7-Year-Old Taken By Wealthy Dad is Found Safe in Baltimore
Initially, authorities feared that Clark Rockefeller might be sailing international seas with his 7-year-old daughter in a 72-foot catamaran he reportedly told friends he bought with $300,000 worth of gold bars.
But on Saturday they found father and daughter in Baltimore, where Rockefeller (apparently no relation to the famous family of that name, although he has implied that he is) had purchased a coach house, according to the Boston Globe. (A subsequent Globe article gives additional details.)
Police lured him away from the apartment by claiming that the much smaller catamaran he had in fact purchased earlier under another name—which was moored in a marina in the vicinity—was taking on water. He left his daughter alone in the apartment while he went to check on it, the newspaper says.
A tip by a real estate agent led to his arrest, in the city where he had apparently hoped to set up an upscale society lifestyle equivalent to the one he had left behind, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Rockefeller, who arranged with friends to drive him from Boston to New York after he abducted his daughter during a visitation supervised by a social worker last week, is facing charges of kidnapping, assault and battery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, the Globe says. He waived extradition during a court hearing this morning, and is expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court as early as tomorrow, the newspaper reports in its most recent article.
As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, Rockefeller and his former wife, Sandra Boss, are divorced. She obtained custody of their daughter last year, as well as supervised visitation, apparently based at least in part on concerns that he had concealed details about his true identity.
As part of the current case, authorities say they intend to find out who he really is.
