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Duct-tape crosses may put case to rest

HUDSON, Ohio - Two bodies discovered in Ohio could be those of two New Hampshire children whose father confessed to killing them and burying them somewhere along a 700-mile stretch of the Midwest 21/2 years ago, authorities said Friday.

The mother of Sarah and Philip Gehring said she became convinced they had been found after learning the bodies bore duct-tape crosses, just like her ex-husband, Manuel Gehring, had said he had made.

According to police and the FBI, a dog that bolted from its owner during a walk Thursday found a shallow grave containing two bodies wrapped in plastic near Interstate 80.

New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin planned to fly to Ohio to compare teeth from the bodies with the Gehring children's dental records.

If tests confirm the remains are those of the Concord, N.H., children, the discovery will end a long search across five states.

Sarah, 14, and Philip, 11, were shot to death by their father as he fled amid a custody dispute with his wife in July 2003. Manuel Gehring confessed but killed himself in prison before he could be tried.

Gehring had told police he buried the children somewhere along a stretch of interstate between Pennsylvania and Iowa, but he could not pinpoint the spot.

In 2004, a pollen analysis on soil found under Gehring's minivan and near the shovel used to bury the children concluded that it most likely came from northeastern Ohio.

The bodies found Thursday were along a muddy service road about 2 miles from an interstate interchange near Hudson, about 20 miles southeast of Cleveland.

Hudson police Chief David Robbins said the area has items mentioned by the father, including bell-shaped concrete sewer connectors, a fence and a wood pile.

Teri Knight, Gehring's ex-wife and the children's mother, has dealt with numerous false reports about her children, but on Friday, she said, a woman called her from the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office and described the duct-tape crosses.

"When she told me that, that's what did it," Knight said.

[Last modified December 3, 2005, 01:23:08]