreiter is accused of kidnapping his daughter off a Boston street. And authorities are seeking to question him about the disappearance of a California couple who owned a guest house where he lived.

More cutting and pasting. This time there's three sources. First, Kate Kealy, night editor, reports:

 Whit: NORWALK -- The sentencing for a gang member convicted of killing a rival during a car-to-car shooting in Pico Rivera was continued to Sept. 22.

This story added to Trib A4:

POMONA -- A man who repeatedly called Rep. David Dreier's district office in San Dimas and threatened to kill the congressman has pleaded no contest to a felony charge of threatening a government official.

Brian Day, night cops reporter, was following these stories:

Hacienda Heights: There may have been a "borderline" home invasion robbery Thursday.

La Puente: The 76 station at Sunset and Temple was robbed about 2:30 p.m. A silver semi-automatic handgun was used.

Walnut: An armed robbery was reported about 4:20 p.m. near 130 Avenida Alipaz. (near Lemon creek park)

Finally, from CA Breaking News on Twitter:

 Perp* Area of Graystone@Grand;Monrovia; MPD searching area for subject fleeing from Police ....

Guess What? Monrovia PD denies it happened this morning ....

Same stuff different day! 

 

 

This is a press release from Supervisor Gloria Molina's office. It came just two days after an emotional hearing before the Supes about the deaths of Good Samaritans who try to stop graffiti vandals throughout the county:

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina will join Lieutenant Gil Carrillo of the Sheriff's Department Homicide Division to publicize a $25,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the death of Luis Sandoval, a 71-year-old East Los Angeles resident who was shot in the abdomen after witnessing two males spray-painting graffiti on the side of a business located at the corner of East Olympic Boulevard and South Hicks Avenue. 

Mr. Sandoval had been riding his bicycle home and lived just four houses away from the scene of the crime.  Though the shooting took place on February 25, 2007, Mr. Sandoval died approximately four months later on June 13, 2007.  Authorities have since confirmed that his death was due directly to the injuries he sustained as a result of the shooting and are now asking for the public's help to solve this homicide--the third graffiti-related killing to occur in the First District.  (Robert Whitehead of Valinda was shot and killed in March 2006 while trying to stop graffiti taggers from spray-painting his neighbor's garage; Maria Hicks of Pico Rivera was shot and killed in August 2007 while trying to stop graffiti taggers from spray-painting a wall in her neighborhood.) 

Surviving relatives of Luis Sandoval will be available at tomorrow's press conference for interviews and pictures of the crime scene will be on display.
 
"Luis Sandoval was a hard-working, retired steel worker with a large family whose only transgression was being at the wrong place at the wrong time," Molina said.  "The anguish his death has caused his family is indescribable--and it is particularly painful to the community since it is the third graffiti-related homicide to take place in the First Supervisorial District.  It is my sincere hope that this $25,000 reward compels someone to bring information forward that will help us catch the people responsible for Luis Sandoval's murder."

A man who has been in touch with Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies regarding Clark Rockefeller and the strange disappeareance of John and Linda Sohus, got in touch with me Thursday.  He sent me this copy of a painting done by Linda Sohus as "Cody" in 1984.

Sohus sold the painting at Worldcon '84 a gathering of Sci Fi and fantasy fans that took place near Disneyland in the fall of '84.

Rockefeller took the name Christopher Chichester when he lived with John and Linda Sohus in San Marino in the mid 1980s.

Bones, believed to be those of John Sohus were discovered in the backyard fo the Lorain Road home in 1994.

Linda has never resurfaced. The owner of the painting believes she met an untimely end. 

John Sohus' truck is the likely the key piece of evidence investigators have linking Clark Rockefeller to the Sohus disappearance and possible homicide. On Wednesday, Rockefeller's attorney tied him to the truck.

Here's the top of our story:

The attorney for Clark Rockefeller aka Christian Gerhartsreider said a truck linked to a 23-year-old missing persons case was sold to his client in the late 1980s.

"He bought the truck from the mother, he agreed to do the truck payments through the mother, but the mother never sent the title," Hrones said.

"He gave it (the truck) to someone," Hrones said, because Rockefeller didn't have the title. Rockefeller, using the identity of Hollywood producer Christopher Crowe, was pulled over in Greenwich, Conn., in 1988 driving the truck after he attempted to sell it to the son of a minister, officials said.

 

For most of last week, I was second guessing myself. Did the bones I'd seen at the Coroner's consist of more than the top portion of a skull?

Those bones are likely all that remains of John Sohus. The used to reside in the basement office of Steve Dowell, a tool mark expert who examines such things over at 1104 North Mission Road.

Mystery man Clark Rockefeller is a person of interest in the disappearance of Sohus and his wife Linda. And, Sheriff's homicide detectives would like to talk to him about the bones and a possible murder at the Sohus home on Lorain Road in San Marino.

I read in the Boston Herald that when the skeleton was recovered it had been trisected and placed into three plastic bags before burial. That's when the second guessing started. Surely if that was the case there would be more than a few pieces of skull.

