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City woman's appeal to 'kidnap' father: Please bring back my girl
Tom Teodorczuk in New York01.08.08
The London mother of a seven- year- old girl abducted by her father begged today on US television: "Please bring her back."
McKinsey director Sandra Boss issued the plea to ex-husband Clark Rockefeller to return Reigh Storrow Boss, nicknamed Snooks, who he kidnapped during a contact visit in Boston on Sunday.
The FBI is now involved in a massive hunt for Reigh and is trying to find out more about her father, whose true identity remains a mystery. In an emotional broadcast, City-based Ms Boss, 41, said: "Clark, although many things have changed you will always be Reigh's father and I will always be Reigh's mother.
"We both love her dearly and have only her best interests and well-being in our hearts. I ask you now, please, please bring Snooks back. There has to be a better way for us to solve our differences than this way." Looking tired and distressed, American-born Ms Boss added: "I also want to thank everyone for your help. And Reigh, honey, I love you and miss you so much. Remember, you're always a princess."
The brief statement came hours after the US Attorney's Office issued a federal kidnapping warrant for Rockefeller. It means he can be arrested on sight by any US police officer. The TV appeal was also posted as a video on YouTube.
The FBI has suggested that Rockefeller may have cut short his daughter's blonde hair to make her resemble a boy. It is thought he may also have dyed his hair an orangey blond and that he is using a passport in the name of Michael Brown.
Rockefeller grabbed Reigh on Sunday night during a supervised visit, his first since he lost custody of her last year. The kidnapping is believed to have been months in the planning.
The male social worker overseeing the visit attempted to stop him escaping in a waiting four-wheel drive vehicle and suffered minor injuries.
The pair were then driven to New York in a different car and were last seen outside Grand Central Station in Manhattan.
It is thought they may have sailed on Rockefeller's 72-foot catamaran Serenity, which he had told acquaintances was anchored in a Long Island marina. He had hinted about going to the Caribbean or South America.
Both unwitting getaway drivers have been questioned by police and released without charge.
Police have so far hit a dead end with their investigation as a result of the multiple aliases used by Rockefeller and lies he told friends in Boston and New Hampshire.
He told different acquaintances he worked as a physician, a mathematician and in financial services, as well as hinting he was a relative of the Rockefeller dynasty, which made its fortune from Standard Oil.
The Rockefeller family is adamant he is not related.
He also made apparently false claims that he attended Yale and Harvard and police have been unable to locate a valid social security number, birth certificate or a wedding certificate for the couple's marriage in Nantucket in 1995. Detectives can find no documents which point to a Clark Rockefeller existing before 1995 - except for a member of the Rockefeller clan who disappeared in South America in the Sixties.
One theory being explored by police is that Reigh's father has assumed his identity.
Police have been forced to appeal for anybody who knew him before 1995 to come forward in the hope of working out who he is. Boston police spokesman Elaine Driscoll said: "They are researching school records and paper trails, unsuccessfully so far. Investigators are interested in anyone who knew him prior to the Nineties."
The case has close parallels to Without A Trace, the prime-time US drama series about the FBI's missing persons unit.
