Boston Area News

BOSTON (WBZ) ― The mystery man known as Clark Rockefeller is reportedly Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a native of Bergen, Germany.

A man claiming to be his brother confirmed the connection to the Boston Globe and Boston Herald Friday in interviews at the family's home in Germany.

When a reporter handed Alexander Gerhartsreiter recent articles and photos of Clark Rockefeller he told the Herald, "It seems you found my brother."

Gerhartsreiter told the papers his brother left home at the age of 17 in 1978 to be an exchange student in Connecticut. He never came back.

Rockefeller's attorney, Stephen Hrones, said his client speaks German but does not remember anything about his life prior to 1993.

Gerhartsreiter said he was not aware of the international attention paid to his brother, who hasn't contacted his family in more than 20 years.

"It's quite shocking. It's very shocking," Gerhartsreiter told the Globe. "I don't know what to say."

Their mother still lives in the home. She did not speak to reporters. Gerhartsreiter said she was not aware of the news about her long-lost son. He told the papers their father died five years ago.
 
"I think Germany was too small for him," Gerhartsreiter told the Globe. "He wanted to live in the big country and maybe get famous. Now that I see all this, he's really famous."
 
Investigators have been working to unravel the true identity and background of the man calling himself Clark Rockefeller since he allegedly snatched his 7-year-old daughter, Reigh, from a Boston street during a supervised visit July 27.

He was caught in Baltimore, where he had bought a home and boat.

Prosecutors said 300 one-ounce gold coins and $12,000 in cash also were found in Rockefeller's apartment following his arrest.

Reigh, known to family and friends as "Snooks," was found in good condition in Baltimore and has been reunited with her mother, Sandra Boss.

Authorities have said they have no record of Rockefeller before 1993, and he claims he has no memory of his life before then. He had refused to talk to investigators or reporters.  However, Hrones said Friday that his client now wants to talk to reporters.  There's no word on when that may happen.

Fingerprints do appear to be linking Rockefeller in several places.

Los Angeles detectives say a man named Christopher Chichester lived on the property of Jonathan and Linda Sohus, of San Marino, Calif., who have been missing since 1985.

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.

The Boston Globe, citing an unnamed source, said the fingerprint also matched one submitted on a stockbroker license application filed by Christopher Crowe, believed to be another alias of Chichester, who has not been seen since the Sohuses disappeared.

The Federal Criminal Police Office in Germany said it had no information on the man.

FBI spokesman Damon Katz in Boston said there is "a pending investigation to determine who this guy is," but refused to give any details. Paula Grenier, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston, also said agents are helping law enforcement trying to determine his identity.

Steve Savio, 39, of Berlin, Conn., said 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. His mother and brother agree.

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

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's mother, Gwen, described Reiter to reporters on Thursday as an elitist who complained about her Italian cooking.

"He just thought he was better than anybody else and he could do anything, and there was no way to stop him," she said.

Authorities say Rockefeller is a schemer who wanted people to believe he was an heir to the oil tycoon, though the Rockefeller family says he is not.

Savio said he last saw Reiter in 1981, but said the man kept in contact with his mother, 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 the Sohuses. He apparently fled before authorities could track him down.

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