Fortunately, my memory was validated by Dowell and Coroner's assistant Chief Ed Winter who assured me that those pieces are all that's left. There's no jaw and no teeth --- thus no easy identification. Because John Sohus was adopted getting a DNA match will be difficult as well.

Winter said the rest of the remains were likely cremated several years ago to make room for other remains. In a place that handles 10,000 bodies a year, it's not a unreasonable conclusion.

But what of the plastic bags? Of the fiberboard box or any clothes the skeleton may have had...still no answer there. Sheriff's Lt. Paul Becker said his detectives are searching for that evidence.

Coroner's officials are also attempting to piece together the archived file that contains an autopsy report and other findings from the scene, Winter said.

Needless to say there's still a lot of this tale left to tell.    

Ignacio DelRio, 33, one of Los Angeles' most prolific burglars who has confessed to 1,000 burglaries, was resentenced Tuesday to seven and a half years in prison, the Associated Press reports.

DelRios' sentence was reduced from 12 years after he made a training video showing police how he stole about $16 million in goods.

He also led police to a stash of stolen merchandise in the San Fernando Valley valued at $400,000.

DelRio reportedly immmigrated to the U.S. from Spain with hopes of being a martial arts champion.

When that didn't pan out, he earned a business degree from San Diego State University before beginning his carrer as a thief.

Detectives said the DelRio knew how to get past alarms, open safes and steal his identities. He reportedly changes his name every 30 days.

 

Here's the round-up. Perhaps the most fascinating story of the day is the deaf-mute who went into the hospital with a bullet in his head but can't explain how it got there. I have some questions about the second story because it says fre danger in the Angeles National Forest is High, but a look at the ANF website indicates fire danger is moderate.

Here's the list:

Whit: WHITTIER -- A man who cannot hear or speak arrived at a local hospital Monday with a gunshot wound to his head, however it was not immediately clear how he was shot, authorities said.

Pas/Trib: ARCADIA (CNS)-- The fire danger in the Angeles National Forest will be raised from "high" to "very high" on Wednesday as summer temperatures continue drying out vegetation and increasing numbers of visitors arrive.

Pas/Trib: ALHAMBRA -- Officials have released the name of a 23-year-old Los Angeles woman killed Saturday in a hit-and-run crash.

It's amazing what a reward can't do.

For months I wondered why the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors didn't offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of killers who took the life of Sammantha Salas in January.

The board blamed the lack of a reward on detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau.

Detectives said they needed time to solve the case, using tried and true methods before turning to a reward.

Salas was killed in a hail of gunfire Jan. 28 outside an apartment complex in the 2500 block of Peck Road in an unincorporated county section near Monrovia called "No Man's Land."
An unidentified friend of Salas was seriously wounded in the assault that also left a stucco apartment building riddled with bullet holes.

Two suspects in the shooting were described as African Americans in their 20s. They were wearing dark-colored bandannas or hooded sweatshirts and are probably members of the Du Rock Crips gang, authorities said.

By June, leads that detectives could pursue ran thin, and the supes put up a $10,000 reward. It was set to expire on Sept. 2.

Today the board will extend the reward in hopes of catching Salas' killers.

"It's been slow," Sheriff's Lt. Dan Rosenberg said. "But it's going to get active again. What's happened here isn't from a lack of trying."

Reporters did a stunning job tracking down the missing link in a mystery that has vexed detectives for 23 years.

When John and Linda Sohus disappeared from their San Marino estate in 1985, their mysterious tenant, identified as Chris Chichester, vanished as well.

In 1994, when bones were unearthed at the Lorain Road property, Chichester became a person of interest in the homicide investigation.

From then until Monday, investigators said they had no idea what Chichester's real name might be.

It all began unraveling on July 27, when Boston socialite Clark Rockefeller and his seven-year-old daughter Reigh "Snooks" Boss disappeared. Rockefeller was accused of child abduction and the trail led to Baltimore, where he was arrested.

The girl was returned to her mother. Rockefeller was taken into custody and extradited to Boston. A fingerprint linked him to Chichester. A photograph tied him to a twentysomething foreign exchange student named Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who lived with the Savio family in Berlin, Conn. in the early 1980s.

From there it was only a matter of time until reporters connected the dots back to Alexander Gerhartsreiter, who said Christian was his long-lost brother.

Three days later authorities confirmed the link, pointing out on a wanted poster that Clark Rockefeller is Chris Chichester is Christian Gerhartsreiter.

As of 8:20 p.m., the barricade situation in Pasadena continues.

Reporter Robert Hong reports from the scene that a man was holding a 9-year-old boy hostage and was reportedly armed with a shotgun.

Police heard gunfire coming from inside the home in the 1500 block of North El Molino Avenue, however officials did not believe anyone was injured.

The incident apparently began shortly before 5 p.m. after a woman called police to say she had gone to pick the boy up from the home and found the man armed with a shotgun.

Police negotiators were on scene trying to talk to the man.

