Mother appeals for the return of her daughter

The mysterious Clark Rockefeller and his abducted daughter have been spotted in a Caribbean island having arrived by yacht on Thursday, the FBI has been told.

Mr Rockefeller, 48, has been on the run since snatching Reigh Boss, 7, during a contact visit in Boston, Massachusetts, last Sunday. The manhunt turned to the Turks and Caicos Islands yesterday after reports that the two had been seen twice in the island of Providenciales.

Hubert Hughes, deputy commissioner of the islands’ police, said that they had been seen at the hospital at 9.30am on Thursday and five hours later at a shop. In both sightings the girl’s hair was described as cut short like a boy’s, Mr Hughes said. “It is a believed sighting, but we are not positive,” he added.

The FBI has said that Reigh, who is known as Snooks, might be disguised as a boy and that her father is using a passport in the name Michael Brown.

Mr Rockefeller told friends that he had bought a 72ft catamaran and planned to sail to the Caribbean or South America. There have been previous unconfirmed sightings of the pair in New York and Delaware. Reigh’s mother, Sandra Boss, has made an emotional appeal for the return of her daughter as police and FBI agents started to unravel the bizarre past of her former husband.

In a video appeal Ms Boss, 41, a financier in London, said: “Clark, although many things have changed, you will always be Reigh’s father and I will always be Reigh’s mother. We both love her dearly and have only her best interests and wellbeing in our hearts. I ask you now, please please bring Snooks back.”

Boston Police released an updated description of father and child yesterday. Reigh is described as smart, outgoing, confident and affectionate. “She will converse with anyone, has a large vocabulary, uses big words and speaks with a British accent.” Her father’s accent is described as “Boston Brahmin, European and Scottish sounding” and he is said to frequent libraries.

Reigh has lived with Ms Boss since her parents divorced in December. They moved to London where Ms Boss is a senior partner with McKinsey & Co, a management consulting firm.

The New York Post reported unsubstantiated claims that Mr Rockefeller accepted a “significant” amount of money from his former wife to give up his daughter without a fight. A source said that he had received several million dollars. “He got a significant sum of money, a substantial amount . . . to live comfortably for the rest of his life,” the source said, adding that part of the deal was that he would then “get out of their lives”.

William Quigley, one of Mr Rockefeller’s friends, told the New York Daily News that he was distraught at losing his daughter and would have spent months planning the abduction.

“He was pushed to the edge,” Mr Quigley said. “He said, ‘I don’t know what to I’m going to do. I may have to kidnap her. I love her so much’.”

Detectives described Mr Rockefeller as a “ghost” and who appears to have laid a false trail of clues as he planned the abduction of his daughter. Police can find no trace of his existence before the early 1990s. His bank records show a recent withdrawal of a large amount of cash to buy gold coins, which would be impossible to trace and easy to convert into cash.

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