A new lead in old case

In the spring of 1985, a young couple vanished from their home in San Marino.

Jonathan Sohus, 26, and his wife Linda, 28, had talked of an extended trip to Europe, and Jonathan's mother received a postcard the pair purportedly sent from France.

The Sohuses never returned to the mansion-filled city of 13,000, and their story slowly faded from the neighborhood's memory -- until 1994. By then, the new owners of the house on Lorain Road were building a swimming pool. Workers digging in the backyard unearthed human remains.

Homicides detectives swarmed the street, and there was speculation that the body, identified by investigators as an adult male's, was that of Jonathan Sohus. But authorities never conclusively identified the remains. Again, the case went cold.

Until Tuesday.

That's when two Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives arrived in Boston to interview a man who authorities hope can finally shed light on the disappearance.

Clark Rockefeller was arrested by FBI agents Saturday in connection with the alleged kidnapping of his daughter. Investigators in Boston matched Rockefeller's fingerprints with those on an out-of-state license application submitted under the name of a man whom California authorities have long wanted to question in the Sohuses' disappearance.

Rockefeller is not a suspect in the San Marino case. But Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore described him as a "person of interest in the John and Linda Sohus missing persons homicide case."

Whitmore said detectives are trying to determine whether Rockefeller is actually Christopher Chichester, once a well-known personality in San Marino who lived in the guest house of the Sohus home. Chichester disappeared from San Marino soon after the couple, and police had been unable to locate and question him.

Whitmore, who had seen photographs of Rockefeller and Chichester on Tuesday, said the two "certainly do" look alike. After Rockefeller was arrested and his image began appearing on the news, sheriff's cold case homicide Lt. Paul Becker said he began receiving inquiries from the public that lead him to believe the case was connected to the Sohus investigation.

Investigators who had met Chichester said he would be hard to forget.

"Chichester got in close to the San Marino community. He ingratiated himself with San Marino society; he joined all the right clubs," said former San Marino Police Chief Frank Wills, now chief of West Covina police.