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HUDSON, Ohio - Two small bodies found buried off Interstate 80 with duct-tape crosses over them were identified Saturday as the New Hampshire siblings killed by their father 21/2 years ago, authorities announced.
Dental records confirmed that the bodies are those of Sarah Gehring, 14, and her brother, Philip, 11, said Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler.
"It's just been truly this unbelievable burden not having them found, and so that does feel like somewhat of a relief," the children's mother, Teri Knight, said Saturday. "It's tough, but it's better than not knowing where they are."
The autopsies revealed that Sarah had been shot in the head three times, and that her brother had been shot four times - once in each arm, in the head and in the neck, said New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin.
Authorities had recovered two handguns when Manuel Gehring was arrested, and officials said Saturday they believe both were used: One to shoot Sarah, and when that gun jammed, the other to kill her brother.
A woman walking her dog discovered the children's shallow grave on Thursday in a wooded area near Hudson, about halfway between Cleveland and Akron.
The area closely fit the clues the children's father had given authorities before killing himself, from the makeshift cross in a rural area near a highway to the bell-shaped concrete sewer connectors, fence and wood pile nearby.
Manuel Gehring had also told authorities he wrapped his children in plastic and buried them with duct-tape crosses on their chests.
The children disappeared with Gehring in 2003 amid a custody dispute.
They were last seen arguing with him at a July Fourth fireworks display in Concord, N.H. Gehring later said he had pulled off a highway that night and shot the children, then drove for hours with their bodies in his van before burying them.
After Gehring was arrested in California, he told investigators he couldn't remember where he had buried the bodies. He gave vague clues that led to searches along a 700-mile stretch of Interstate 80 from Pennsylvania to Nebraska.
"He told the FBI that he doubled back and he turned left and right here and there," David Ruoff, an assistant New Hampshire attorney general, said Saturday. "He just didn't tell us what exit he took."
Gehring killed himself in prison before he could be tried.
In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey did a pollen analysis on soil found under Gehring's minivan and near a shovel used to bury the children.
It concluded that the soil most likely came from northeastern Ohio. The children's mother said she had searched within 5 miles of Hudson last summer.