German's arrest reopens case

SAN MARINO, Calif. — Linda Sohus was a fantasy buff who liked to paint unicorns. Her husband, Jonathan, was a computer programmer working at a NASA lab who shared her passion for science fiction.

The newlyweds disappeared from the upscale Los Angeles suburb of San Marino in February 1985.

The investigation into the couple's disappearance was reignited this month with the arrest of a German who had lived in a guesthouse on the Sohuses' property.

Christian Gerhartsreiter, who was known as Christopher Chichester to the Sohuses and in recent years called himself Clark Rockefeller, is accused of kidnapping his daughter on a Boston street last month after losing custody of her in his divorce.

His arrest has investigators re-examining the Sohus case.

The mystery has haunted Lydia Marano since the day Linda Sohus, an employee, failed to open up her sci-fi and fantasy bookstore. "I feel sad that I don't know what happened to her," she said.

Gerhartsreiter has refused to speak with Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators.

Those who knew the couple said the only tension appeared to be over Jonathan's mother, Ruth, whom the couple lived with. She died three years later and thought the couple had abandoned her.

Marano, other friends and relatives received postcards supposedly written by Linda and mailed from France, but the signatures were not authenticated.

Jonathan Sohus, 26, was a computer programmer with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. His wife was a member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. Charles Lee Jackson II, 58, a club member, recalled Sohus as a woman who painted horses and unicorns.

Tricia Gough, a detective with the San Marino Police Department in 1985, said neighbors had complained of a foul smell coming from the guest-house chimney around the time of the disappearance and a bloodstain was found on the floor.

In 1994, the new owners of the Sohus property were having a pool built when contractors found bones belonging to a small white man.

"There was a lot to point to it being," Jonathan, Gough said. Authorities have been unable to prove the remains are those of Jonathan because he was adopted and they had no known biological relatives for DNA comparisons. More tests are being conducted.