Blood stain could offer best evidence in San Marino couple's 1985 disappearance
The stain was found in 1994 in the guesthouse believed to have been used by Clark Rockefeller, now a suspect in a Boston kidnapping case. Sheriff's Department officials plan to retest the blood.
The investigation into the suspected homicides of a San Marino couple is now focusing on a large blood stain that detectives discovered in their guesthouse in 1994, when human remains were dug up in the backyard.
Authorities have described Clark Rockefeller, who lived in the guesthouse at the time that Jonathan and Linda Sohus disappeared in 1985, as a "person of interest" in the case. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department said it believes Rockefeller is also the man who was known as Christopher Chichester in San Marino at the time of the disappearance.
The blood stain is another tantalizing clue into what authorities believe was a murder that was committed on the Lorain Road property more than two decades ago.
But authorities acknowledged that linking this and other forensic evidence to the killer -- let alone to Rockefeller -- will be difficult.
The blood stain was tested years ago - with inconclusive results. But it will now be reexamined using better technology, said L.A. County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore.
The human remains have been tested, but forensic experts have failed to identify them. Detectives have said they believe the remains are those of Jonathan Sohus. They are hampered by the fact that Sohus was adopted, and so far, investigators have not been able to match the DNA to a relative.
Authorities said Wednesday they will complete a new round of DNA tests on the remains.
Police have been frustrated in their efforts to identify the body. They found Sohus' dentist, but he's now retired and could not find the man's dental records. Coroner's officials saw marks on the skull but believe at least some of those were caused by workers digging a pool who originally found the remains.
Investigators were able to identify Rockefeller, who was born Christian Gerhartsreiter, through numerous interviews with people who contacted the authorities, Whitmore said. Police on both the East and West coasts had been investigating Rockefeller, who is accused of absconding from Boston with his young daughter and was captured Aug. 2 by the FBI in Baltimore.
Whitmore said detectives are seeking to interview anyone who knew the man known as Chichester between 1985 and 1988. Around the time he left San Marino in 1985, the Sohuses vanished, authorities said.
Ellen Sohus, Jonathan's stepsister, said in an interview with The Times that she has long believed that her brother was murdered on the property sometime in 1985.
"I believe he was murdered in the guest house, then buried in the back yard," she said. "I wish I knew. It makes no sense to me."
Times staff writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske contributed to this report.
richard.winton@latimes.com
