Criminology - Manuel Gehring

Episode Date: June 20, 2021

Manuel Gehring was a man who was not happy with his life. He had a hard time holding down a job. He wasn't happy that his marriage to his wife Teri had ended and that she had found and married another man. Manuel was also not happy with the custody and child support arrangement that he had with his wife. He wasn't happy that in June 2003, Father's Day fell on Teri's weekend with the kids. And, when Sarah and Philip disappeared over the Fourth of July holiday, Teri and the police feared the worst. Unfortunately, they were correct; Manuel Gehring had done the unthinkable. Join Mike and Morf as we discuss the case of Manuel Gehring, a man who took the lives of his two innocent children. When police finally found him after a cross-country trip, Manuel confessed to the murders. But, he could not remember or would not tell the police where he buried the bodies of his children. Teri never gave up hope, and, to her rescue, came an unlikely hero. A woman in Ohio worked diligently as an amateur detective, and along with her dog Rico, she helped find Sarah's and Philip's bodies and return them to their mother. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 164 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, what's going on with you, man? Not a whole lot. Just hanging out with the family, trying to get some time and outside. It's getting nice out there. A little bit of rain lately here in Florida. But other than that, you know, I'm not going to complain. How about you?

Yeah, yeah, we're doing good. you dealing with the cicadas down there? Not that I've seen. I've heard people talking about them. You know, we have a lot of, luckily, where I live in, how we have lanais or like big screened in areas around your exterior of the patio or pool. And they stay out for the most part. So we can go in there and stay safe. But when you go to the store, obviously go out in the front yard or someplace, that's when you really run into a lot of the bugs. Oh, my gosh, man. I mowed the grass the other day and they were like attacking me. I'm swatting them away as I'm trying to mow the grass.

It's, uh, I know at least up here in Ohio, they are everywhere. And they're a real pain. Uh, there's no doubt about it. Yeah, we have a lot of stuff down here,

alligators, obviously lizards, reptiles and the, the, the only thing that bothers me are the big spiders. I'm not a fan of spiders. And we've got some pretty big ones that I've, that caught inside the house.

So that's the only troublesome thing for me. Okay. See, I'm a little bit more worried about Alligators, but yeah, I got you. I got you. All right, buddy, we continue to see some great support on Patreon. Let's give our shoutouts.

We had Ilet Yona, Lynette Duncan, Delia Jamison, Michaela Elwell, Casey Prentice, Mandy Stevenson, Suzette Gagney, Erganier, it might be, Samantha Burt, and Colleen Harrigan Misenholder. So that's a lot of great news. support more if we really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for all that generosity. It goes a long way to help them put the show out. And if anyone else would like to help support the show, they can go to Patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, it's time to jump into this episode. And today we are discussing the heartbreaking murders of a young brother and sister at the hands of their own father,

Manuel Garring. Manuel Garring was born in Nicaragua and was given up for adoption by his mother, who was unwed. He was adopted by a United States State Department worker who was stationed in Nicaragua, and he grew up in Vermont. This is where he met his wife, Terry, in 1979. Manuel married Terry in 1985. They had a daughter, Sarah Nicole Gering, who was born three years later, on August 16, 1988, in Falls Church, Virginia. A son, Philip Palacios, Garing, was born three years after that on September 19th, 1991 in Concord, New Hampshire. Manuel Garing worked as a certified accountant, but he had trouble holding down a job for

extended periods of time. Terry remembers him as being suspicious of his superiors, accusing of his superiors accusing others more than once of discriminating against him. Unfortunately, she can put this all together now in hindsight, but at the time, she wasn't sure what serious relationships or marriage was supposed to be like. And while she was in love with Manuel, she made excuses for his behavior and blamed herself. Eventually, the marriage ended. Terry found love again with a man named James Knight, and they wound up getting married. On July 6, 2003, Terry Knight frantically called police to report 14-year-old Sarah and 11-year-old Philip missing.