Also Monday, Rockefeller's attorney said his client, who told police he couldn't remember anything before 1993, now claims he remembers being Chistopher Chichester in the late 1980s.

"He did know those people when he was a tenant there," attorney Stephen Hrones said. "He knew the people the mother was there there was an elderly woman who was the landlord he had his own little place in back."

"He wasnt' that close to them so he just said they left," the attorney said.

Theres a report of shots fired in Pasadena.

"Are they shooting at us or are we shooting at them?" a dispatcher just asked.

No further details are currently available.

"The shots appear to be coming from the garage where that gentleman is," said an officer, locating the shots as coming from a back house."

A command post has been set up at Howard and El Molino.

*Latest report:

"There is a hostage inside"

** Pasadena police reports its bullhorn doesn't work, but a negotiator is being brought to the scene.

***"He may release the child," has been overheard on the scanner as negotiations continue

 

The Board of Supervisors is about to extend the time limit on the $10,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of two men suspected of killing Sammantha Salas in January.

Salas was gunned down in a section of Monrovia known as "No Man's Land." Police believe her killing was the result of a series of escalating gang violence attacks between black and Latino gangs that took on racial overtones.

The reward vote takes place Tuesday.

***

Sheriff's homicide Lt. Dan Rosenberg said Monday that all five juveniles suspected of taking part in the robbery that killed Covina Hills resident Michelle Chien at her home earlier this year will be tried as adults. One suspect, Victor Maurtua, 19, a member of the El Monte Flores gang remains at large in the case.

"This is a pretty vicious case," Rosenberg said. "And it was random basically. These were local kids. One individual orchestrated the whole things and the others followed along."

 

***

Rosenberg also has a crew working alongside LAPD detectives in hopes that they can solve the slaying of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Juan Escalante, 27. 

The deputy was slain outside his home two weeks ago, as he left for work at Men's Central Jail.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

A U.S. Army reservist, Escalante had worked for the Sheriff's Department for 2 1/2 years. He was assigned to the "high power" unit, where dangerous inmates -- many of them violent gang members -- are housed in single-man cells. Investigators said this week that the shot that killed Escalante was fired from behind him and that he may not have seen his killer or killers.

Ropsenberg said deputies and officers are working alongside and getting along.

"We're working real well together," he said. "We still don't have a motive, but we're looking at everything." 

 

From a Sheriff's bulletin issued today:   Chichester_Wanted_Poster.pdf

Homicide Investigators are seeking the public's assistance in developing information regarding the 1985 disappearance of John & Linda Sohus of San Marino, California.

The male depicted in this bulletin was a tenant at the Sohus residence, at the time of their disappearance. Anyone with information regarding this case or the male in the bulletin are urged to contact Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau Detectives.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said detectives are confirming that international man of mystery Christian Gerhartsreiter, an exchange student who came to the United States in the late 1970s or early 1980s shares an indetity with at least two other people.

Gerhartsreiter assumed the identity of Chris Chichester when he lived in San Marino, Whitmore said. Gerhartsreiter is also Clark Rockefeller, Whitmore said.

It is unclear how the identities are linked other than through "interviews with other investigators and investigative tools."

Chichester is a person of interest in the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus. The newlywed couple disappeared from their San Marino home in 1985. The bones of a man were discovered on the property in 1994. No link has been established between the bones and Sohus.

Chichester was pulled over in 1988 in Greenwich Conn., driving a truck registered to John Sohus

I saw this several weeks ago while watching reruns on Nick with the boys. No doubt you'll laugh like I did.

Here's the list of stories we're covering this morning from the overnight notes:

Pas:

ALHAMBRA - A Baldwin Park man was arrested early Sunday on suspicion of fatally striking a woman with his pickup truck and fleeing the scene, authorities said.

SAN GABRIEL -- A man and woman were hospitalized with serious injuries Saturday after what may have been a failed murder-suicide attempt, officials said.

MONTEREY PARK  -- A motorcyclist reportedly lost nearly $2,000 Sunday after he dropped his bag on the 10 Freeway, officials said.

WHIT: MONTEBELLO -- A man stole two rings valued at $15,200 Sunday from a jeweler at the Montebello Town Center, authorities said.

Two of my favorite entertainers gone in two days, Bernie Mac and now Isaac Hayes. They say this stuff happens in threes. I hope not.

From the Associated Press:

Isaac Hayes, the baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose "Theme From Shaft" won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said. He was 65.

 

This is the approximate (unedited) top of our story on the Rockefeller Chichester saga that's scheduled to run in Sunday's paper. I'll provide a link, when it's available.

