Thread: Immigration Officials Join Search For Rockefeller's Identy

Immigration officials join search for Rockefeller's identity

August 7, 2008 11:23 AM
By John R. Ellement, Maria Cramer, Eric Moskowitz, and Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Federal immigration authorities confirmed today that they have joined the search for the true identity of accused kidnapper Clark Rockefeller, an investigation that has stretched from coast to coast and now overseas to Germany.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told the Globe that authorities are trying to determine whether Rockefeller is a German national who overstayed his visa. Christian Gerhard Streiter is another of the many aliases authorities suspect may have been used by Rockefeller.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has joined the growing probe, spokeswoman Paula Grenier said today in a telephone interview. She would not discuss specifics of the case because federal privacy law bars the agency from disclosing an individual’s immigration status.
“We are assisting law enforcement in the investigation,’’ Grenier said. “We do not have a detainer on him.’’

The Boston Herald reported today that the FBI contacted a family in Berlin, Conn., who housed an exchange student named Christian Gerhart Reiter in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Edward Savio told the newspaper that Reiter lived with his family before moving to California. Reiter asserted that he came from Bavaria, Savio said.
The Savio family could not immediately be reached by the Globe for comment.

Rockefeller is being held without bail at the Nashua Street Jail on charges of parental kidnapping in the alleged abduction of his 7-year-old daughter. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide investigators have called Rockefeller a "person of interest" in the 1985 disappearance and possible murder of Linda and John Sohus, a young couple from San Marino, Calif. Authorities want to ask Rockefeller whether he was living in the couple's guest house under the alias Christopher Chichester.

Rockefeller refused to speak to two Los Angeles County homicide detectives Wednesday who flew to Boston to talk to him about the case. When the couple went missing, police wanted to question Chichester, who was living in a converted garage on the Sohuses' property, but Chichester disappeared before investigators could locate him. In 1994, workers digging a pool in the backyard of the home discovered human remains in three plastic bags, which were presumed to be those of John Sohus, but never definitively determined. Neither Linda Sohus nor her remains have been located.

Chichester surfaced in 1988, when he tried to sell a truck belonging to John Sohus in Greenwich, Conn., police told "Unsolved Mysteries." The seller used the name Christopher Crowe, the same name used on the stockbroker application, to sell the truck to the son of a local minister, who reported the episode to police after the man could not produce the truck's paperwork. Greenwich police did not return a call on Wednesday.
As the mystery surrounding Rockefeller's identity grows, more details have emerged about his time in New England. Multiple people told the Globe that he took an eight-week, 16-hour improvisational comedy class with them at ImprovBoston in Cambridge last fall, about the time he was going through his divorce from Sandra Boss, the mother of his 7-year-old daughter.

Many of the class members said Rockefeller was unusual. During the introduction, he explained that he did not have a job because he was involved in "very unfortunate litigation," according to one woman from the class, who wished to remain anonymous out of concern for her safety.
Outside of class, Rockefeller seemed eager to have people over to his Boston home for drinks -- touting a well-stocked liquor cabinet and open rooftop -- or to a yacht he claimed to have, though no one accepted his offer. He seemed proud of his daughter and emailed a photograph of her to the class.

But in class, Rockefeller struck some as perpetually frustrated, and he had to be warned once about inappropriate contact with women after trying to kiss a classmate during an improvised scene. Female classmates also complained to the instructor that Rockefeller tried to act out other physical contact in scenes that made them uncomfortable, the woman and another man from the class said.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaki ... n_off.html

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has joined the growing probe, spokeswoman Paula Grenier said today in a telephone interview. She would not discuss specifics of the case because federal privacy law bars the agency from disclosing an individual’s immigration status.
“We are assisting law enforcement in the investigation,’’ Grenier said. “We do not have a detainer on him.’’

Illegal criminal aliens cannot be named, it is personal; how does that equal to the rights of a citizen ever being named then for personal and privacy.

Interesting.

I thought they had him pinned down as a CA man who disappeared after a double murder in 1985. The picture of the CA guy looked just like him.

Originally Posted by Buzzm1

I thought they had him pinned down as CA man who disappeared after a double murder in 1985. The picture of the CA guy looked just like him.

Did they say he was a resident of CA? May not be a citizen.

Originally Posted by Gogo

Originally Posted by Buzzm1

I thought they had him pinned down as CA man who disappeared after a double murder in 1985. The picture of the CA guy looked just like him.

Did they say he was a resident of CA? May not be a citizen.

They didn't mention citizenship.