Terry and her husband James had traveled over Independence Day, but when they came back, Sarah and Philip were not at their father Manuel's home. Manuel had not returned their children to Terry as scheduled. Terry's request, police performed the welfare check at his home. They found meals out on the table, uneaten, and an empty gun case open on a bed. Both police and Terry feared that something awful had happened. On July 7, Terry filed a motion in court regarding the children's custody and Manuel's violation of court orders. And in the papers, she filed, Manuel was described as, quote, very agitated and angry when they last spoke on the phone. Authorities could tell from bank account records that Manuel was heading across the country, heading out west. Terry

believed that once Manuel got to California, he would head south to Mexico, where he could disappear and start over with their children. It took another four days for police to track Manuel Garing down, and when authorities found him, the children weren't with him. Sarah and Philip were last seen publicly on July 4th at an Independence Day fireworks event in Concord, New Hampshire. this absolutely terrified their mother Terry, though they did share custody of the children. Terry and her husband James Knight had last seen the children on July 2nd as they dropped them off at Manuel's home. During the last angry phone call between Manuel and Terry, he had warned Terry that he would not follow the newest custody orders, even though they gave him a little bit more time with the children.

then it gave her. They had signed a mediation agreement on June 27th, stating that Philip and Sarah would live and go to school in Concord, New Hampshire, where Manuel lived, and would spend two to three nights per week with Terry in Hillsborough just about a half an hour away. A very close friend of Manuel said that he was very happy. when Terry signed this agreement so that the children could attend school in Concord.

So it's unclear why he called Terry to tell her that he wouldn't follow the agreement. A different neighbor of Manuel's recalled that Manuel told her Terry got the better deal in their recent custody agreement. He was upset that there was a child support order from the court. Manuel Garing wanted people to think he was the perfect father, but what he was really trying to do was to hide his true nature. So the first thing Morph that jumped out at me here was that the court order put the children with Manuel. Basically four to five nights a week, he would have majority custody of them. they would only spend two to three nights per week with Terry.

That's not normal. I think if you look at most custody agreements, they tend to favor the mother as far as the children spending the majority of the time with one parent or the other. So then you have Manuel kind of telling people that he was upset about the agreement, saying that Terry got the better of it. Well, obviously she didn't when it came to the amount of time that the children would spend with each parent. Now, was he really upset about the child support order?

Because other than that, I can't see what he would be upset about. To me, it seems like it comes down to the money. Yeah, there may be a little bit of, I'm the victim here type of thing going on. He's talking to his friends and telling them that he's getting shafted, somehow in the deal. But I also see something here going on. I think a lot of us probably know someone that's been through a similar situation, a divorce and a custody battle. And sometimes those can turn really ugly, even if they start out where both people realize we need to end this relationship, but we want the best for the kids. But then when it comes time to figuring out

what's best for the kids, all of a sudden that turns into a huge, heated dispute. So I can, I can see where something like this could go wrong and start bringing out the worst in, in people. Yeah, I think it goes wrong a lot of the time because, okay, you have great intentions as it relates to wanting to make sure that you do the best possible things for your children. But if there was a lot of animosity in the marriage and, you know, that kind of heads into the divorce, can you operate in a way that completely turns off that animosity? I don't think a lot of people can't. I don't think a lot of people can just turn it on and off.

During a custody battle with Terry, Manuel had to work with a counselor. As part of that work, he wrote letters to the counselor. And in those letters, he talked about the duty he had to his children and the responsibility he felt to protect them. He painted a picture of a happy family life with a weekly tradition of dinner together at a local Chinese restaurant. But Manuel left a lot out too. Though he had lost his job as an accountant, he didn't disclose that to Terry or the court. The job he lost was a temp job that was only supposed to last for a year and a half, but he was terminated early. He was working for an engineering group in Nashville, New Hampshire, when for whatever reason, he was let go early.

It turns out that the relationship between the kids and their father was not perfect either. Sarah Garing and her father argued a lot. Things even got physical at times. Sarah's boyfriend recalls a time that Manuel hit Sarah in the face while she was sick and made what Manuel considered to be too much noise. Sarah and her father were actually arguing the last time she was seen in public at the fireworks for the Independence Day celebration. We only know when Sarah and Philip were last seen publicly because two witnesses remembered

them due to how loudly they were arguing at the park. In 2001, a woman that Manuel met online went to visit him for a few weeks. They had been talking for months online, and the woman felt that she had made a connection with Manuel. But once she got to his home, his behavior was to start. her. She claimed that Manuel wanted her to act like she was his slave, all the while obsessing that his ex-wife shared any custody of their children. The woman ended up leaving earlier than she had planned because she was so uncomfortable. Terry's recollection of her relationship with

Manuel lines up with what that woman described. Manuel wanted her to serve him and didn't care what she wanted. Terry claims that Manuel had been obsessed with internet pornography, and online chat room is focused on sexual content. Terry even suspected that Manuel may have been inappropriate with Sarah due to how much pornography he watched. Manuel was never charged with anything in terms of child molestation, but Terry was asked about it during the investigation, and she certainly didn't feel like it was impossible.

