Could he be Christopher Crowe, a Connecticut man who tried to sell a truck that belonged to Jonathan Sohus after the couple's disappearance? That deal fell through. The truck's would-be buyer, suspicious when Crowe couldn't produce any paperwork, called the police.
It appears that the fingerprints on a stockbroker's license application Crowe filed in that state two decades ago are a probable match to Rockefeller's, according to a law enforcement source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
Maybe Rockefeller is all of them. Or none of them. Police say he is 48 years old.
Rockefeller's attorney, Stephen Hrones, said that his client could not remember anything before 1993 but that he strongly denied any involvement in the San Marino case.
Photos spanning 20 years show physical similarities among the men. And people who knew Reiter, Chichester or Rockefeller describe a man who exuded refinement, education, and a vague foreign lineage.
A Connecticut man, Edward Savio, said he told federal authorities he believes Clark Rockefeller's story begins in Connecticut in 1979 when a German exchange student named Christian Gerharts Reiter placed an advertisement in a Connecticut newspaper looking for a place to stay.
Savio's parents opened their home in Berlin, Conn., to Reiter, who began attending Berlin High School with their sons.
Savio, now 45 and a writer, recalled that Reiter said he was the son of an industrialist in Bavaria.
Reiter helped pay for food but held himself apart from their middle-class household, dismissing their Italian roots and taste.
"He would just look around our house and say, 'I would never live like this,' " Savio said. "And yet he was."
Savio said Reiter dressed like a preppy, blow-dried his blond hair back, took to calling himself Chris and confided that he dreamed of making his way to California to be in the movie business.
But Savio's parents grew to distrust Reiter. After about six months, they pressured him to move out.
Within a year, Reiter had left town, Savio said. But he stayed in touch with Savio's mother, phoning her to say he was living in Wisconsin.
Reiter told her he had changed his name to Christopher Crowe and obtained a driver's license, Savio said.
Savio, now living in northern California, said in an interview that he is convinced from looking at news photos that Rockefeller is Reiter.
