Eerie dissappearance......

[Huskerz85]

Another case I don't remember much of.......if I had any of the details, I'd do a search on here for it....

There's this couple from the east coast I think........they rent out a guest house on their property to a guy by the name of Christopher Cheichester or something to that effect......soon after, the man/wife disappear......and then one of their relatives gets a postcard from europe, evidently from them.......

*this is the part where my memory really gets fuzzy*

after sometime, someone for whatever reason, is digging in the backyard of the couple's property and some bones are found.......then this christopher cheichester disappears....

Anyone know the case/details I'm talkin about?

[SP4CE INV4DERZ]

The victims names were John and Linda Sohus, not sure of that spelling there. From memory it was 1985 when those bones and skull was found putting in a pool I think. I'm sure "Christopher Chychester" was an alias but I cant recall his real name but I do recall his goofy lookin pic.

[Huskerz85]

Yeah.....he was a slender looking guy.....receeding hairline/slightly bald (brownish hair?) w/glasses....kinda creepy looking from what I remember

[DarkDante]

It has been alleged by the police that Christopher Chichester and Linda Sohus might have been having an affair and murdered John when he confronted them about it.

What supports this scenerio (to some degree) is that Linda's family recieved several postcards from Linda after she vanished containing vague, cryptic messages relating to her travelling to foreign countries. Linda's family feels this behavior and the postcards are totally out of character and don't believe Linda is the author of the postcards. Which in turn begs the obvious question, if Linda didn't mail those postcards who did?

UM also tried to implicate John's mother in the couple's disappearance making mention of how she would sometimes taunt the police with cryptic wordplay about her son's disappearance (prior to his body being found) She alleged among other things that John and Linda were involved in some cloak and dagger operation at the behest of the US government. However in watching the segment most viewers with quickly deduce that John's mother is little more then a rambling drunk who knew nothing of her son's whereabouts.

Its hard to determine what exactly happened in this case. Since Linda's body has never been found its easy to buy into the theory that Linda and Chris Chichester murdered John Sohus and then ran off together to some foreign country. However there have been no sightings of Linda Sohus since her disappearance and Chichester when he was spotted in Canada shortly after the disappearance of the couple was not in the company of Linda.

Finally it should be noted that John Sohus was likely murdered in the guesthouse. Police used special chemicals and found large amounts of blood residue all over the guest house.

One one hand this evidence seems to certainly at least implicate ChiChester in the crime (due to the fact he was living in the guest house at the time and that John Sohus' body was found buried only a few feet from the guest house years later) however police were unable to determine that the large amounts of blood found in the guest house was in fact that of John Sohus.

Strange case.

[Huskerz85]

After what you said.........I'm thinking what you said is probably right.

John Sohus found out his wife and Cheichester were having an affair. Cheichester then kills John with or without Linda's help and the two flee to Europe....where Linda starts mailing the postcards. Cheichester finds out Linda's sending these crazy cryptic messages and for some reason (prolly just to shut her up and cover his own tail) he gets rid of her....either in Europe someplace or over in Canada.

Either that......or Linda just stops sending the postcards and decides to live off of John's life insurance proceeds. Cheichester gets bored w/her after a while and heads over to Canada.

[rerungirl]

I'm trying to remember all the details of this case too. Didn't Linda leave her cats at a vet's office and then, weeks later, a mysterious woman came in and picked them up? Did authorities have a theory about why Christopher would have wanted to kill both John and Linda? Also, at some point in the timeline, didn't Christopher try to sell a car?

[Huskerz85]

I think he was wanting to sell John's pickup truck if I remember right......

[wiseguy182]

Various thoughts:

Huskerz85: The Sohuses actually lived in California at the time of their disappearance, however, when Chichester tried to sell John's vehicle, he was in the East Coast, so this case does have some connection to the East Coast.

rerungirl: Yes, there was an unknown woman that picked up the Sohuses cats some time after they disappeared.

I agree with Dante in that it's difficult to determine what happened here. I also agree with Dante in that John's mother was an unreliable source. Kind of reminds me of Dr. Ted Losef's wife in several aspects. John's mother seemed not at all concerned with her son and daughter-in-law's disapperances and possible murders. I don't think she had anything to do with their disappearances, but I don't know why she didn't help the police more instead of making matters more confusing. It is possible she wasn't in on it, but knows what happened.

I would think that if Linda were murdered, she would have been found in the same place John was. I would imagine it would be quite difficult for somebody to get rid of a body, but two bodies would be even more difficult. Plus, why would the killer(s) (likely Chichester) not dump Linda in the backyard as it was ten years before they even found John?

Definitely a mystery.

[Huskerz85]

wiseguy182: was it ever proven that the woman who picked up John & Linda's cats wasn't Linda herself?

A thought that came to my mind was perhaps Linda was laying low and/or trying to create a new identity, perhaps on the East Coast not far from where Cheichester was trying to offload John's pickup? She could've possibly been the woman who got the cats.....

I'm also puzzled about John's mother's behavior as well......am not inclined to believe she had anything to do with it.....she could simply be a little cold hearted......

[regalbeagle]

chichesters name was really chrsitopher stryder

[wiseguy182]

Originally Posted by Huskerz85

wiseguy182: was it ever proven that the woman who picked up John & Linda's cats wasn't Linda herself?

Well, no, they didn't actually have any proof that it wasn't Linda. However, the UM segment kind of hints that it wasn't Linda, referring to her as an "unknown woman"

[Huskerz85]

Originally Posted by regalbeagle

chichesters name was really chrsitopher stryder

is there anything else known about him?

[regalbeagle]

Yes he was from germany and on vacation to the states... Most likely he fled back to his homeland and will never be caught.. wish i had more information but you cant find anything on stryder anymore.

[kadrmas15]

Does Christopher Chichester remind anyone else of the Talented Mr. Ripley? It was a book and Matt Damon also portrayed the character in the movie by the same name? I dont know they just seem very similar.

I find the theory that Linda and Chichester were having an affair and that Chichester killed John and that him and Linda ran off together interesting. It is certainly possible.

However the fact that Chichester tried selling John's truck by himself raises some questions. Was Linda at an undisclosed location, not wanting to appear in public? Had him and Linda split up? Or had he murdered Linda too?

I think it is possible that Chichester perhaps was having an affair with her and then he killed her when it went sour because she surely would have ratted on him or at least probably would have if they split up. I do think it is possible Chichester had her write the post cards before he killed her to make it seem that she was in Europe.

However I think the most likely scenario is that Chichester and Linda were having an affair and Chichester decided he wanted Linda all to himself so he murdered John and buried his remains in the back yard. He lured John to the guest house most likely, obviously he was murdered there assuming it was his blood in there. I think him and Linda probably were having an affair just because I cant think of why else Chichester would murder John, I have a hard time believing he would murder him just for his truck but it is possible.

[Celia]

He had NO accent at all. He said he was actually British, but born and raised here (thus, straight American accent). His "father" was a baronet and much older than his mother. They lived in Connecticut.

A few years later I actually thought to look him up in the Baronetcy and of course found nothing. There's an earldom of Chichester...

When I knew him I was 14 but the same height. I teased him about that and his hair, which was a kind of strange blondish color. Dyed? Probably. He wore tinted glasses. Drove an awful little Datsun kind of car that he claimed was so geeky it was cool. Always ran around the car to open my door.

He called on my 18th birthday to say "now I can ask you out."