In June 2003, Terry's weekend with the kids fell on Father's Day. Manuel was angry at Terry, feeling that, she took Father's Day on purpose. It was just one more thing on a growing list that Manuel had issues with. And over the July 4th holiday, it finally came to a head when his kids went missing. While Manuel Garing initially cooperated with investigators, it kind of seemed half-hearted, like his cooperation with the custody counselor. He tried to paint himself in the best light, he didn't admit some of his faults. This actually seems very common in family annihilators. Think about Chris Watts, the man from Colorado who killed his pregnant wife and their

two toddler daughters. He did a number of news interviews pleading for their return and voluntarily spoke to police for hours until he finally confessed. He actually texted his wife's friend who was urging him to get home from work to check on his pregnant missing wife and two daughters. He was basically trying to pretend that everything was fine, but also trying to keep everyone from calling the police to his home, which he knew was the crime scene. One of his texts read, I really don't want you to think I'm a bad person. And here again, Mor if I think clearly, he was only obsessed with looking like a good guy. Or he would want the concern for his wife and either, you know, would be on his way home,

or would want the police to come into the house, investigate. That's what a quote unquote good guy would actually do. And I do think you see this quite a bit. It's one of the facets of true crime that really fascinates me. Morph, if you think about the number of, you think about the number of individuals over the years. Think about, you know, the tens of thousands of different cases, but the individuals who have gone on TV have been interviewed, they've cried, they've blubbered, you know, I want my family back. I want, you know, this person back. And ultimately, it turns out that they were the killer. You know, that part to me is really captivating to know that they're the killer and then go back and look at the interviews they did and see the type of

performances that they gave some of them are astounding and how real they look how well they were able to pull the interviews off and then obviously there's the other way too right there are people that right from the get-go others look at, you know, their demeanor, how they're choosing their words and think, hmm, something's not right here. This doesn't seem like a person who is really truly broken up about what has happened. So it goes both ways. Now, I will make the caveat that it also doesn't mean that a person is guilty or innocent based on the performance that they give. Some people look guilty as all get out just because they're not ready to give that interview at that particular time. They don't come off well. But in the end, it turns out

they didn't have anything to do with whatever happened at all. So I mean, I think you do have to be careful, and you and I have talked about that, and how you read into somebody's actions, especially right after or in the beginning stages of a disappearance, a murder, you know, something like that. Yeah. And Chris Watts, I think, is a really good example here of what you were mentioning, how sometimes there's a performance that the person's broken up. They're crying.

They look legitimately upset. then we find out they were guilty. In the Watts case, it was the complete opposite. I remember watching that, and he had no emotion. He could have been reading something from a dictionary. It was so emotionless. And I remember thinking, wow, he has no sense of emotion. And sometimes you're not supposed to judge people by that kind of action,

but it's hard when you see someone that's searching for his wife and children. I don't know. I try and put myself in that shoot. There's no way I could be sitting there that composed, that emotionless. So sometimes I do sort of judge people by that the way they talk soon after that. And in this case, it turns out that he was the monster that he was. He was responsible for killing his own wife and children. Pretty despicable.

And personally, it's not somebody that I like to talk about, so I can't see ever doing an episode on him. But people that take the lives of anyone are obviously bad. But when you're the person that's supposed to protect your family and they die at your hand, I came and imagine your children looking into your eyes as you're taking the life from them. It's just a, it's the worst thing I can imagine. Yeah, obviously he's a despicable person. But I agree with you.

I remember I watched that, the Netflix. documentary. I watched it with my wife and my kids. And I think we all kind of said the same thing. You know, very early on when the police are there, he just did not seem to be all that worried. And you kind of got the sense. Now, maybe some of that is because I already knew he was guilty. And that plays into it as well. But, you know, you said something that's interesting, which is you can't help but judge. It's really hard for us not to, especially when it comes to true crime, because we're all somewhat amateur detectives. We are looking at these interviews to try to put them into some kind of context with, you know, how they relate to the case. So, you know, to be honest with you,

judging is kind of part of it. Now, you have to be careful. You can't just view an interview and then go straight to social media and say, well, for sure, this guy's guilty. It's tough to do that. But, you know, inside, individually, I think we all judge to a certain extent. According to the director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, it's common for family annihilators to kill their children to retaliate against their ex-spouse. Another very common outcome of a family annihilator is to kill their children and then take their own life, only killing the children so that they don't have to live without each other. In Manuel's case, it may have been a bit of both motivations.

That's what's so interesting about Manuel Garing's eventual confession. After a while, he confessed to killing his two children. He didn't blame it on anyone else. We know it was him, a child murderer, the murder of his own children. But before Manuel could confess, police had to find him. and it took them about a week. It was on July 10th, 2003, that police found Manuel in Gilroy, California. Gilroy is a small city in the San Francisco Bay Area, about an hour and a half south of San Francisco.