[BYNAME]By Frank C. Girardot and Nathan McIntire
<MC>Staff Writers
[BODY]SAN MARINO - Whether he was Chichester or Mountbatten, the mysterious man who shmoozed with the city's elite, and then promptly disappeared, chose British aliases with regal credentials.
Even his business card reeked of aristocratic airs.
"Christopher Chichester XIII, bt. San Marino California," the card announced beneath a display of the family crest.
The diminutive, bespectacled fair-haired young European had taken on an obscure royal title as the 13th baronet of Chichester a rank somewhere between Baron and Knight among British bluebloods.
When he exited San Marino, Chichester, assumed the life of a fugitive. Police have linked him to a missing persons case and the grisly discovery of remains in the backyard of a Lorain Road home in 1994.
Authorities also believe that sometime after he left San Marino in 1985, Chichester flew under the radar by assuming the surname of American royalty. Chichester/Mountbatten became Clark Rockefeller.
Rockefeller is accused of abducting his seven-year-old daughter on July 27 in Boston, Mass. Police said his fingerprints match Chichester's.
As for reality, Chichester's true identity is likely Christian Gerhardsreider, a German exchange student who arrived in Berlin, Conn. in the early 1980s. Gerhartsreider overstayed his visa before assuming the name of a local librarian -- Christopher Chichester, officials said.
Before stopping in San Marino, authorities believe Chichester married a woman in Wisconsin to obtain a green card.
By the time he arrived in southern California a nearly complete and memorable transformation had taken place.

Right after publishing the first story linking the San Marino bones and Clark Rockefeller, KNBC 4.4 Raw did a phone interview with me. I found it online last night, here's a link.

KNBC

The LA Times weighed in on the Clark Rockefeller saga Saturday, interviewing former editor Dana Farrar who once knew Christopher Chichester and even played Trival Pursuit with him.

Here's an interesting excerpt:

The last time she saw him was that night she and Farrar played Trivial Pursuit at the guest house where Chichester was staying, she said.

Both Farrar, a former Los Angeles Times editor, and Gallegos said that that night they noticed much of the backyard of the Sohus' home was dug up. At the time, neither thought much of it.

"He said there were plumbing problems," Farrar said.

Meanwhile, my newspaper, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune (also a former employer of Farrar) has this story written by me and Nathan McIntire. Police say they are going to research the grounds of the Sohus home where they hope to find more than sprinkler pipe. Here's an excerpt:

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.

Bernie Mac was a funny guy. Who couldn't laugh at his prickly TV character. From the Associated Press in Chicago:

CHICAGO (AP) - A publicist says Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor and comedian Bernie Mac has died at age 50.

Publicist Danica Smith says Mac died early Saturday at a hospital in the Chicago area of complications due to pneumonia.

The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but he had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently had been hospitalized and treated for pneumonia.

Mac had starring roles in "Ocean's Eleven,""Bad Santa,""Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."

The comedian drew critical and popular acclaim with his Fox television series "The Bernie Mac Show," which aired more than 100 episodes from 2001 to 2006.

As the Clark Rockefeller Christopher Chichester Chip Smith Christian Gerhartsreiter saga continues to unfold, we've decided to put as much information in one place as possible.

We've archived the 1994 clip file on line as well as all our more recent reporting on a single Web page. The site is still in a preliminary stage, but I think it's OK to give Crime Scene readers a preview.

Here's a link.

Let me know what you think.

 

1961: Christian Gerhartstreider born in Bavaria, West Germany, Alexander Geihartstreider, who claims to be his brother, told the Boston Globe.
1980-81: Christian Gerhart Reiter turns up in Berlin, Conn. as a German exchange student with the Savio family, according to the Associated Press. He attends high school there and ends up living with a teacher named Christopher Chichester.
1981-82: Christian Gerhartstreider moves to Elm Grove, Wis., and marries Amy Jersild, 22, in a civil ceremony at the Dane County courthouse in Madison, according to public records and a sister of Jersild.
1982-83: Christopher Chichester appears in San Marino and South Pasadena, as the host of a weekly public access television show broadcast on local cable, according to Don Appleby, with Time Warner Cable in South Pasadena.
1984-85: Chichester moves into a cottage in the back of the San Marino residence of Didi Sohus, her son John and his wife Linda.
Feb. 1985: John and Linda Sohus disappear.
April 1985: Didi Sohus files a missing persons report with the San Marino Police Department.
1987-1989: Christoper Mountbatten Crowe obtains a job on Wall Street sales manager, according to various sources including blogger Don Copeland. He's fired for not making sales.
1989: In Greenwich, Conn., Christopher Crowe attempts to sell a truck registered to John Sohus. Apparently his fingerprints match fingerprints left behind by Chichester in San Marino. Greenwhich authorities notify Los Angeles County authorities, but Chichester and the truck disappeared.
1993: Clark Rockefeller surfaces in New York and is introduced to Sandra Lynne Boss, his future wife, according to the Boston Herald.
1994: The bones of a man believed to be John Sohus are unearthed during a swimming pool excavation in San Marino. Detectives issue a bulletin seeking Chichester and identify several aliases including Christian Gerhartstreider and Christopher Mountbatten Crowe, according to the Pasadena Star-News.
1995: Clark Rockefeller marries Sandra Lynn Boss. BH
2001: Reigh "Snooks" Boss born.
2007: Boss and Rockefeller divorce in a probate hearing, during the proceedings, Rockefeller refuses to provide proof of his identity, according to Wikipedia.
July 27, 2008: Reigh Boss is abducted, according America's Most Wanted.
August 2008: Clark Rockefeller arrested in Baltimore, extradited to Massachuttets and charged in the abduction. Detectives from Los Angeles County fly to Boston to interview him, but are rebuffed and return to Los Angeles.

