Briton Linked to Missing Families Indicted After Return to U.S.

An Englishman whom police suspect in the 1982 disappearances of six San Fernando Valley residents was indicted Friday for returning to the United States after he had been deported.

The federal grand jury indictment accuses Harvey Rader, 45, of illegally returning to the United States.

Rader was deported Dec. 9 after an immigration judge ruled that he had knowingly concealed his criminal record when he applied in 1980 for permanent residency in the United States.

Mum on Thefts

Rader had failed to disclose that he had been convicted of 17 crimes in the United Kingdom, mainly car thefts and burglaries, immigration officials said.

Los Angeles police arrested Rader on the federal immigration charge earlier this month at a home in Granada Hills.

In 1983, Rader was arrested with a cousin, Ashley Paulle, in connection with the presumed slayings of Peter and Joan Davis of Granada Hills and Sol Salomon, his wife, Elaine, her daughter, Michalle Hochman, 15, and the couple’s son, Mitchell, 9, all of Northridge. Los Angeles police believe the six were slain, but no bodies have been found.

Rader once owned a foreign car repair shop in Reseda patronized by the Davises and the Salomons. The Davises lived next door to Paulle, a former cab driver.

Painting Worth $100,000

Detectives have speculated that the Davises were murdered in connection with the theft of artwork from their home, including a painting valued at more than $100,000.

Police have not speculated publicly on a motive for the Salomon killings.

No charges were brought against Rader because a Los Angeles municipal judge ruled that Paulle’s statement to authorities, which apparently implicated Rader, was inadmissible.

Rader in 1980 helped a Sherman Oaks surgeon buy art objects stolen from an Arabian sheik in Beverly Hills and then helped stage the theft of those objects from the surgeon to elicit an insurance payment, according to federal court records. A federal jury ordered Rader, who was granted immunity from prosecution, to repay $25,000.