Deported Suspect in 6 Disappearances Arrested

An Englishman who was a suspect in the disappearance of six San Fernando Valley residents in 1982 and who was deported from the United States last year has been arrested in Granada Hills, Los Angeles police said Saturday.

Harvey Rader, 45, was arrested Thursday night on a federal warrant charging him with entering the United States illegally, Lt. Harvie Eubank said.

Police arrested Rader at a house on Orna Drive after the U.S. Department of Justice notified them that he was wanted for immigration law violations, Detective Richard Wittner said.

Rader appeared Friday before a federal magistrate in Los Angeles, Eubank said.

Deported Last Year

Rader, who emigrated to the United States in the late 1970s, was deported last year after immigration officials said he failed to tell them about a 1977 robbery conviction in Maidenstone, England.

He was a suspect in the 1982 disappearances of Peter and Joan Davis, of Granada Hills, and Shlomo Salomon, his wife Elaine and their two children, Michelle, 15, and Mitchell, 9, of Northridge, police said. No bodies were found.

In 1983, Rader was arrested with a boyhood friend, Ashley Paulle, 44, on suspicion of killing the six people.

Paulle’s statements to authorities, which apparently were the basis for Rader’s arrest, were ruled inadmissible by a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge, and both men were released.

Police said the theft of artwork appeared to be connected to the disappearance of the Davises, Paulle’s next-door neighbors. Police have not speculated publicly on a motive for the disappearance of the Salomon family.