Manuel Gehring

Cases that involve the murders of children are always the most difficult for me whether it is to read a book about a case or to research them to publish here. I belong to several true crimes groups and so I know that I am not alone in this feeling. Children who are murdered by strangers are hard, but not as hard as those committed by parents or those in a parental position. That being said I have also blogged about several child murders.

I have told the stories of many children who were removed from abusive homes only to be placed in a foster home, or even adoptive home that was even more abusive considering it ended in their deaths. I have blogged about cases where child protective services are allegedly actively involved in cases and yet still something happens. The Susan Powell case comes to mind. Authorities suspected her husband as being involved in her disappearance and while her parents had legal guardianship of her children their father, Josh, was granted supervised visits. On one visit he pushed the supervisor away from the door, locked her out and proceeded to blow up the house with himself and his two young sons with him.

This case is quite different than most. The only case that I believe even comes close is the case of John Battaglia. He was the father who had been abusive to his wife throughout their marriage and it was more important to him to get even with her for divorcing him than to allow his daughters, Faith and Liberty to live. He proceeded to call their mother in May 2001 when he had them for visitation to let them tell her goodbye and while still on the phone he made sure that she was listening as he shot both of his children. The state of Texas finally executed John Battaglia in 2018. Just as in the case I am about to tell you investigators believe that the motive was to get revenge on his ex-wife..... all at the expense of the children.

Much like John Battaglia, Manuel Gehring was an abusive and controlling husband. Almost all of the articles I read about him mentioned that he had been born in Nicaragua to a single mother who placed him in an orphanage only to be adopted by a U.S. Government employee and brought to the United States. I found it interesting that this seemed to always be mentioned as if the fact that he was born in another country and given up for an adoption at birth was in any way an a reason behind his later actions in life. I found nothing that really talked about his childhood other than the fact that in 1979 he was attending a boarding school in Vermont and would meet Terri, the woman he would later marry. However in 1979 Manuel was twenty years old so I am unsure what kind of “boarding” school this would have been.

Manuel and Terri would get married in 1985 and throughout their marriage that lasted until 2001 they would have two children. First was Sarah and then came Philip. The couple settled in Concord New Hampshire. It was said that while Manuel was a CPA he had trouble staying with a job for more than a year or two. According to Terri this had to do with his “distrust” of managers and companies and the fact that he often accused others of discrimination. Many people including acquaintances and co-workers were interviewed at some point and the most often used word to describe him was “controlling.” This apparently was most apparent in his immediate household.

In 1991 when Terri was pregnant with their son, Philip, it was said that Manuel had “knocked her down and bloodied her lip.” She apparently filed a report but my research stated that she later dropped the charges. While nothing else was specifically stated that indicated any other instances of physical abuse, I got the distinct impression that was not the only time something like this occurred. It was his treatment of his wife in particular that finally caused her to file for divorce in 2001.

According to Terri until that time Manuel had not been very involved or take much interest in the children until after the divorce and especially once she moved in with another man, who she would later marry. She claimed that throughout the years Manuel had “forgot their birthdays, was late picking them up and once spelled Sarah's name wrong on a card.” However, by all indications Manuel was much more about appearance and caring what other people thought or what they would see than anything else. One woman that he met on the Internet in 2001 had come to visit him and cut her visit short when she said he had odd behaviors. She would tell investigators years later that he treated and spoke to her like a slave and was constantly obsessed over the fact that he did not have full custody of Sarah and Philip who at that point were around nine and twelve years old. For the next two years he continued to attempt to obtain full custody of the children and by all appearances “put on a show” for counselors who would help the judge determine custody.

It was said that Manuel would talk to the counselors about he had wonderful family dinners and time with the children and indicate he was very much a hands on dad. He would do this while always degrading Terri and attempting to make himself look better. But yet those who knew him knew better. Some could say then why did Terri not speak up, or what about the children or all these other people who would later talk about Manuel's behavior say anything? Well, most of them were not likely asked at the time for one and for two, people like Manuel are good at manipulation and putting on a front when they need to. He knew when and how to say all the right things that left those in authority never questioning him. But thirdly, especially when it came to the kids it is more than likely they never said anything because of fear of retaliation, and knowing what would happen later that fear could be understood. And yet, while he was putting on these fronts for other people he was belittling and chastising his children, especially Sarah it seems. At some point a note was found that clearly shows just how controlling Manuel could be. I cannot say when this note was discovered but it was said to be a two page letter that Manuel wrote to Sarah “chastising” her for not cleaning the kitchen properly after she had made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

