Family Wrestles With Man’s 14-Year Absence : Masquerade: Wife and children of Gary Elliott say nothing prepared them for fact of his second life in O.C.

Nothing in their lives had prepared Gary Elliott’s wife and children for his disappearance in 1979 or for his reappearance now, his family said at a press conference Monday--their first public appearance since the news.

“Everybody is hurt and shocked, and we need some time to absorb all that had happened,” Maxine Elliott said. When her husband vanished 14 years ago, “I felt foul play (was involved). I felt they probably had put him in the river.”

Authorities say Gary Elliott, 49, has been living in Orange County with a fiancee under a new identity. He was arrested by Orange Country sheriff’s detectives last week on suspicion of perjury after he allegedly used a false name in applying for identification documents such as a driver’s license.

Since 1981, Elliott has been registered in California as Clifford Wraymond Leighton, a name police said belonged to a Simi Valley toddler who died in 1953.

He is scheduled to be arraigned in South County Municipal Court today.

Even though he deserted them and their mother to live a new life with someone else, his children said Monday, they still love the man they remember from many years ago. And they want to get to know him again.

“I basically just have hazy memories of my dad,” said his 18-year-old daughter, Wendy, who was only 5 when her father disappeared. “I’m anxious to get to know him; I want to talk to him and ask him why.”

Maxine Elliott and her children held each other’s hands for support as they talked of the husband and father they once knew. The wife Gary Elliott abandoned said she holds no grudge and wishes him well. His children said they want to see him soon.

When she sees him again, said Elliott’s daughter, Debbie Cranfill, who flew in from Texas, “I think I will probably cry and I think I will give him a big hug. I have had some anger, but yes, I want to see him again.”

There is no immediate plan for a reunion, the family said.

Cranfill, 29, remembers a father who insisted that she take piano lessons and who sat by her bedside holding her hand when she had back surgery years ago. Her brothers Mark, 27, and John, 24, recall a dad who helped them with their homework.

Their mother can’t forget the man who was an attentive and caring husband before he disappeared from her life on Jan. 1, 1979.

“He was a good man; he treated the children good,” said Maxine Elliott, who never remarried.

After her husband’s disappearance, she went to work for Central Illinois Power Co., where her husband had been a welder, and raised her children, then ages 5 to 16, by herself in the rural town of Coffeen, population 850.

Maxine Elliott and her children smiled at each other as they recalled those early years Monday, even as cameras flashed and strangers fired questions. While the mother worked, the children stayed home and kept the house. Debbie, the oldest, baby-sat her brothers and sisters.

A religious woman, Maxine Elliott made sure her children went to church at least once a week. It was their spiritual faith, Maxine Elliott said, that helped them accept what they thought was her husband’s death.

It is now their religious belief that gives them strength to deal with the stark reality that their husband and father they loved deceived them. They have been in touch with their pastor daily since they were told the news last week.

Once she got over the shock, Maxine Elliott said, she forgave her husband.

“We believe God is going to pull us through this thing,” she said. “I really think down deep, (Gary Elliott) don’t know why . . . I don’t think he can explain why” he deserted them.

Seven years after his disappearance, Gary Elliott’s life insurance company declared him legally dead and paid his wife $84,000 insurance benefits. Maxine Elliott used the money to build a log house where she now lives, next to her husband’s parents.

Maxine Elliott said the insurance company hasn’t asked for the money back, and she doesn’t believe they will.

She also doesn’t know her current marital status regarding Gary Elliott, she said. Police here said they also are trying to answer that question.

Orange County investigators said they are exploring whether Elliott committed other crimes, particularly during two periods of time where they can’t account for his activities.

According to St. Louis and Orange County authorities, Elliott was last seen in 1979 leaving a chess tournament at St. Louis University, where he won first prize. Police later found his truck abandoned in a crime-ridden area of that city.

The driver’s window had been smashed, and drops of blood trailed in the inside of the driver’s door. Elliott’s new chess set, prescription glasses and the contents of his wallet were found scattered in the truck. The key was in the ignition.

For weeks, police scoured the city streets, asking questions and passing out pictures of Gary Elliott. But, not one clue turned up. After a year, police closed the case.

Meanwhile, Elliott had taken a bus to Kansas City, Mo., after the chess tournament and had journeyed westward, leaving his old life behind, he told authorities last week. He worked odd jobs and eventually came to California in 1981, later settling in Orange County as Clifford Leighton.

For the last four years, he has been engaged to Jennifer Bradford of Lake Forest.

Early last month, Leighton mysteriously disappeared and Bradford filed a missing person report.

In searching for him, detectives went back to the Central Illinois Power Co., which Leighton had listed on a job application. There, a supervisor identified the man in what was believed a picture of Leighton as Gary Elliott.

By the time Leighton was found unconscious by the side of a road in Riverside on Feb. 14, detectives believed they had enough information to show that he and Elliott were the same man. How he came to be beside the road authorities still do not know. Elliott claims to have amnesia and to have no memory of how he got there.

His brother flew to Orange County last week and positively identified him.

Getting over their initial anger and bewilderment, his wife and children now say they hope he will not be prosecuted for perjury. Some of Elliott’s children said a part of them wants to believe that he has a plausible explanation.

“Something must have happened,” said Wendy Elliot. She said she doesn’t want to believe her father vanished to avoid familial responsibility.

“We don’t have all the truth yet. . . . We won’t know until we see him.”