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   My Back Yard ..almost....

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Topic: My Back Yard ..almost.... (Read 158 times)

darnchts
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My Back Yard ..almost....
« on: Jul 14^th, 2003, 9:44am »

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Officials focus search on Midwest

Authorities continued their search for Sarah and Philip Gehring yesterday in the Midwest. FBI agents and local authorities scoured highways and open land for the bodies of the two missing children by air and by ground, but did not find them.

In particular, Ohio authorities and the FBI searched the greater Toledo area for more than seven hours, one FBI agent, Special Agent Robert Hawk in Cleveland, told the Associated Press. That search was called off at around 4:30 p.m.

Officials do not expect to find the two children alive. Sarah and Philip Gehring, 14 and 11, were last seen with their father, 44-year-old Manuel A. Gehring of Concord, at the Memorial Field fireworks on July 4 around 10:30 p.m. Gehring was arrested in Gilroy, Calif., last Thursday after what investigators said was a six-day, 3,200-mile trip across the country, but the children were not with him. This weekend, authorities called the case a double homicide.

As officials continued their search for the Gehring children, a profile continued to emerge of Manuel Gehring, who authorities said yesterday is still the only focus of the investigation. According to a neighbor who considered him her best friend, Gehring was a loving father who was always smiling and who never raised his voice. In the past few days, however, she's discovered just how much she didn't know about her best friend.

Linda DeSantis last saw Gehring on July 3, when he smiled and waved to her across the parking lot. They had planned to spend the Fourth together, at a cookout at her home, but DeSantis, who has cancer, wasn't feeling well after four sessions of chemotherapy. She had a friend call Gehring to tell him the party was cancelled.

The two became friends about three years ago through their children, she said. DeSantis's daughter Christina had become very close to Philip Gehring, so Manuel Gehring thought the two parents should meet. One day, he walked across the parking lot to DeSantis's condominium and introduced himself.

DeSantis was soon inviting Gehring to holiday gatherings at her house, for Christmas, Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July. He often brought the children with him. From last February until last week, DeSantis cannot remember a day that she did not speak to Gehring. They had a common bond, she said, in how much they loved being with their children.

"He really liked being around the kids," she said. "He and I had that in common."

Gehring took Philip and all of his neighborhood friends out to movies and on field trips. DeSantis believes those trips developed in part out of his custody agreement with his ex-wife, Teresa Knight. Philip wanted to see both his father and his friends on his short weekends in Concord Commons, so his father took them all out. At times, Gehring would take seven children to the movies, and he'd pay for them all, DeSantis said. When she tried to pay him back by tucking a $20 bill in his pocket, he'd give the money back.

DeSantis and Gehring shared values and morals, she said. They were both spiritual Christians. They were both protective parents. Each always knew where the children were and watched their darkened figures cross the complex parking lot at night as they traveled from home to home.

DeSantis was one of two people on whom Gehring called to testify in his custody battle over Philip with his ex-wife last month. He wanted full custody of his son, and he was convinced he was the better parent. DeSantis understood his need, and encouraged him.

"Some of us parents don't want that every other weekend break," she said. "He thought it was not good for the kids to have them tossed back and forth, and he was going to win."

This spring, Gehring sold a Jaguar he had owned for at least as long as DeSantis has known him, and bought his green 1998 Plymouth minivan. He wanted a bigger, more family-oriented vehicle to transport his two kids, she said. He also wanted to put some of the money from the Jaguar sale toward fighting his custody battle.

Gehring was thrilled when he won 60 percent custody of Philip in late June, DeSantis said. The decision meant that Philip, who lived mostly with his mother in Hillsboro and attended school there this year, would live with his father and return to school in Concord, DeSantis said.

On the day he heard the news, Gehring arrived home tooting his horn and waving to DeSantis, who was outside of her home planting flowers, she said. He wore a grin that stretched broadly across his face.

DeSantis said Gehring seemed slightly annoyed that his wife had enrolled Philip in a camp the week of the decision. But overall, he seemed to be in good spirits, she said.

When DeSantis did not see Gehring's green van in its usual parking space last week, she figured he was busy, she said. When she heard he'd been arrested in California and the police cruisers began to show up in the parking lot, it shocked her, she said.

"Now I have to really consider the fact that I don't know this man as I thought I did, that I would trust my kids with him," she said. "I just sat up to watch the same news again and again. Because it seemed like it wasn't happening, it wasn't Manny."

Police detectives finished their search of Gehring's Concord Commons condominium, at 129 Fisherville Road, yesterday. From the parking lot, the only trace of their investigation was the wooden board that now seals the forced entry. But for DeSantis, the neighborhood will never be the same again.

Questions from her friends and family have helped her realize what she didn't know about her friend. He never talked about his parents. He spoke little of his financial situation. She didn't know much about his work history, or even if he had siblings. She didn't know if he had any other adult friends.

"It's strange to come home now," she said. "Who are your neighbors, really?"

from the Concord Monitor, Concord, NH

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darnchts
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Re: My Back Yard ..almost....
« Reply #1 on: Jul 14^th, 2003, 9:45am »

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another sad part about all of this is that it once again proves that you truly don't know anyone and that you should never trust anyone. I feel really bad for this lady who thought this man was her best friend and I hope that everyone is wrong and they find the children still alive with a relative or something.

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Re: My Back Yard ..almost....
« Reply #2 on: Jul 14^th, 2003, 10:07am »

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what throws me off is that investigators said the other day that he was being cooperative. Yet he will not lead them to the children or, god forbid, the bodies.

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