This from ABC7:

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Funeral services at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral are held Friday morning for Juan Escalante, an L.A. sheriff's deputy who was shot to death in front of his parents' home.

The reward for his killers is nearing $100,000, but the gunmen have still not been found.

A large law enforcement presence gathered for the funeral set to begin at 9 a.m.

As family and friends said their final goodbye, police are still looking for suspects involved in the 27-year-old deputy's murder.

 

While reporting this story Thursday, I came across some information about a New York pediatrician who may have been an associate of Clark Rockefeller.

When Rockefeller's seven-year-old daughter Reigh "Snooks" Boss was abducted on July 27, FBI agents interviewed the pediatricians neighbors and coworkers.

I spoke to one of those neighbors Thursday. Here's an excerpt from our story:

The FBI has been working the case since Rockefeller and his 7-year-old daughter disappeared on July 27. Rockefeller was arrested Saturday and his daughter was reunited with her mother.

A law enforcement source speaking on condition of anonymity said agents have identified a New York pediatrician as a longtime associate of Rockefeller.

A neighbor of the pediatrician, who owns a condominium in Greenwich, Conn., said he was interviewed last week by agents carrying photographs of Rockefeller and his daughter, Reigh Boss.

"An agent canvassing door-to-door had a picture of him and the kid and was looking to see if anybody had seen them," the neighbor said Thursday. "Obviously they thought she could be here."

The neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, said he has known the doctor for several months but has never seen Rockefeller or his daughter at the condominium complex.

 

A calling card from Christopher Chichester

Here's a photo of what is purported to be the postcard Linda Sohus sent her friend Lydia from Paris: (h/t) to a great source

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Montebello had a mystery on its hands, What happened to a Chevy Suburban parked in the Montebello HQ building last night?

Two suspects apparently entered the HQ building and took the truck, using a key that was in the ignition.

It was later observed in Banning, and pulled over. Two people driving it were arrested. They are identified as Steven Garcia, 22, of Monterey Park and Angelene Celeste Story, 19, of Alhambra. No equipment was apparently damaged, officials.

* Apparently the suspected thief left a message for firefighters, written in ink in the truck's parking stall:

(paraphrase) "We are all going to paradise tonight. It all ends tonight -- Steven G. The Chosen One"

Police have already erased the message, firefighters said.

Photos on the jump

This was posted in the comments below. I thought it was worth sharing as a post on its own. Thank you Sleuthy:

1979-80: Age 18-19 in Berlin, CT. "Gerhart Reiter" (or "Christian
Gerhard Streider" "Christian Gerhard Streiter" appear to be
misspellings) is a Bavarian German exchange student. Presumably
overstays visa.
1980-8? : Disappears, claims to live in Minnesota part of this period.
No known aliases. CONFIRM.
198?-85 : Age 24 in San Marino, CA. "Christopher Chichester" (name of
Berlin, CT teacher.)
1985-87 : He disappears, with no known aliases.
1987-88 : Age 27 in NYC. "Christopher Montbattan Crowe" "Christopher
Crowe" etc.
1989-1993 Presumed NYC, unknown aliases.
1993-2008 : Age 33-48. In Boston MA, Cornish NH, Nantucket MA. "Clark
Rockefeller" "J.C.R." "J.P.C.R." "Clark Mill Rockefeller" "Clark M.
Rockefeller III" "James Frederick" "Chip MacLaughlin" "Michael Brown."
2007-08: Age 48 in Baltimore MD. "Charles 'Chip' Smith."

There's also this blog post detailing a link between Clark Rockefeller/Chris Chichester and Michael Millken:

Rockefeller, who went by the name Christopher Montbattan Crowe at the time, worked for Nikko Securities International in 1987 and 1988 before being fired for incompetence. Almost immediately after departing Nikko, Rockefeller landed a job at Kidder Peabody as international sales manager, according to interviews conducted Wednesday by Dave Copeland, author of Blood and Volume: Inside New York's Israeli Mafia.

Not a lot of details yet, but reporter Jennifer McLain is at the scene of a take-over bank robbery (apparently a credit union) in West Covina.

If (as Andy Warhol proclaimed) we're all entitled to 15 minutes of fame, I used up about three last night appearing on Greta Van Susteren's show last night on Fox News.

The experience was pretty interesting. Fox kindly sent a car to pick me up and take me to a studio in San Diego's Gas Lamp district.

The man who runs the studio lives above it in a flat -- really nice guy.

As for the studio itself. Not much there really. An old picture of the San Diego skyline sits behind a comfortable leather chair. The guest sits in the chair, attaches an earpiece and a lapel mic, then talks to a camera in what is really an elaborate cell call.