Manuel was found at the roadway in, and he was arrested on charges of interfering with child custody outside of room 109 after the Gilroy Police Department, and detectives from the FBI monitored him for over an hour. They were waiting for any sign of the two children. But Manuel had checked in alone, and the room he rented had just one single-sized bed inside. Detectives called him from the front desk, and after he left the room, they seized the opportunity to arrest him. He didn't resist his arrest at all.

Bullet fragments, brain matter, and blood, were found inside his minivan by the crime lab. And it didn't really take all that long. Morph, Manuel confessed to killing his two children fairly quickly, and he didn't blame it on anyone else. So basically he said, yeah, it's me. He was a child murderer. Manuel claimed that he killed his children while they were sleeping.

But evidence points to something different. The evidence showed that their deaths were cruel and that he had taken them someplace outside his house when the bodies of the children were later found. It was discovered that Sarah was shot three times in the head and she must have been shot first. Investigators found that the gun used to kill Sarah was not used on Philip. And a theory emerged that after Manuel shot Sarah three times, the gun jammed. This caused him to switch to a different gun. It's unknown how long this took, but Philip must have known that he was in danger. He was shot four times, once in each arm,

and once in the neck, as if he had tried to dodge the bullets. And finally, he was shot once in the head. In his confession, Manuel said that after the children were dead, he actually buckled each of them into their seats so that they wouldn't fall over before he started driving again. The disgusting irony of this act echoes his previous written statement to the custody counselor, in which he claimed, I may not be a saint, but I'm still a good parent. After shooting each of his children and buckling them in, somewhere in New Hampshire, he continued to drive for hours until he pulled off Interstate 80. In the thick woods, he buried his children.

He then got back in his minivan and continued driving one. The problem is that Manuel told police he didn't remember exactly where he buried the bodies. Now, obviously, authorities had been searching for Philip and Sarah for some time leading up to Manuel's arrest, but after his arrest and confession, they knew they were looking for bodies, buried somewhere off of Interstate 80. police believe that since no witnesses had reported seeing the siblings as Manuel drove across the United States, they were likely killed very early on. And let's not forget, Manuel was on his own at the roadway in. Obviously, he didn't have the kids with him at that point. So we mentioned that he couldn't

remember exactly where he had buried his children. And, you know, even his confession. resembled the empty positivity reflected in his letters to the custody counselor. He claimed the detectives that he prayed before he buried them. All that he really told them was that he pulled over somewhere on Interstate 80, a freeway that runs east to west across the entire continental U.S. to bury their bodies in shallow graves. And he said that they were buried. about two or three miles off the main highway.

He also said that he made crosses out of duct tape and placed the crosses over each of their chess. We've recently devoted an entire episode to the events of the western portion of Interstate 80, Nevada and Utah, and talked about how there were portions of the road in the desert, so desolate that it was practically a perfect setting to get away with committing a crime or concealing evidence. On the eastern section of Interstate 80, the road will take you through many areas of dense woods. You could easily pull off the highway and be quickly hidden by trees.

Rather than the vast expanse of the desert, it's a densely wooded terrain that makes it an ideal place to conceal evidence of your crime, even in broad daylight, which is exactly what Manuel Garing appears to have done. Manuel Garing isn't the only person to have taken advantage of the eastern part of Interstate 80, to try and hide a crime. On December 20th, 1976, the body of an unidentified pregnant female teenager was found dismembered and placed into three suitcases along the Lehigh River in Whitehaven, Pennsylvania, just off Interstate 80.

For 44 years, she was known as Beth Doe. And on March 31st, 2021, it was announced that she was 15-year-old Evelyn. Colombe, a resident of Jersey City, New Jersey. Her killer, the father of her unborn child, Louis Sierra, could have easily taken her from Jersey City and taken Interstate 80 right to Whitehaven, where he threw each of the suitcases out of the car as he drove west. He must have wanted them to fall into the river and float far away or possibly sink to the bottom of the river. He must have wanted them. river, but he missed, and two of them landed in the woods, and the third suitcase opened as it fell

