Authorities search for burial site of two missing children

CONCORD, N.H. -- Prosecutors who have charged a man with murdering his two children said Tuesday the youngsters are probably buried in or around northern Indiana or northeastern Illinois.

An indictment announced Monday said Manuel Gehring shot his children in New Hampshire around July 4 and then disposed of the bodies during a cross-country trip to California. Authorities have refused to say why they suspect that.

New Hampshire prosecutors released a description of the possible site to enlist public help in locating it. The suspected site was described as a rural, grassy area up to 10 miles on either side of Interstate 80, from around the Indiana-Ohio state line to Joliet, Ill., a distance of around 190 miles.

A $5,000 reward was offered to anyone who finds the site.

Gehring, a 44-year-old New Hampshire accountant who had been locked in a custody battle with his ex-wife, was arrested in California on July 10 and has been with detectives in the Midwest since July 15, apparently helping authorities in their search for the bodies.

He was flown back to New Hampshire on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said the bodies of Sarah, 14, and Philip, 11, were buried during the daylight hours, probably on July 5. Among other things, prosecutors said, the burial site has several large trees, an old-fashioned water pump, concrete cylinders similar to sewer drain pipe, and a large yellow or tan building nearby.

"Because the potential site covers so many hundreds of miles .... the farmer, the fisherman, the kids, the high school people, the local police officers, townspeople, may know some of these specific facts," New Hampshire Attorney General Peter Heed said.

Prosecutors would not say how authorities learned of the burial site.