FBI probe focusing on area clues linked to missing children
7/14/2003The Toledo post of the Ohio Highway Patrol continued to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigations in a local search for evidence in connection with a possible double-homicide involving a New Hampshire man and his children.
Manuel Gehring was arrested Thursday at a hotel in Gilroy, Calif. He had taken his children to an Independence Day fireworks display in Concord, N.H., less than a week earlier and never returned. The children, Sara N. Gehring, 14, and Philip Gehring, 11, are missing and believed dead.
Police believe Mr. Gehring took I-84 and then I-80 from New Hampshire to California. Sometime between July 5 and July 6, they believe he drove through the Toledo area.
Spokesmen at the Toledo post and the Gilroy Police Department in California referred all questions to the FBI.
The Toledo post spokesman described troopers activities as “offering assistance to the FBI.”
A person answering the phone in the FBI office in Boston, which is handling the investigation, would not confirm local activities.
After Mr. Gehring was arrested, authorities said the case was being treated as a double homicide but gave few details about why they believe the children are dead.
Officials said their search remained concentrated in the Midwest but would not disclose why they are focusing on the area.
Court documents say Mr. Gehring was opposed to a new custody arrangement between him and his ex-wife that had been reached a week earlier.