Search of home where Rockefeller stayed called 'productive'

Authorities mum on possible links to Calif. couple

A closely watched two-day search of the San Marino, Calif., home where the man known as Clark Rockefeller once rented a guesthouse ended Saturday with police offering no indication of whether they found new information linking him to the disappearance of a couple who lived there.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department called the search productive, but would not say what investigators found. Authorities are trying to determine whether Rockefeller, who authorities say is really Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, was involved in the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus in 1985. In 1994, workers digging a pool discovered bones believed to be those of John Sohus, but no trace of Linda Sohus has been found.

Rockefeller is in a Boston jail facing charges of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter in July. California authorities have named him a "person of interest" in the disappearance of the Sohuses.

Beginning 6 a.m. Friday, as many as 40 investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, the county coroner's office, crime lab criminologists, and others scoured the property, using ground-penetrating radar and cadaver-sniffing dogs, said Steve Whitmore, Sheriff's Department spokesman. The search concluded at 11:35 a.m. Saturday.

The radar equipment picked up what Whitmore described as two anomalies or soil disturbances, which prompted investigators to dig two 4-foot deep holes in the ground. Whitmore said materials recovered during the search will be tested and analyzed by county investigators.

He said detectives do not expect to have to return to the house, and Whitmore did not think detectives will release information on what was found any time soon.

"This 24-year-old investigation obviously and understandably has gotten a tremendous amount of publicity with a person of interest in this case, and the detectives want to be circumspect about everything that goes forward, trying to put this all together," Whitmore said in a phone interview yesterday.

Kathy Jacobs, the sister of Linda Sohus, said family members had hoped to hear more from investigators about what was uncovered in the search.

"We all think that she's dead. Are we going to find remains? Maybe, maybe not," Jacobs said in a telephone interview from her California home yesterday. "We'd just kind of like to see if they find remains, and then for somebody to take responsibility for what happened."

Rockefeller's lawyer, Stephen Hrones, suggested investigators' silence is an indication they did not find anything linking his client to the disappearance.

"It certainly sounds like they didn't come up with the 'smoking gun,' so to speak," Hrones said yesterday. "We think they would have indicated that if that had been the case, because they're anxious to keep this investigation alive."

The current homeowners showed "extreme patience" throughout the search, as investigators dug up their yard with news crews camped out on the street and news helicopters hovering above, Whitmore said. Some television crews were asked to stop broadcasting live or change frequencies periodically when their broadcasts interfered with signals from investigators' radar equipment, he said.

Hrones said he would only be interested in seeing what investigators found if authorities say they have evidence that built a stronger case against his client.

"He didn't do it, and he has no record or evidence of violence," Hrones said.

"Hopefully they will find this missing woman, and hopefully they will find the killer, if in fact the body in there is the body of the missing man."

Rockefeller, who is being held without bail on the kidnapping charges, is scheduled to appear in Boston Municipal Court on Wednesday for a status hearing.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.