Search for Rockefeller's identity turns to Germany

By John R. Ellement, Maria Cramer, Eric Moskowitz, and Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Federal immigration authorities confirmed today that they have joined the search for the true identity of accused kidnapper Clark Rockefeller, an investigation that has stretched from coast to coast and now overseas to Germany.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told the Globe that authorities are trying to determine whether Rockefeller is a German national who overstayed his visa. Christian Gerhart Streiter is another of the many aliases authorities suspect may have been used by Rockefeller.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has joined the growing probe, spokeswoman Paula Grenier said today in a telephone interview. She would not discuss specifics of the case because federal privacy law bars the agency from disclosing an individual’s immigration status.

“We are assisting law enforcement in the investigation,’’ Grenier said. “We do not have a detainer on him.’’

Rockefeller's possible link to Germany has begun to make headlines in that country. BILD, a tabloid with over nine million readers, covered the story with photos in its Munich edition.

The story said the "trail leads to Bavaria" and noted that the case of the "false Rockefeller" was "one of the most spectacular criminal cases of the summer in the United States."

A member of a family from Berlin, Conn. said today that the FBI recently inquired about a German exchange student named Christian Gerhart Streiter who lived with them in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

“We had a lot of exchange students, and we never had any issues with them except for Christian,’’ Michael Savio said today in a telephone interview. “He was a little strange, a little off in comparison to the other ones.’’

Streiter was 17 or 18 years old when he arrived at the Savio home in Berlin. Michael Savio said today that his siblings have been interviewed by the FBI about whether the exchange student may have changed his identity and taken the name Christopher Chichester or Clark Rockefeller.

“He could charm people extremely well,’’ Michael Savio recalled of the exchange student. “Even when we were annoyed with him about something he did a very good job of charming his way out of it.’’

The family’s relationship with the exchange student eventually soured, especially after Streiter locked Michael Savio’s younger sister out of the family home, he said.

Gwen Savio, Michael Savio's mother, who also said she had been called by the FBI, said Streiter "could be very nice, he could be very appealing, and he could be a pain in the neck. He was a chameleon. He could change."

He was "100 percent self-centered," she said, "but he knew how to handle people because he could sort of talk you out of whatever or talk you into whatever."

She said Streiter arrived in the third week of August 1980 and she enrolled him in school shortly afterwards. Streiter told her that he had left school in Germany to avoid the draft.

Savio said she "just thought that he was a spoiled brat. He wanted what he wanted, when he wanted it."

Rockefeller is being held without bail at the Nashua Street Jail on charges of parental kidnapping in the alleged abduction of his 7-year-old daughter. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide investigators have called Rockefeller a "person of interest" in the 1985 disappearance and possible murder of Linda and John Sohus, a young couple from San Marino, Calif. Authorities want to ask Rockefeller whether he was living in the couple's guest house under the alias Christopher Chichester.

Rockefeller refused to speak to two Los Angeles County homicide detectives Wednesday who flew to Boston to talk to him about the case. When the couple went missing, police wanted to question Chichester, who was living in a converted garage on the Sohuses' property, but Chichester disappeared before investigators could locate him. In 1994, workers digging a pool in the backyard of the home discovered human remains in three plastic bags, which were presumed to be those of John Sohus, but never definitively determined. Neither Linda Sohus nor her remains have been located.

Chichester surfaced in 1988, when he tried to sell a truck belonging to John Sohus in Greenwich, Conn., police told "Unsolved Mysteries." The seller used the name Christopher Crowe, the same name used on the stockbroker application, to sell the truck to the son of a local minister, who reported the episode to police after the man could not produce the truck's paperwork. Greenwich police did not return a call on Wednesday.

As the mystery surrounding Rockefeller's identity grows, more details have emerged about his time in New England. Multiple people told the Globe that he took an eight-week, 16-hour improvisational comedy class with them at ImprovBoston in Cambridge last fall, about the time he was going through his divorce from Sandra Boss, the mother of his 7-year-old daughter.

Many of the class members said Rockefeller was unusual. During the introduction, he explained that he did not have a job because he was involved in "very unfortunate litigation," according to one woman from the class, who wished to remain anonymous out of concern for her safety.

Outside of class, Rockefeller seemed eager to have people over to his Boston home for drinks --touting a well-stocked liquor cabinet and open rooftop -- or to a yacht he claimed to have, though no one accepted his offer. He seemed proud of his daughter and emailed a photograph of her to the class.

But in class, Rockefeller struck some as perpetually frustrated, and he had to be warned once about inappropriate contact with women after trying to kiss a classmate during an improvised scene. Female classmates also complained to the instructor that Rockefeller tried to act out other physical contact in scenes that made them uncomfortable, the woman and another man from the class said.

Globe Correspondent Marion Schmidt contributed to this report.

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