Sacramento Area Local News

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has confirmed it is sending two homicide detectives to Boston to interview the father accused of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a visit in Boston.

The man known as Clark Rockefeller was arraigned in Boston on charges stemming from his July 27 disappearance with this daughter, Reigh. He was caught Saturday in Baltimore, and the girl was found safe.

Los Angeles authorities confirmed to KCBS-TV that they are looking into a possible connection between Rockefeller and the 1994 discovery of human remains in a southern California city.

A source told WBZ-TV California homicide detectives have been wanting to talk to Rockefeller for some time but they didn't know him as Clark Rockefeller. They knew him as Christopher Crowe – yet another of his numerous aliases.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis confirmed that a fingerprint match places Rockefeller in California in the 1980s.

However, investigators in California told WBZ-TV they actually recognized Rockefeller's picture.

The case in question is a missing persons case that dates back to 1985 when a man named John Sohus and his wife disappeared. Nine years later, human remains were unearthed on the couple's San Marino property that police believe belong to John Sohus.

Investigators have not said what connects Rockefeller to that case but the Pasadena Star News reports the man who went by Christopher Crowe resembles that of Rockefeller.

Rockefeller has been ordered held without bail, and his attorney denies he had any involvement in the California case.

Rockefeller pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Boston Municipal Court Tuesday after being brought back from Baltimore.

Investigators have found Rockefeller used several aliases in the past, most recently using the name Chip Smith to buy a new home in Baltimore, where he was arrested Saturday.

Rockefeller's attorney, Stephen Hrones denied the report, which first appeared in the Boston Globe.

"Garbage, completely untrue," he told reporters.

According to the Globe, FBI agents and Baltimore police interviewed him for hours after his arrest, but came up with little about his past.

When asked where he was born or who his parents are, he's repeatedly told investigators he "doesn't remember," the Globe reported.

When asked about the multiple aliases, Hrones would only say his client's name is Clark Rockefeller.

Rockefeller and Sandra Boss married on Nantucket in 1995 and filed for divorce in January 2007, with the final decree coming in December. She was so concerned about her former husband's name changes that she asked a judge to restrict his access to their daughter. According to published reports, he refused to provide his true identity during the divorce proceedings and ended up losing any chance at custody of Reigh.

Rockefeller is charged with felony parental kidnapping, assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The real estate firm that sold Rockefeller his new home recognized him from news reports and tipped authorities to his whereabouts. But agents at the firm knew the man as Charles "Chip" Smith.

Rockefeller approached Baltimore's Obsidian Realty in late 2007. He asked real estate agents to help him find a two- or three-bedroom home for him and his daughter while he relocated from Chile, said Julie Gochar, a managing partner in the firm.

The firm helped him find temporary housing and gave him access to its offices to use the Internet until agents arranged the purchase of his home in mid-July.

Then, "We saw a bulletin on morning news with several photos of a Mr. Clark Rockefeller -- the man we knew as 'Chip,"' Gochar said.

In addition to using the Smith name, Rockefeller called himself Chip MacLaughlin early this summer when he bought the catamaran from a North Baltimore man, The (Baltimore) Sun reported Monday.

Rockefeller told the boat's former owner Bruce Boswell that he owned Obsidian Realty, and Boswell saw him punch in the entry code to the company's offices, The Sun reported.

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