Family of missing children planning to visit Ohio site

CONCORD, N.H. -- The mother of two children who were shot to death and buried by their father 2 1/2 years ago plans to visit the shallow Ohio grave where their bodies were finally found last week. The remains of Sarah Gehring, 14, and her brother Philip, 11, were identified Saturday by the medical examiner's office in Summit County, Ohio. The discovery of their wrapped bodies, each marked with a duct-tape cross as their father had said, ended Teri Knight's long search but renewed her mourning. Her new husband, Jim Knight, said Sunday that the couple would decide in the next few days when to leave for Ohio, probably to have the children's bodies cremated there and then return home to New Hampshire with their ashes.

"At some point, we will have a funeral," he said. "These last items, it's just a series of things we need to do for ourselves."

The children were last seen arguing with their father, Manuel Gehring, at a July Fourth fireworks show in Concord. After Gehring was arrested days later in California, he told authorities he had pulled off a highway the night of the fireworks show and shot both children, then drove for hours with their bodies in his van before burying them somewhere off Interstate 80.

He gave police several clues but said he couldn't remember the location, then committed suicide in jail before a trial.

Teri Knight never gave up hope of finding Sarah and Philip, and as she raised her young twin daughters, she spent as much time as she could searching. At one point, she came within five miles of their grave near Hudson, Ohio.

"I always knew it would happen someday," she said Saturday after learning the bodies had been identified as her children. "I was trying to figure out a way that I was going to be able to move forward in my life, and raise my daughters without having that be something that consumed my life."

The children's remains were found by Stephanie Dietrich, whose Boxer-Rottweiler Ricco led her to the burial site.

The autopsies revealed that Sarah had been shot in the head three times, and that her brother had been shot in each arm, the head and the neck, said New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin. Authorities believe Gehring used one handgun to shoot Sarah, and when that gun jammed, used another to kill her brother.