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BOSTON (WBZ) ― Federal immigration officials have joined the investigation into the mysterious man known as Clark Rockefeller amid reports he was the same person who lived as a German exchange student in Connecticut years ago.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston confirmed on Thursday that agents are helping law enforcement trying to figure out exactly who Rockefeller is.

Steve Savio, 39, of Berlin, Connecticut told the Associated Press Thursday he is "100 percent certain" that Rockefeller is the same person who boarded with his family in 1980 under the name Christian Gerhart Reiter at age 17.

"The first pictures I saw of him when he didn't have any glasses on, didn't look anything like him," Savio said. "But the pictures after he was apprehended, with the glasses, those look just like him."

Savio said Greenwich police interviewed his family in 1988 about a possible connection between Reiter and the disappearance of Jonathan and Linda Sohus, of San Marino, Calif. The FBI and German authorities interviewed them this week about Reiter and Rockefeller, he said.

Authorities have said they have no record of Rockefeller before 1993, and he claims he has no memory of his life before then. He has refused to talk to investigators or reporters.

Savio said his family met Reiter after answering an advertisement in a local newspaper from a visiting German teen looking for a place to live.

"Apparently he met someone on a train in Germany from Meriden and they exchanged addresses, and he just showed up on their doorstep six months later looking for a place to live," Savio said.

Savio said when Reiter first moved in, he was sweet. After several months, however, "his true colors started showing," Savio said.

"I recall him thinking he's better than the rest of us," Savio said. "I recall him telling stories about having servants growing up and like that."

Savio said he last saw Reiter in 1981, but said the man kept in contact with his mother, Gwen Savio, telling her he was using the name Christopher Crowe to open a production company.

Savio said the FBI interviewed his mother in 1988 after a man identifying himself as Christopher Crowe tried to sell a pickup truck in Connecticut belonging to Jonathan and Linda Sohus. He apparently fled before authorities could track him down.

Los Angeles detectives say a man named Christopher Chichester lived on the Sohus' property, and he also disappeared. Police now say Rockefeller's fingerprints matched those on an old license application submitted by Chichester. They also believe Chichester was one of the aliases used by Christian Gerhart Streiter.

Records show a Social Security number associated with the name Christian Gerhart Streiter -- not Reiter -- was issued in Connecticut about the same time Savio said Reiter lived with them.

Gwen Savio said he had money to go to the prom and to pay for driving lessons, though she said she didn't know where the money was coming from.

 Watch: Interview with Gwen Savio

"The picture of Clark, you know, Rockefeller, I could see that there was some similarity but I would not bet on it. But that other picture when he was 26 or something, I said 'that is Chris,'" Savio said.

"I was shocked, shocked," she said. "I couldn't believe it. Say what you will but I can't fathom that kind of a person, you know, doing something like that. But who knows. That was a long time ago. And like I said, there was not anything that he was afraid to do."

Savio said his mother eventually asked Reiter to leave after the German teen locked Savio's sister out of the home for several hours one winter day.

He said Reiter then moved in with a Berlin High teacher, whom Savio declined to name, then later moved out of state and ended up in California.

Rockefeller is in police custody at the Nashua Street Jail in Boston, charged with kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a custodial visit in the Back Bay July 27.

Detectives from the Los Angeles Country Sheriff's Department left Boston Thursday after spending two days investigating leads. Rockefeller refused to speak with them.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)