Rockefeller impostor's ex-girlfriend testifies (AP) - Testimony by a former girlfriend of a Rockefeller impostor charged with murdering his California landlord 27 years ago suggests he lived the life of a hunted man. Mihoko Manabe testified Tuesday at a hearing to determine if defendant Christian Gerhartsreiter must stand trial for the death of 27-year-old John Sohus, who vanished with his wife from the Los Angeles suburb of San Marino in 1985. Manabe says that after she got a call in 1988 from a Connecticut detective looking for her boyfriend, who she knew as Christopher Crowe, he became panicked, had her dye his hair blond, grew a beard, exchanged his glasses for contact lenses, and made plans to leave the country. Gerhartsreiter has a kidnapping conviction in Massachusetts, where he posed as a Rockefeller heir. A prosecutor making his case with bones, blood and the testimony of those who came back from the past of a mysterious murder defendant is preparing to rest his case against the man who once masqueraded as a Rockefeller. Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said he plans to wrap up evidence Tuesday in the preliminary hearing for Christian Gerhartsreiter, who is charged with murdering a San Marino man from whom he had rented a cottage in 1985. Seven more witnesses were waiting to testify before Superior Court Judge Jared Moses is asked to decide whether there is enough evidence to hold Gerhartsreiter for trial. The defense customarily does not put on evidence at a preliminary hearing. The slight, bespectacled defendant, clad in a blue prison jumpsuit, smiled slightly at witnesses Robert and Bettie Brown, an elderly couple who once welcomed him into their home for religious study classes and became his close friends. Other residents of their upscale community also testified about the stranger who came to their church and ingratiated himself, telling tall tales about his past. The man then known as Chris Chichester left town soon after they went missing. Robert Brown, 85, testified Monday about a day in 1985 when his friend Chichester showed up at their door with belongings he wanted to sell because he was going on a trip. He fairly quickly rolled it back up and left with it," Brown said. Chichester told the Browns that he was descended from English peerage and was related to a famed British sailor of the same last name. About a week after the rug incident, Brown said Chichester disappeared and so did the Sohus couple. Another witness filled in the blanks of Gerhartsreiter's travels after he left San Marino, ultimately being arrested in Boston in 2008. His aliases began to multiply. "Did you believe it?" asked Balian. Bishop said he later found out there was a lien on the truck and he dumped it at a train station. The truck belonged to the Sohus couple. When detectives showed up looking for Crowe in a missing persons case, Bishop said he confronted Crowe on the phone asking who he really was. He said he never heard from him again. On the East Coast, Gerhartsreiter claimed to be Clark Rockefeller, a member of the famous family, and married a woman with whom he had a daughter. In spite of the discovery of bones in 1994, it wasn't until 2011 that authorities reopened the case and filed charges against Gerhartsreiter 26 years after the couple disappeared. Susan Coffman said she and Sohus were best friends and Sohus told her in February 1985 she and her husband were going to New York for job interviews and would be back in two weeks.