300 feet and landed on the riverbank. The western half of Interstate 80 offers someone covering up a crime, the benefit of fewer witnesses, and can help degrade evidence due to wind, sun, and scavengers, while the eastern part of Interstate 80 offers cover from wooded areas and degrades evidence due to the elements like the leaves falling each year in heavy rains. Notably, the Western Interstate 80 mysteries involve people going missing, but their cars being found on an exit right off the highway, visible to all, while the Interstate 80 crimes involve having to pull off the road down a gravel path for miles or get rid of evidence without actually stopping on the highway. Over and over again, we see how interstates have been used by killers as hunting grounds and as perfect places to hide evidence of

their crimes, including bodies. There are multiple serial killers out there with names like the I-70 killer, the I-65 just to point out Interstate 65 and Interstate 80 intersect near Gehry, Indiana. It wouldn't be unimaginable to think that a killer switched highways and kept up their behavior on long haul drives. Exemplifying exactly why the highways are so ideal for hiding evidence, Manuel's clues led investigators to look at locations in many states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, and Iowa. The trail of where Manuel had been didn't help much.

Credit card charges showed stops in Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, and multiple places in California. It's unknown why Manuel chose the spot he did. It's to bury his children, but police believed their bodies were somewhere within a 700-mile stretch of Interstate 80. So when you look at this morph, you know, Manuel confesses, he admits to killing his children, but he can't give investigators the exact spot where he buried their bodies. When you're talking about a 700-mile stretch of an interstate, you are literally, talking about a needle and a haystack. That is a lot of area to cover with, you know,

what is essentially very few clues to go on. Yeah. And that is definitely an uphill battle for investigators trying to find these children's remains. But the 700 mile stretch, just whittling it down to that is an improvement from the 3,000, mile trip that he apparently took to California. So it seems like they significantly decreased the amount of area they'd have to search, but it wasn't going to be easy either way. Yeah, they decreased it, no doubt. But, you know, think about the manpower that it would take to effectively search a 700

mile stretch. And then you have to think about going a mile or two off the interstate. And so that really kind of amplifies the area that you're talking about. It's not just the 700 miles. It's the, okay, he buried them a mile or two off the interstate. So that really ups the search area. There's no doubt about it. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.

Oh, one, which emergency? We just walked in the door. and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water.

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey, guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodontes.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. After his arrest, Manuel was placed in the mental health unit of San Jose, Santa Clara County, main jail. And authorities confirmed he was depressed, but he was not. not deemed a suicide risk and was not placed on suicide watch. Police then reached out to people that knew Manuel to learn more about him. His former co-workers remembered him as a control freak, and Sarah's boyfriend's father calls him as overly aggressive, particularly about where Sarah was at all times.

Sarah's boyfriend's father actually avoided speaking to Manuel whenever possible due to how uncomfortable it was for him. In 1991, while she was pregnant with Philip, Manuel actually knocked Terry to the ground and caused a bloody lip in a black eye. Terry pressed charges against them, but eventually dropped them, and they agreed to go to therapy and work on their relationship. They ended up separating in 2000, but remained married until 2001. Though he was fighting for custody of his children, Manuel never seemed very interested in their lives or upbringing until their mother's life changed. Terry had primary custody of both children after she and Manuel divorced in 2001 and Manuel was permitted to spend every other weekend

and one weeknight every other week with his children. But then Terry remarried and she became pregnant with twins with her new husband. It was really only after Terry moved to Hillsborough with James Knight that Manuel suddenly seemed so invested in taking care of his children. children. This was when Manuel started demanding custody. Before Terry moved in with another man, Manuel would show up late for his scheduled time with his children. He picked them up late. He forgot about them or sometimes ignored their birthdays. And once he even managed to spell his own daughter's name wrong when he did get her a card. So Morph, to me, this is interesting. And it goes back to something that we talked about earlier with family annihilators.

From the research, it appears that Manuel wasn't really all that interested in being a father to his children until his ex-wife got together with another man, they married, and she had kids with this man. And then it was like all of a sudden he wanted his kids. But, you know, you have to take a look at the reason. Why did he want them? It sure seems to me as though it wasn't because he loved them. He wanted to take care of them, you know, going back to the family annihilator situation,

it was almost as if he wanted to punish Terry. And he was going to do that through his children. When Terry first moved to Hillsborough, Sarah decided to stay in Concord and moved in with Manuel so that she didn't have to switch schools, leave her friends, or be away from her boyfriend. Philip moved to Hillsborough, but Manuel wanted custody of him too. Manuel received temporary custody of Sarah so that she could attend school,

and Philip actually told a counselor that he wanted to stay in Concord so he could stay with his friends. The children's court-appointed guardian, Robert Sturke, recounted that the children both missed each other, and that Philip's grades were dropping in Hillsborough. But in December 2002, a judge felt that it was appropriate to temporarily keep Philip in Hillsborough. Robert Stark didn't want Philip to get shuffled back and forth between his parents' homes. And he helped Terry and Manuel,