By 2003 Manuel was still going through the courts apparently trying for full custody of the children. It was said that he actually had the children slightly more time than Terri, but that was not good enough it seems. It was even said that just after they signed their last custody agreement he had already told Terri he did not plan to abide by it. Fourteen year old Sarah had a boyfriend and he would later say that Sarah and Manuel fought often and that Manuel had hit her once in the face because she was making too much noise. The boyfriend's father was an administrator at a school and had met Manuel. According to him Manuel was “very aggressive” and had to know where his daughter was at all times.

The kids were with Manuel for the Fourth of July holiday in 2003. Terri had just remarried a few weeks before that and was pregnant with twins. On the night of the fourth, a Friday, Manuel was seen with the children at a fireworks show in Concord. It was later stated by witnesses that they had seen Manuel arguing with the children and it was reported that both children were crying when they left the show. This was the last time anyone, besides Manuel saw the children alive. The following day Manuel was supposed to take Philip to a summer camp but apparently Sarah was go home to her mother on that Sunday. When Manuel failed to return her Terri called the police.

I can only assume that investigators could not find Manuel at his home and had discovered that Philip had not arrived for his summer camp and that these discoveries led to investigators taking the report more seriously. I say this because while parental “abductions” are fairly common and can become dire, I am unsure that there had been anything reported prior to this that would have indicated that the children could have been in danger. However, in this case it appears that an arrest warrant was issued for Manuel on the charge of felony child concealment and his credit card usage was being tracked. On July 10^th it was discovered that his card had been used at a hotel in Gilroy California. Law enforcement arrived at the hotel and arrested Manuel on the warrant, but the children were not with him and what the investigators found was chilling.

Inside Manuel's van were two guns but that was the least of the investigators worries. They also found bullet fragments, a tremendous amount of blood and even brain matter inside the van. Investigators knew something horrible had happened. In fact two days later authorities would openly say that they believed that the children were likely dead.

On July 18, 2003 Manuel was indicted on two counts of first degree murder. It appears that sometime during this time he had admitted to killing the children but an official affidavit was not filed in the court until July 30^th. According to his statement he and the children had left the fireworks show and at some point, while still in New Hampshire he had pulled off the highway and had shot the children. He then left them strapped in the car and continued to drive west on I-80. He would say that he had buried them somewhere in the mid-west off of the highway but would claim that he did not know where. He gave some “clues” such as it being near the highway and a bell shaped concrete sewer connector was nearby... oh, and there was a fence and a woodpile close. This could have been anywhere. He had also claimed that he had dug an “L” shape grave for Sarah due to the fact that apparently rigor mortis had begun to set in and her body had become stiff. He said that he had wrapped their bodies in plastic and had made crosses out of duct tape across their chests. None of this was helpful in finding the children. He claimed to not know anything more, including what exit he took off the highway. And yet between July 15^th and 22^nd, apparently on his way back across the country to New Hampshire, he stopped with investigators to look at areas. Manuel would spend the night in local county jails. Apparently, when asked why he would have done this to his children he stated that their lives were in a “downward spiral” because of the custody dispute with Terri. This of course made little sense to anyone, especially considering that he was the one who had continually kept the custody battle in court. Most simply believe that it was all about revenge against Terri.

By November of 2003 Manuel reported to a newspaper that his confession had been coerced and indicated that he was innocent of the charges against him. His defense attorney had been granted the right to have him examined psychologically and they would say that he was diagnosed as clinically depressed but refused to take the medication that was prescribed. They would make claims that he had depressed “his entire life” but I found nothing that supported that theory what so ever. By January of 2004 the attorney's were openly stating they were considering an insanity defense. For his part Manuel was being held in isolation at the jail. Some say he was there on “suicide” watch while other reports stated that the particular type of cell that he was in, one in which only he resided and in which he was contained twenty-three hours of the day was for his protection based on his crime.