Producers talk to you through the earpiece to get sound levels and give a heads up before the interview actually starts.

The show primarily focused on the search for a missing Florida toddler, the toddler's crazy mother, who is a suspect in the disappearance and the crazy mom's parents. 

It was over almost as soon as it started. Basically all I did was talk, stare at a camera (without a red light) and leave. 

Everyone wants to know if I was nervous, I wasn't. But I was a little disconcerted when Greta didn't interrupt. 

Later the cameraman told me that was a good thing.

 

 

It's Wednesday afternoon and I've been on the phone all morning.

Seems that reporters on the East Coast can't get enough of the Clark Rockefeller story and his possible conection to a couple reported missing in San Marino way back in 1985.

. Rockefeller is accused of violently abducting his 7-year-old daughter from a home in Boston on July 27. The two vanished only to resurface in Baltimore earlier this week. Rockefeller had already assumed a new identity there as "Chip" Smith, a local Realtor.

There's a strong suspicion that Rockefeller was once known as Christopher Chichester, who lived with the missing couple and disappeared when they did.

There's also a strong suspicion among law enforcement that he was known as "Christopher Crowe", "Christopher Mountbatten," and "Christian Gerhard Streider." But there's also a resignation of sorts that no one knows who Chichester really is -- or was -- or may be now.

Through the ensuing 23 years, rumours have persisted about the missing couple, John and Linda Sohus. John's mother Didi told investigators her son and daughter-in-law were on a secret mission. She was keeping tabs on their exploits through an unidentified third party, who filled her in with exciting details of the trio's exploits fighting Communism in Europe.

In 1989, Chichester briefly resurfaced in another toney enclave of the idle wealty -- Greenwich, Conn. He was in possession of John's truck. Then he vanished -- just as neatly. Almost forgotten really, until the bones were discovered.

In 1994, nine years after John and Linda disapeared, a pool contractor unearthed a bag of bones in the backyard of the Lorain Road home where the Sohus and Chichester once lived.

Although ravaged by the passage of time and cracked by the powerful blade of a backhoe, detectives believed the bones might belong to John Sohus. They named Chichester as a person of interest and searched the world over for the slightly built man of mystery.

More stories surfaced. There were rumors of a love triangle that estranged the "good looking, big-hipped" Linda and her "computer nerd" husband John even though the couple shared an interest in science fiction and fantasy stories. Perhaps the news story would have had more play back then, but 1994 turned out to be the summer of O.J. Simpson. A few weeks after the bizarre San Marino discovery, local, national and international attention turned to the story of a USC football hero accused in an equally bizarre murder case.

And the Sohus, Chichester story rated no more attention.

Since then a portion of the remains have been stored in a basement office at the Los Angeles Department of Coroner. They've been studied and analyzed by Steve Dowell, the nation's top forensic tool mark specialist. He believes the skull of the dead man was crushed with a blunt object like a two by four.

Then again,"he could have done a lot of coke and fallen off a bar stool and suffered an injury like that, Dowell said. "But that's a shot in the dark. Because there was an effort to bury and conceal the body, this death is classified as a homicide.

That said, the remains have never been formally identified as John's. Even though the Simpson prosecution relied heavily on DNA evidence, in 1994 the science was still in its infancy, Dowell said. There was no way back then to extract DNA from skeletal remains. No effort was made either to compare dental records, as far as Dowell knows. Although that effort would have come from sheriff's investigators, and the primary investigator on the case has apparently long since retired.

There is no easy answer as to what happened to Linda Sohus. Family members said way back when they received postcards with a picture of the Eifel Tower and tales of France. THose same postcards also contained the caveat that Linda was bad at geography.

Mysteriously the missives ceased. Neither John nor Linda nor Chichester resurfaced. The case turned cold. One can only imagine what John's mother would say to the hordes of media now intently following the case. Surely she would be able to make the physical connection between Rockefeller and Chichester.

But she died, believing perhaps that her son was a spy and would never contact her again. Depsite a mother's bravado -- some might say denial -- every indication is that she died broken-hearted.

No doubt remaining family members and friends of the Sohus have hope they will finally get some answers.

I'll be on the FOX News Channel tonight for an interview with Greta Van Susteren. I think we go live about 7:30 p.m., which would be the second half of the show.

Seems like the topic of discussion will be the second day story -- background on Clark Rockefeller/Chris Chichester and the missing Sohus. What ever happened to Linda Sohus, might be one of the most fascinating mysteries to come out of the San Gabriel Valley in many years.

Pasadena Star-News articles from the 1980s and 1990s described the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus as a story with an interesting cast of characters.

The couple apparently met because of a mutual interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy stories. Linda worked in a Sherman Oaks bookstore called Dangerous Visions. John was a computer nerd interested in Dungeons and Dragons.

After their disappearance, John Sohus' mother, who lived at the Lorain Road home said she remained in touch with the couple through an unidentified third party. Linda's mother and best friend reported receiving postcards with a picture of the Eifel Tower signed "Linda and John."

