Kidnap father Clark Rockefeller linked to mystery of murdered couple

Clark Rockefeller, who claimed to be an oil dynasty heir, snatched Reigh in Boston, Massachusetts, after her mother, London-based Sandra Boss, agreed to the terms of a custody ruling. 

After he was arrested and charged with her kidnapping, his extraordinary web of lies started to unravel.

Now he is being linked to murder, fraud and fake identities across America.

Web of deceit: Christian Gerhartsreiter, aka Clark Rockefeller, as he is today and in childhood. He cut all contact with his family in the eighties

Detectives, who found he had no birth certificate, driving licence or social security number, now believe he was born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter in Bavia, West Germany, in 1961. 

Family members have confirmed this, claiming Gerhartsreiter stayed in touch with his parents until the Eighties when he abruptly severed contact.

Investigations have revealed Gerhartsreiter left Germany aged 17 to get an education abroad and a year later enrolled at high school in Connecticut under the name Chris Gerharts Reiter.

His brother Alexander said: "He wanted to live in the big country and get famous. Now he really is famous."

In 1981, Gerhartsreiter married US citizen Amy Jersild, 22, in Wisconsin but, according to divorce papers, left her the following day. 

Wanted: A wanted poster of Clark Rockefeller showing his other identities

Miss Jersild's sister Beth Litza said he had married her just to get a green card.

Shortly after he turned up in San Marino, California, under the alias Christopher Chichester  -  a British royal moving his castle to America brick by brick.

He joined the Episcopal Church, the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce to entrench himself in the local community and rented the guesthouse of John and Linda Sohus.

Happier times: Clark Rockefeller carries his daughter Reigh Boss on his shoulders

In 1985 the couple disappeared. Their neighbours remember Chichester borrowing a chainsaw and digging up the garden but he vanished before officers could question him.

Ten years later workmen digging a swimming pool found three bags full of human remains but the bodies were never identified.

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.

Missing: John and Linda Sohus sometime prior to their 1985 disappearance

Chichester told them there had been plumbing problems.

Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators tried to question Gerhartsreiter in Boston last month, but he declined. No charges have ever been filed in the missing-people case.

Gerhartsreiter had moved on to the East Coast, taking the name Christopher Crowe, head of the Battenberg-Crowevon-Wettin family, and a job as a sales representative.

He was fired when it emerged he had used the social security number of serial killer David Berkowitz to get a Wall Street broker's licence.

Split: Sandra Boss, former partner of Clark Rockefeller, pictured with their daughter Reigh Rockefeller

Gerhartsreiter then moved to New York, took the name Rockefeller, and married Ms Boss in a Quaker ceremony on Nantucket in 1995  -  where a marriage licence is not required. 

He is thought to have used other aliases during his married life  -  including Clark Mill Rockefeller, James Frederick and Michael Brown.

When police in Baltimore arrested him over his daughter's abduction he was using the name Chip Smith.

Early days: Clark 'Rockefeller' in Bavaria 30 years ago