From a Sheriff’s bulletin issued today:
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.
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.