The postcards claimed the couple were in France, but Linda admitted in one postscript that she wasn't too good at geography.

A man who knew Linda through a group called the "Science Fantasy Society" described her as a "tall good-looking woman with wide hips."

Sometime after the 1985 disappearance, John's mother suffered a stroke. She moved into a trailer and spent her remaining days hoping for some communication from her lost son. One friend said she lost "zest for life and sobbed uncontrollably," even though she believed the couple were alive on a secret mission in France."

 

There's tons of news out there about the man suspected of having a link to the 1985 disappearance of a San Marino couple, and possibly a bag of bones that was buried in a Lorain Road backyard. First the Boston Herald. Gotta love the lede -- and all the great adjectives:

Investigators plan to grill bogus blue blood Clark Rockefeller to see whether the fugitive accused of snatching his daughter is the same "person of interest" linked to the apparent 1985 murder of a young man in a toney southern California enclave.

There's also this story by Herald reporter Jessica Van Sack that reveals Clark Rockefeller/Chris Chichester/Chris Mountbatten had a new identity prepared in Baltimore, where he would transform into "Chip" Smith. Gotta wonder about Chip Smith...doesn't sound like a blueblood name to me...

Then there's the stories like this one from the U.K. where Rockefeller's attorney takes a stand on his client's behalf.

Finally since I'm heavily touting the Herald this morning, their profile of "toney" San Marino is pretty funny, especially this passage and quote:

All of which now has the residents of San Marino - an old-money city of less than 13,000 residents where brown lawns and self-service gas stations are forbidden by law - gossiping like trailer-park hairdressers.

"There are no wild nights in San Marino," said Shirley Donovan of the San Marino-Pasadena Newcomers Club. "Basically, San Marino is just a beautiful, quiet, elegant place where nothing much seems to happen, but when it does, everybody knows about it."

This is what we'll be reporting in tomorrow's paper. I think the side-by-sie mug comparison says as much about a link as the fingerprint mentioned in the story:

SAN MARINO _ A fingerprint ties a Boston man suspected in the abduction of his daughter last month to a person of interest in the 1985 disappearance of a San Marino couple and the discovery of bones in their backyard, officials said Tuesday.
Detectives flew to Boston on Tuesday to speak to Clark Rockefeller, who is accused of abducting his 7-year-old daughter on July 27 in a case that made international headlines.
Rockefeller has the same fingerprint as Christopher Chichester, a man wanted for questioning in the 1985 disappearance of John and Linda Sohus of San Marino, said Frank Wills, San Marino's police chief in 1994.
"There are similarities between Clark Rockfeller's description and the description of Chichester," Wills said. "They have the same fingerprint."

The man believed to be Clark Rockefeller might be the same man in this undated photograph.

Police confirmed Tuesday a link between Clark Rockefeller, the Boston man who was sought after abducting his seven-year-old daughter, and a 23-year-old San Marino mystery, that included the discovery of bones buried in a backyard.

I've actually seen these bones -- twice. The first time was shortly after they were discovered. I was on a tour of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner and ended up interviewing a man named Steve Dowell, the sheriff's tool mark expert.

Dowell, who works in a basement office at the coroner's office keeps an interesting collection of bones and tools. The bones (at least a skull as I remember) excavated from Lorain Road were stored in a paper bag.

Dowell showed me the bones, explained where they were from and described the diffiiculty in confirming their identity. Apparently there was a Tongva Indian burial site near the location and early int he investigation there was some question if the bones were related to that or to the case of a couple who went missing in 1985. The couple was identified as John and Linda Sohus.

Then, in 2003, while working on a book about the coroner's office, I returned to Dowell's office and specifically asked him about the San Marino pool bones. He retrieved them and explained that they were likely of a recent vintage, but identifying how exactly the male died would be difficult.

Why?

Apparently the backhoe used in the pool excavation had destroyed the skull sufficiently that determining a cause of death would be nearly impossible.

Some questions I wish I had asked. What about dental records? What about DNA? I'm sure those questions are being asked now that Rockefeller, who used to be known as Christopher Chichester, is in custody in Boston.

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

A pile of bones found in a San Marino backyard in the mid-1990s may be linked to the Clark Rockefeller case, officials said.

The bones, discovered during a San Marino pool excavation in 1994, may be linked to a missing honeymood couple from San Marino John and Linda Sohus, who disappeared in February 1985.

Baldwin Park Police Chief Lili Hadsell, who was a San Marino police officer at the time the couple went missing, recalled the case Tuesday.

Back in the 1980s and 1990, the man suspected of being Rockefeller, used several aliases including Christopher Crow and Christopher Mount Batten.

Check out this story from the Boston Herald.

 

 

 

 

This from the New York Post:

As Clark Rockefeller arrived in Boston to face abduction charges after fleeing Boston with his 7-year-old daughter, it was reported the kidnapping suspect may also be connected to a murder in California.

