'Crockefeller' Charged with Murder re 1985 Disappearance of Calif. Couple
Twenty-six years after a young couple vanished from their San Marino home, prosecutors in California have charged a German national known as “Crockefeller” with murder concerning the death of the man.
John Sohus’ apparent skeleton was found in 1994 as the yard was being dug up for a swimming pool. Linda Sohus has never been found.
Prosecutors say Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who is now 50, lived in a guesthouse at the couple’s home in 1985 and used the name Christopher Chichester, according to the Boston Globe and the L.A. Now blog of the Los Angeles Times.
Gerhartsreiter made headlines in recent years when, using the name Clark Rockefeller, he abducted his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in Boston and was tracked down in a high-profile manhunt. He was convicted of parental kidnapping in Suffolk Superior Court in Massachusetts in 2009 and is serving a four- to five-year jail sentence.
The murder case against him is being pursued in Alhambra Superior Court. California officials are seeking his extradition and plan to ask for $10 million bail.
The articles don’t include any comment from Gerhartsreiter or his counsel.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge Ends ‘Rockefeller’ Name Game, Vows to Refer to Accused as ‘Defendant’”
ABAJournal.com: “Jury that Convicted ‘Crockefeller’ Was Led by Harvard Law Lecturer”
