N.H. Dad Charged In Kids' Deaths
The father of two missing children was indicted in New Hampshire Monday on two counts of first-degree murder.
Manuel Gehring, 44, was arrested last week in Gilroy, Calif. The indictment says Gehring killed his children, 14-year-old Sarah Gehring and 11-year-old Philip Gehring, with a gun.
The children are presumed dead. There was speculation Gehring's return from California was delayed so he could help authorities find the bodies.
Investigators searching for the bodies have focused on the route he drove to California. Police and prosecutors have declined to say whether Gehring has cooperated in the search, which has covered several Midwestern states.
"We don't have a specific location," said Jeff Strelzin, a prosecutor in New Hampshire.
His trip was traced across the country, mainly on Interstate 80, using credit card receipts. Authorities from Pennsylvania to California helped in the investigation.
The children were last seen with their father after a Fourth of July fireworks display in Concord. Two witnesses have said they saw Sarah and her father arguing loudly after the fireworks.
Authorities traced Gehring to California and arrested him there on July 10. Two days later, they announced they were re-characterizing the search for the children from a missing person's case to a double homicide.
Attorney General Peter Heed has said he believed the children probably were killed in New Hampshire before Gehring drove cross-country. He has not divulged what evidence convinced authorities the children were murdered.
Documents containing information on evidence police presented to a judge to get the California arrest warrant have been sealed.
Gehring did not fight attempts to return him to New Hampshire.
Strelzin said New Hampshire does not require the bodies of victims to be found before authorities can file murder charges.
"The standard is still whether or not we have proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and there is nothing ... that requires us to have the bodies to do that," he said.
Citing investigative sources, WTOL-TV in Toledo has reported Gehring bought a shovel in Grove City, Pa. The station also said investigators had information the children were buried near an Ohio Turnpike exit.
On Wednesday, WMUR-TV in Manchester reported that bankruptcy records showed Gehring owned several handguns and a sword.
Gehring and the children's mother, Teresa Knight, separated in 2000 and divorced in 2001.
When Knight moved to Hillsboro and remarried last year, Sarah chose to move in with her father, according to court records. Gehring was given temporary custody of Sarah and sought custody of Philip, who had moved to Hillsboro with his mother.
Knight said in court papers filed July 7 he had told her in a "very agitated and angry" phone call that he had no intention of abiding by a new custody agreement.