Rockefeller was seeking new life with daughter, according to police

BALTIMORE -- When Clark Rockefeller absconded to Baltimore with his 7-year-old daughter, he was apparently looking for a new beginning in this city, a top Boston police official said today.

"It seems like he was setting up a life down there," said Deputy Superintendent Thomas Lee, head of the criminal-investigation division for the Boston police. "I have no doubt that he would have been right back in high-society circles."

Lee added two more aliases -- Charles "Chip" Smith and Clark Rock -- to four already known for the mysterious 48-year-old, whose identity remains something of a mystery a day after his capture.

"His identity is still a big focus of our investigation," Lee said in a phone interview. "We will find out who he really was."

Reigh Storrow Mills Boss, 7, whom Rockefeller is accused of kidnapping last weekend, was reunited with her mother, Sandra Boss, in Baltimore last night. The reunion was witnessed by a sergeant detective from Boston, who was returning to the Hub today. Lee declined to provide the current location of Boss and the little girl, out of respect for the family, or give other details, beyond saying, "it went very well."

A police official has taken Rockefeller's fingerprints and is running it through databases to find out if he is connected to any crimes, said a second law enforcement official.

Boston Police spokesman Edie Crispin said the arraignment of Rockefeller will take place tomorrow at the Eastside District Court Building, a courthouse in Baltimore, before authorities seek his rendition back to Boston to face charges brought by the Suffolk District Attorney's office.

Lee said police were investigating reports that Rockefeller had also started a life in Delaware, though a tip that he had recently been spotted in Smyrna, Del., remained unverified.

Authorities captured Rockefeller yesterday using a ploy involving his 26-foot sailboat -- which turned out to be a poorly maintained day-sailer docked near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, not the supposed 72-foot yacht Rockefeller had led some to believe he kept on Long Island. Last week Boston police said they had initially believed that Rockefeller planned to flee on a 72-foot yacht with his daughter to Bermuda or Peru, but found no evidence to support this.

FBI agents lured Rockefeller out of a Baltimore apartment by making him believe his sailboat was taking on water, they said. He left the girl alone while he went to check on the boat, leading to his capture and her recovery.

Authorities had received a tip from a real estate agent about his location, according to a law enforcement official.

Rockefeller had kept his Stiletto Catamaran at Baltimore's Anchorage Marina for at least nine years, though he never seemed to sail it, said Jim Ruscoe Jr., the marina's manager, in an interview today. A few times a year, Rockefeller would come by the marina merely to check on the shabby-looking boat, he said.

"It's in such bad shape, he would come out to see if it was still floating," Ruscoe said.

After being approached by the FBI, Ruscoe said, the marina manager came up with the idea to draw Rockefeller with a call about his boat taking on water; he had needed to make a similar call last year when that happened.

Ruscoe said he called Rockefeller -- whom he knew as Chip, the registered owner of the boat -- yesterday at about 1:30 p.m., with at least one FBI agent listening in.

Rockefeller initially told Ruscoe he had checked on the boat a week earlier, and that it had been fine, Ruscoe said. But the marina manager told him that recent storms had caused it to take on water, and that he should come quickly to the marina, where Ruscoe claimed workers were trying to pump the boat dry.

"Oh, that's not a good thing," Rockefeller responded, according to Ruscoe.

Rockefeller had docked the boat, named Puma, at a 35-foot slip that he rented from the slip's owner. Those spots usually rent for about $3,000 a year, Ruscoe said.

The marina, which bills itself as Baltimore's premier yachting center, is about 3 miles from the carriage house at 618 Ploy St. where authorities converged on Rockefeller yesterday.

Today, his sailboat -- its pink and blue racing stripes cracked and faded -- remained docked at the marina, where it bobbed amid a host of sleeker-looking and better-maintained craft.

"That damn thing's been here for years," one passerby said, eyeing Rockefeller's boat.

"It's chainsaw food," said Ruscoe, who estimated the boat was worth roughly $5,000.