Manuel was set to go to trial in September of 2004. On the morning of February 19^th, Manuel was found dead in his cell. It was said that between eleven and eleven-thirty the night before he had stood up for count and was known to be alive. Throughout the night he was looked on at least two times and he was seen to be in bed. At 4:25 the following morning when his name was called for count before breakfast he failed to move. Guards went inside his cell and found that he had strangled himself. The first indication I had gotten in my research had been that he had hung himself in his cell with bedsheets but then it was explained he remained in his bed and other reports indicated that he may have used a rope or some sort of cord. I must say that to commit suicide by strangling oneself in this manner takes determination. We all hear stories about how long it takes someone to be strangled and that is when someone else is holding the cord (or weapon) and using all of their might while the victim struggles. I cannot imagine what it would take do do this to yourself when it does not involve hanging.

Family and friends of the children were hoping that Manuel left a suicide note with more details on how to locate the children but apparently that did not happen. He was the last link and he took whatever he knew (and most fully believed he knew exactly where the children were) to his grave. Terri would later say that while she was angry he “got off easy,” in another sense she was glad as she had feared that something during the trial would have allowed him to get away with what he had done.

Sometime in 2004, I am going to guess after his suicide, a geological survey was done on the undercarriage of Manuel's van as well as on the shovel that was allegedly used to bury the children. A pollen analysis was done on the soil to see if it could be determined where it may have come from. It was believed that the soil was located likely in Northeastern Ohio. Over the next few years searches were continually made. In the summer of 2005 Terri and her husband made a trip to the midwest along the route that it was believed Manuel took. They did searches but also wanted to get the word out about the children so others would look in their absence. In December of 2005 a woman was out walking her dog near Hudson Ohio, between Cleveland and Akron, off of I-80. She was convinced that the children had to be in the area somewhere and apparently had done other searches. On this particular day she found a shallow grave. Authorities were called and two bodies were found. A few days later they were positively identified through dental records as Sarah and Philip Gehring. The few “clues” that Manuel had given to the authorities had been accurate but they had just been to vague and generic. Terri and her husband went to Ohio where they had the bodies cremated and took the ashes back home to New Hampshire.

An autopsy on the bodies discovered that Sarah had been shot in the head three times. Philip had been shot four times, once in each in his arms, head and neck. Authorities believe that the guns found in Manuel's van were the ones used and believe that after shooting Sarah the gun had jammed so Manuel had used the other one on Philip.

Five months after Manuel had taken off with the children Terri had given birth to twin daughters. When asked how she got through all of this emotionally she has stated that she concentrated on her daughters and their needs to keep herself occupied. While she had long expected the outcome that came to reality in 2005 she had worried that they would never be found and was grateful that they were found and she could have them returned to her.

You cannot read about or watch television shows about true crimes and not know that there are truly evil people in this world but even knowing all of that, Manuel Gehring's behavior and actions were a special kind of evil in my opinion. I believe his attorney's attempts to blame it all on “clinical depression” was a cop-out and played little to no role in what he did. That being said I found something quite interesting near the end of my research. I went to the Findagrave.com website and put in Manuel's name. There is a picture of a very large tombstone. There is not a picture of both sides of the stone but on one side is the name of nine people, including Manuel. One was a lawyer; one was an RN. There are several different surnames on the stone and there looks to be plenty of room for many more. It is hard to describe, but doing genealogy for so long and visiting cemeteries I have seen these types of “stones” many times. They are basically makeshift mausoleums and are generally owned by several members of a family. Now, of course someone can “donate” a plot but I do not think that is the case here, although of course I cannot be certain. The cemetery is located in Virginia, which is the state in which Sarah was born and is also the state that many U.S. Diplomats and government workers would be buried so there is an indication that this may have been a plot belonging to his family. However, it left open another question as to the legitimacy of his alleged “adoption” as he is the only Gehring on there. I attempted to do a search of the “lawyer” William Justis, who died in 2002 but I came up short. It looks as if William's wife may have been Roberta who died in 2005, after Manuel but I could find nothing on her either. I did find obituaries for Sarah and Philip but they did not mention any of Manuel's family, but of course if William and Roberta were his parents they were both deceased by the time the bodies were found. I am unsure why but this stone bothers me in a way. Manuel is buried with prestigious people and his “honored” with them and yet this is a man who murdered his children for revenge against their mother. It seems so unfair....