MISSING CHILDREN Officials confirm identity of bodies

Gehring's daughter had three gunshot wounds, and his son had four.
HUDSON, Ohio (AP) -- 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 2 1/2 years ago, authorities said.
Autopsies using dental records Saturday confirmed the bodies are those of Sarah Gehring, 14, and her brother, 11-year-old Philip Gehring.
Summit County Medical Examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler said the children died of multiple gunshot wounds.
"It's been an emotional case from the start. It's hard to not to be angry at a father who takes the lives of two children," said Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin of New Hampshire.
Bodies discovered
A dog on a walk with its owner Thursday found the bodies in a shallow grave off an access road near Hudson, about halfway between Cleveland and Akron.
"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 children were last seen in 2003 with their father, Manuel Gehring, at a July Fourth fireworks show in Concord, N.H. Gehring told authorities he pulled off the highway later that night and shot the children, then drove for hours with their bodies in his van before he buried them.
He was arrested in California a week later and committed suicide before being tried.
Gehring told police he couldn't remember where he dumped the bodies. He did, however, give them tantalizing but vague clues that led to appeals for help and repeated searches along a 700-mile stretch of Interstate 80 from Pennsylvania to Nebraska.
Children shot
The autopsy revealed that Sarah Gehring had been shot in the head three times, Strelzin said. Philip Gehring had four gunshot wounds -- one to each arm, one to the head and one to the neck.
Authorities recovered a .22-caliber handgun and 9 mm handgun when Manual Gehring was arrested, said Detective Todd Flanagan of the Concord, N.H., police department.
Gehring appears to have used the .22-caliber handgun to shoot his daughter, Flanagan said. When the gun jammed, Gehring used the 9 mm handgun on his son, Flanagan said.
Flanagan and Strelzin wouldn't comment on whether the children were in a defensive posture when shot.
In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey did a pollen analysis on soil found under Gehring's minivan and near the shovel used to bury the children. It concluded that the soil most likely came from northeastern Ohio, where Interstate 80 is the Ohio Turnpike.
Knight said she and her second husband searched within five miles of Hudson last summer.
The bodies were found well outside Hudson proper, in a desolate wooded area close to upscale, modern housing developments that are evidence of the bedroom community's growth.
Residents respond
Rick Brower, 46, took a hike Saturday with his son Mark, 12, through the woods to the burial site from their home in the Bridgewater Place housing development a quarter mile away.
"I've walked through here before, just looking around," Brower said. "I brought Mark down just to show him how close it was. My 14-year-old daughter is pretty creeped out about it. People do some really bizarre things."
Hudson resident Heidi Mocas took a bouquet Saturday to the spot where the bodies where found.
"It's a grave site, and to have had two children there very close in age to my own children, I just thought it was absolutely necessary to put some flowers down," said Mocas, the mother of two teens. "If something like that were to happen to my children, I would hope somebody would do something like this for them."