Town struggles to understand Rockefeller case

In Germany, some recall a past life

A old photo of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter before he left for the United States appeared in a German newspaper yesterday. Police say Gerhartsreiter went by the name Clark Rockefeller. (photos by David L. Ryan/Globe staff)

BERGEN, Germany - Former classmates and acquaintances struggled yesterday to understand how the man they knew as Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter became the object of an intense police hunt in the kidnapping of his daughter, and now a presumed slaying more than two decades ago. His brother and mother had left the family home Friday night and were said to be staying with a relative outside Bergen.

"It's unbelievable," said Marianne Sander, 83, a neighbor of Gerhartsreiter's mother, during an interview at her house yesterday. "It's terrible and surprising because [his parents] are such good people."

Police say the man now known to be Gerhartsreiter, who went by the name Clark Rockefeller and was recently divorced, kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh Storrow Mills Boss, off a Boston street July 27. He was captured last weekend in Baltimore after an international manhunt and is now in Suffolk County Jail on Nashua Street. Detectives are investigating whether he had any connection to the 1985 disappearance and presumed slayings of a San Marino, Calif., couple.

His younger brother, Alexander, when contacted Friday at the family's Bergen home, confirmed that that man is his brother. He said his brother had left Bergen for the United States at age 17 in 1978 and had not contacted the family in more than 20 years.

Yesterday Sander described Irmgard Gerhartsreiter, Christian Karl's mother, as a talented seamstress who mended dresses and sewed clothes for virtually everyone in town.

"She's very hard-working," Sander said, patting the dirndl, a traditional German dress that Gerhartsreiter once took in for her because it was too big. "She's been working so hard her whole life."

Alex Neumayer, who went to grade school with Gerhartsreiter, said there was nothing in his former classmate's childhood that would suggest such a grim future.

Gerhartsreiter played soccer and rode bikes with the other children, had decent grades in school, and loved mischief.

"If it came to troublemaking, he was the first to join in," said Neumayer, a tall woodworker who lives just outside of Bergen and spoke as his family packed the truck for a road trip to Croatia.

As a teenager, Gerhartsreiter was a bit rebellious and was known to carouse with other youths at local bars, Neumayer said.

"He really didn't let his parents tell him what to do," he said. "He did what he wanted to do."

But his classmates at the time were surprised when they learned he suddenly left for America, Neumayer said, and some speculated that perhaps he was trying to get out of military service, which all German men must do once they turn 18. Men can also volunteer for civilian duty for the government.

Luise Huber, who runs a hardwood shop a few doors from the Gerhartsreiter home, said Gerhartsreiter's mother once told her that her son would be coming home. He had written her a letter telling her of his plans, but he never returned. Irmgard Gerhartsreiter, who is in her 80s, never let on that she was upset, Huber said.

"She wouldn't let people know that if she was disappointed," she said.

The parents initially supported their son financially in the United States but eventually stopped, said Huber.

"They said, 'we don't send him money anymore because he has money himself,' " Huber said.

Huber said she could not remember Gerhartsreiter very well, but described him as somewhat moody and occasionally aggressive.

Once when he was a boy, he came into her shop to visit her. A friend followed behind and as the friend tried to come inside the shop, Gerhartsreiter snapped at him in a rough tone that surprised Huber.

"Get out," the boy said to his friend, Huber recalled.

But no one could remember him as violent, or even particularly imaginative.

The family has always lived in Bergen, Huber said. His grandfather, an electrician who also fixed roofs, was born in the village. Gerhartsreiter's maternal grandparents ran a shop that sold electrical goods, Huber said. Gerhartsreiter's parents grew up together, Huber said.

Simon Gerhartsreiter, a graphic designer, known for his oil and acrylic paintings, was down-to-earth and social, frequenting the local bars and restaurants. But his wife was more reserved. She preferred to shop in Traunstein, a larger city 6.2 miles away, Huber said, and she seldom socialized in town. In the last year, she stopped sewing, and many said they rarely see her outside her home, Sander said.

But she regularly attends Mass at St. Egidius, even going on weekdays, Sander said.

The last two days, however, she has not come to church, Sander said.

TZ newspaper based in Munich reported that Irmgard Gerhartsreiter said after learning about her son's situation, "I am shocked. He should be dead to me."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.