come to the agreement that they signed not long before the murders. While he was in custody on November 11, 2003, Manuel Garing told a reporter that the FBI had coerced his confession, it seemed that despite previously owning up to what he had done to his own children, his cowardness once again took over. And that cowardness would rear its head again on February 19th, 2004, while Manuel was awaiting his trial. On that day, he used a bed sheet to strangle himself to death in his jail cell,

despite not being seen as a suicide risk by officials. And this goes back to what we talked about earlier, when we referenced the Crimes Against Children Research Center and their information, which was that one of the common outcomes of family annihilators is to kill the children and then take their own life. Manuel was dead. He had taken the easy way out. And although Terry Knight knew that her children were gone, she still wanted to know where their bodies were. to keep the case active in the media, reminding people to check their surroundings during hikes and walks in rural areas. She actually said the easiest part of raising newborn twins was hearing their cry during the night because that meant she knew precisely where they were and that they were okay.

Terry had occasional nightmares that Philip and Sarah needed her, once dreaming that she unwrapped a blanket Philip was wrapped in, and instead of giggling, he said, Mommy, I'm so cold. She hoped the answer to where her children lay, waiting for her, was somewhere in the eight hours of taped interviews the police had conducted with her ex-husband. Terry never gave up hope that the remains of her children would be found, though she tried to keep her expectations low. Her house changed over the years to reflect the changes in her life. What was once Phillips' room was turned into the nursery for her newborn twin daughters. Terry married James Knight, just three weeks before she would last see Sarah and Philip alive,

and gave birth to her daughters five months after their disappearance. She keeps photographs of Sarah and Philip all around the house, keeping their memory a lot. While Terry held out hope, investigators kept working to find Philip and Sarah's remains so that Terry could say a proper goodbye. They analyzed soil from a shovel used to bury the children, and pollen found on the inside of Manuel's minivan and discovered that it was consistent with a wet area, and there was a residue found from a sweet birch tree, which does not grow west of Ohio. Two eyewitnesses, a couple, saw Manuel's minivan in Mommy, Ohio, and described it as being very dirty.

Authorities believe that the children had to be buried in eastern Ohio, a western Pennsylvania, due to this evidence, and Manuel's account of things. Manuel claimed to have buried the children around 2.30 p.m. but he didn't even know the exact day on which he had buried them. He also specified that he had to dig an L-shaped grave for Sarah because her body had become stuck in the position she was left sitting in during the drop. He also remembered that nearby the burial site, there was a big yellow building near the interstate. and very tall grasses with seeds on the end that were tan in color.

Manuel also claimed that there were multiple large cylinders nearby, like sewer pipes, a concrete slab, a pile of rocks, droopy trees similar to a willow tree, a six-foot-tall wire fence, and a pump of some kind, probably an old water pump with a green lever on it. He also mentioned going for a swim. in a lake in Iowa City sometime after he buried the body.

All the details provided gave police something to work with. But unfortunately, the kinds of things he described are very common in the Midwest, which is the primary area that authorities believed Manuel had buried the children in. The investigators, who were from New Hampshire, underestimated just how common all these elements were, and they had a much harder time during the investigation than they had ever anticipated. New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, Chief of Homicide, Jeffrey A. Strelzin, called the task daunting and admitted that he had been arrogant when first given the details of the burial site. Authorities believe that Manuel was being truthful when he gave details of the burial site, though they were unsure of his motive to cooperate with their investigation.

They thought he may have been feeling guilty for what he had done, or he may have thought that cooperating would lessen his sentence. But they did believe him, even though he had clearly lied about other elements of the crime, probably trying to make himself look better in their eyes. Although he did eventually stop cooperating, police never stopped looking for Sarah and Philip using the information that he had already. given them. Receipts and surveillance footage proved that it took Manuel Gering 25 hours to drive from Grove City, Pennsylvania, to Joliet, Illinois. The drive should have taken someone just seven hours to make. It's less than 500 miles. To paint a clear picture for those unfamiliar with the drive, someone driving straight from Grove City west could have made it all the way to the border of Utah and Wyoming in the same amount of time. Before we left Grove City, Manuel bought supplies at the