Investigators have linked his finger prints to a driver's license application that was filled out with a different name, and that name was on a list of homicide suspects, according to The Boston Globe.

Rockefeller's finger prints were taken after he was arrested in Balitmore, where he'd been hiding out his his daughter Reigh "Snooks" Boss. Rockefeller, who doesn't have custody of his daugther, snatched up the girl during a court-monitored visit last week in Boston, sparking a week-long manhunt that ended Saturday in Balitmore.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich Monday posed with an AR-15 confiscated in a raid by LAPD officers in the 77th Street Precinct.

The gun, and several others were seized as part of the county's DISARM program, officials said.

Reporter Brian Day attended an Antonovich press conference downtown Monday morning, but had some difficulty getting answers to a couple of key questions.

 

Like, why does Antonovich care about stuff that happens outside the Fifth *Supervisorial district?

How many guns of this caliber have been seized in the San Gabriel Valley?

Unfortunately he didn't get answers to those questions. Just a nice photo of Antonovich with a ton of guns.

*I've corrected this post. As Tony Bell points out below, Supervisor Mike Antonovich represents the Fifth Supervisoral District. My bad. The rest stands. Officials told Brian the guns came from the 77th Precinct, which is outside the Fifth District.

I would still like to know how much of the money and guns that were seized as part of DISARM came from the San Gabriel Valley?

 

 

Somewhere on my desk I have a frayed, faded and much abused copy of the 1993 edition of Police Call.

I learned today from LA Observed that Gene Hughes, publisher of the magazine, died recently at age 80.

Police Call was a collection of radio frequencies used by police, fire and other government agencies. Hughes, a scanner junkie, put them together  and made the gibberish understandable to the lay person.

As much as anything I have Hughes (real name Gene Costin) to thank for my ability to tell the difference between real news and real noise.

Here's a bit from the LAO post:

Costin was 13 and living in a Los Angeles foster home in 1940 when he discovered that he could listen in on the LAPD's radios. The rest is history.

Here's a link to Wired's obit. The photo is from Wired also.

Pas:

ALTADENA -- Authorities expect to file murder charges against a 50-year-old man in connection with the death of his 19-year-old live-in girlfriend Saturday, officials said. (story/online)

PASADENA -- Three men were shot and wounded in three separate shootings between Saturday night and Sunday morning, police said. (brief/online)

Trib:

AZUSA - A man was arrested on suspicion of stabbing another man late Saturday during a fight in the parking lot of a restaurant, authorities said. (brief/online)

AZUSA -- Three suspected gang members were arrested early Sunday after an alleged drive-by shooting on a home, officials said. (brief/online)

EL MONTE - A suspected drunken driver was arrested in El Monte late Saturday after allegedly striking a pedestrian in Pomona and fleeing the scene, authorities said. (online only, no space in regbriefs)

 

Whit:

no briefs

I received this letter from Jan Williams. As you may remember Williams lost her son and grandsons last summer. Neal, Ian and Devon Williams were all killed. Neal's wife and the boys' mother Manling Williams was arrested on suspicion of murder and could face teh death penalty. A preliminary hearing in the case, scheduled for last Wednesday was postponed until Sept. 11.

Letter on the jump

A 50-year-old man is in custody in connection with the death of his 19-year-old girlfriend Saturday, however it remains unclear how the woman died.

The victim's live-in boyfriend, Tony Evans Taylor, was arrested on an outstanding warrant shortly after the incident was reported, however detectives plan to file murder charges against him.

The dead woman's name was not released pending notification of next-of-kin.

Deputies found the woman injured from a fall from a second-story window outside her home in the 2400 block of Lincoln Avenue shortly after 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

A witness reported hearing what sounded like a gunshot around the time of the incident, but doctor's could not confirm Sunday if the woman had been shot. The coroner's office will make that determination following an autopsy.

The victim died at a local hospital shortly after the incident.

Detectives learned the couple apparently had a history of domestic violence prior to the incident, which went largely unreported to authorities.

The warrant Taylor was initially arrested on was believed to be for making terrorist threats against the victim.

 

We reported heavily on the story of Granada Middle School Band Director Phillip Roa.

Reported in the 9500 block of Woodview. They think a suspect ran into a nearby house...we're listening to it on scanner if you are watching the live you can probably hear it go down.

A couple of posts down you can watch a live feed from the newsroom this afternoon. We're experimenting with a different set of equipment.

Federal drug agents have arrested a chief of police from Mexico in connection with a drug investigation in Los Angeles County, officials said. Its an interesting place to make such an arrest...here's the story as it stands from the wires:

Two men believed to be members of the Agencia Federal de Investigacion
-- the Mexican federal police -- are due to be arraigned this afternoon in Los
Angeles on charges of possessing an estimated $500,000 as part of a narcotics
enterprise.
Victor Manuel Juarez, 36, and Carlos Cepano Filippini, 34, were arrested
Wednesday, along with two other people, at a home in West Covina.
They were taken into custody by a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force
as part of an ongoing investigation, according to the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's Office.