A Boston man whom authorities describe as a "person of interest" in the 1985 disappearance of a San Marino couple barely knew Linda and Jonathan Sohus and left town months after they vanished, his attorney said Thursday.
In an interview with The Times, attorney Stephen Hrones acknowledged that Clark Rockefeller lived in the couple's back house and used the name Christopher Chichester but said his client had nothing to do with their disappearance.
The man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller, one of many aliases the FBI says he used over decades since coming here from Germany as a student, is being held in a Massachusetts jail on an unrelated charge of kidnapping his daughter.
The arrest reopened a 23-year-old mystery over what happened to the couple. Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives and numerous witnesses have said that Rockefeller and Chichester are the same person.
Authorities said they have wanted to interview Rockefeller about the disappearance since 1994, when workers installing a pool in the San Marino home's backyard dug up human remains wrapped in plastic bags. Forensic tests so far have not identified the remains, but detectives said they suspect they are those of Jonathan Sohus.
Hrones said the mere fact he was living on the property proves nothing. "I have heard people say, 'Why did you put him at the murder scene?' Well, they have already put him at the murder scene. I wasn't about to give up anything," he said. "Everyone says he is a peaceful guy. . . . He has no idea what happened to them."
Hrones said his client's use of aliases is no different than that of any actor changing his name.
The attorney also attempted to poke holes in some of the evidence the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has made public trying to link Rockefeller and the couple.
Officials have said that three years after the couple disappeared, Rockefeller tried to sell a truck registered to Jonathan Sohus in Connecticut.
But Hrones said his client purchased the car from Sohus' now-deceased mother and made payments on the vehicle.
Some have also speculated that Rockefeller sent postcards from Paris purportedly signed by Linda Sohus in the months after the couple vanished. But Hrones said his client could not have sent the cards because he did not travel outside of the country during that period.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said detectives met with coroner's officials Thursday to go over "all the evidence on hand."