Walmart there. He got trash bags, duct tape, a shovel and a pickax, gloves and razor blades. All right. Morph, I'm just going to say it. That does not seem like for most people, a normal trip to Walmart. Now, maybe that's because we know what happened, but, you know, if that's all you're getting, it seems as though you are getting ready to bury a body or multiple bodies. Yeah, I know it's not a funny situation, but it's definitely reminiscent of some of the memes that you'll see on some of the true crime sites. Oh, about shopping trips and what people buy and all of that? Yeah, I always wonder if the person at the register, if any of that goes through their mind or what they think when they see that kind of mix of stuff being bought by someone. In early 2005, Akron, Ohio resident Stephanie Dietrich saw a news article.

about Sarah and Philip Garing. She decided to search for the children on her own. She was also a mother and something about their story and the plight that their mother Terry was going through really touched her. Incredibly, by the end of that same year in December, Stephanie found what she believed was the children's remains while she was searching with her dog Rico in Hudson, Ohio. Hudson is just 20 minutes north of Akron, where Stephanie was a cashier at a grocery store.

She reported the site to police, but curiosity got the better of her faster than law enforcement could move on her tip. She headed back to Hudson to find Sarah and Phillip. Her search equipment nearly mirrored what Manuel bought at the Walmart. She brought a pickaxe, four shovels, mud boots, and a flat. like. Stephanie said that while she was walking in Hudson near Terrick's Road, RICO kept pulling her to an area near a tree that had large drooping branches that hung down. The site had eight landmarks mentioned by Manuel as far as Stephanie could tell, including the tree, a tall fence, high grass, and a green pump. She started digging, searching for the children.

And after digging less than two feet into the earth, she saw a black trash bag. And I think that's when she became fairly certain that she had found Philip and Sarah. Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler confirmed that the dental records for the children matched those of the two bodies found. One of the bodies had braces. This was confirmed to be Philip, who did wear braces at the time he was killed. Terry Knight herself had searched for her children within. and five miles of the borough site. Stephanie Dietrich didn't know Terry Knight

and never tried to contact her. In fact, journalists actually informed Terry of the name of the person who found her children's remains. Terry praised Stephanie and Rico, and they deserved it. Without his keen sense of smell,

Philip and Sarah may never have been found. As time went on, the ground would be covered by more and more dirt and leaves, and landmarks could change. Fences could be torn down, pumps could have been removed. Things could be built where there had once been a thicket of trees. For five months before she found the children, Stephanie had searched three days every week.

It turns out she was not the only private citizen invested in this case, even though they had no personal connection or involvement. Eric Nicodem, an insurance broker from Concord, New Hampshire, also took a personal interest in the case. Like Stephanie Dietrich, Eric made it his personal. mission to help find Sarah and Philip Garing. Though he did not know the Garing family, he personally went to the Grove City, Pennsylvania, Walmart to hand out flyers to residents who may have seen something suspicious. Like investigators, Eric felt that Grove City was a likely burial place for the children. There were wetlands, mining reclamation sites, and sewer projects, all of which would fit the physical evidence found in the pollen and soil analyzed and are also common in Grove City and the rest of Western Pennsylvania.

Eric even submitted a possible burial site located in Pulp, Pennsylvania, just half an hour north of Grove City. The FBI investigated the site but found nothing of significance. I think it says something, more of that, you know, these total strangers. who had no connection to fill up Sarah or their families cared enough to search on their own for them. And I think it's something that you do see in quite a few cases. I mean, how many cases of missing individuals do we talk about where you have hundreds and hundreds of volunteer searchers who come out? It's kind of a heartwarming aspect in the middle of, you know, these tragedies that we talk about. You know, people are willing to help. They want to help,

whether they have any connection with the families or not. I think it's very admirable, and it's good to know that there's people out there that care that much, because if something happened to somebody in my family, I'd want any kind of help I can get. And just to have people out there that are willing to be selfless and give their time and energy, in some cases, even spend money for someone they don't know. Just, it's good to know that that still happens. In 2006, Stephanie Dietrich was honored by the FBI at their Boston office for her enormous contribution to closing the case. Rika was given a special FBI canine unit caller, and Stephanie was presented with a plaque and awarded $10,000, though she never set out for attention, fame,

or recognition. She just wanted to find two lost children. Terry Knight was able to visit at Stephanie in Ohio to thank her in person. And she made sure to bring along a bone for Rico. In the end, this senseless tragedy provided bittersweet justice. While Terry's children have been found, she will never have them back. Manuel Garing made sure of that their own father chose to end their lives. Again, more if we talk about it all the time, someone that should have protected them. right? That's a kind of a father's mission. You and I both know that very well. But we also know

there are people who will do anything to not lose control over someone. And I think, you know, like Manuel, many of these people, you know, they're full of darkness. There are no limits to what horrific means they'll use or the selfish acts they'll go through. in order to achieve their goals. And, you know, it seems to me as though their only goal in some of these situations becomes destroying every bit of happiness that the other person, the person that they have animosity towards may have, even at the cost of taking the lives of their own children.

And I think when you look at this case in particular, Manuel not only took the lives of his children, But he took his own life. He deprived two young girls of ever having a relationship with their older siblings. He took away the chance for Terry to see her children grow up, you know, all the things that they would have done, you know, throughout their life. He took it all away. Let me say this. He thought he had taken everything from Terry, including the final resting place of her children.

but what he didn't count on was Terry's strength and a kind determined stranger who saw her on TV. And we mentioned it more if you know Terry never gave up. I think most people in that situation, they wouldn't. They couldn't ever give up on their children, whether it was, you know, the hope of finding them alive or if they had knowledge that they were dead, finding their bodies. to be able to say goodbye to them, give them a proper burial. You know, parents just don't give up on stuff like that. So I think it's fair to say that in this case, it was the worst in people that took Philip

and Sarah's life, but the best in people that helped bring them home. Terry Knight teaches nursing at Concord Community College and has more than one master's degree. And her twin daughters are going to turn 18 this year. So morph as we wrap up this episode, you know, some of the things to kind of talk about, you know, I think first and foremost, you have to talk about the family annihilator aspect. You know, that to me is so incredibly unbelievable that a father or a mother for that fact would take the lives of their own children. I just can't wrap my mind around it.

knowing the love that I have for my kids. I'm sure you're the exact same way. And everybody listening is thinking they love their children more than anything. It's like a parent's duty, right, to take care of your children, protect them, give them what they need and watch them flourish and grow. Yeah, to me, someone like Ted Bundy, obviously, is a terrible person for, what he did. But I find someone that does the

worst of the worst to their own children in this case. I can't fathom how that, how evil that is. It just seems a Ted Bundy, you can say, okay, that's what he is, that's what he does for whatever reason.

And in this case, this is someone you know, you watched coming to the world, you raise them, you love them, you gave them support, and a bed to sleep in and then you're going to take this away from them. And I said it before, I can't imagine what was going through their minds to see their own father doing this.

It's so, so horrible to even think of what they went through. Yeah, when you think about the last minutes of their lives, it's heartbreaking. There's no doubt. But, you know, back to the kind of the serial killer versus the family annihilator, you know, murder is murder. Obviously, it's all wrong. It's all horrible. But to me, there is kind of a difference here because of that bond. I just can't get over the fact that, you know, someone with that bond. And you feel it the minute your child is born is able to do something like that. Now, we don't understand Bundy and Gacy and Dahmer. We don't understand why they do what they do.

But I do think there's a difference here. Not that one is worse than the other. I'm not really trying to say that. I'm just saying it's different. One big takeaway, too, from this case is just the fact of how the police kept on searching, although the area they had to whittle it down to from 3,000 miles down to a 700-mile area, they were willing to keep going. And then we had Stephanie, a total stranger who wasn't connected to the case.

at all, just felt the need to get involved and help a mother in need. And against all odds, she actually found the children. I think that's just amazing. And we hear about so many bad things. It's good when you hear someone good, doing some good and helping in this kind of case. Well, there's no doubt that she did something great. But what I go to is what are the odds? and, you know, kind of how she played detective and was able to put things together from Manuel's statements and match them up to an area where she thought, okay, I'm seeing this, this, I'm seeing four or five different things that kind of match what he said. To me, that is amazing that she was able to do that on top of the fact that she wanted to help.

but that she was able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. And without her morph, we don't know what would have happened. You know, would the kids ever have been found? I don't know. You could make the argument that without her, we could be asking the question where these two children are today. I think we really could. Yeah, obviously, Terry would have loved to have them home safe with her.

but in this case to at least not have them buried someplace out in some unknown area, hopefully that gives her some kind of comfort that she did bring them home and was able to put them to rest. Yeah, never easy, obviously, but I think you're right. There is some comfort, if that's the right word, and at least knowing where they are. You have them to bring home and actually have a funeral. and all of that, it has to make some difference. Thanks goes out to Sunny Lannon for writing and research assistants in this episode. As always, if you love the show, but haven't done so yet, go out, give us a five-star rating.

Keep telling your friends. That word of mouth to your true crime-loving friends goes a long way for the criminology podcast. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at CriminologyPod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast Discussion in Fans. So, Mor, that is it for our episode on Manuel Garing and the murder of Sarah and Philip Gearing, tragic case all the way around, no doubt about that. But we'll be back with everyone next Saturday night with an all-new episode of criminology.

So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.