GILROY
– Gilroy remains in the national spotlight this week as the
coast-to-coast search for two abducted New Hampshire children now
believed to be dead continues.
GILROY – Gilroy remains in the national spotlight this week as the coast-to-coast search for two abducted New Hampshire children now believed to be dead continues.
A nationwide manhunt for a New Hampshire man accused of killing his two children ended Thursday night at Gilroy’s Roadway Inn, 611 Leavesley Road, where 44-year-old Manuel Gehring was arrested by police for felony child concealment.
Concord, N.H., police and the FBI had been searching for Gehring since he abducted his two children, 14-year-old Sarah and 11-year-old Philip. They were last seen in Concord on the Fourth of July.
Gehring told his ex-wife shortly before they disappeared that he would not abide by a new custody arrangement, his ex-wife said in court records. Police now believe that Gehring murdered the children and dumped the bodies somewhere in the Ohio area.
On Thursday GPD and FBI detectives monitored Gehring for more than an hour before arresting him outside room 109 of the Roadway Inn.
“They asked for the keys to the room next to his and waited for a while,” said Raj Prasad, the Roadway Inn manager, who said Gehring checked into the hotel alone Thursday night and paid for the single-bed room with a credit card. “They were trying to listen to see if he had children with him. After a while they came to the front desk and called his room. When he left to come to the front, the arrested him.”
Prasad said Gehring did not resist arrest.
Gehring is not known to have any connections to Gilroy, according to GPD spokeswoman Capt. Debbie Moore.
According to Moore, the GPD made the arrest and turned Gehring over to the FBI.
Authorities say Gehring, an out-of-work accountant, drove across the country starting July 4 or 5, possibly with his children.
New Hampshire Attorney General Peter Heed declined to release further details about the search Monday, but in a brief interview, he said he held out little hope that Sarah and Philip would be found alive.
“Until we find bodies, you never say never. But, based on everything we know, our level of confidence that they are dead is very high,” he said.
Gehring is being held in the mental health unit of the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose without bail. A jail spokesman said Gehring is depressed but was not considered a suicide risk.
Gehring is scheduled to appear in court in San Jose’s Hall of Justice this afternoon, but no charges have been filed in the case. Deadline for the charges to be filed is noon Tuesday. He was charged in New Hampshire last week with interference with child custody.
Gehring, a naturalized citizen from Nicaragua, was out of work after finishing a year-and-a-half contract job with a Nashua firm last month, according to a petition for emergency custody of the children filed by his ex-wife, Teresa Knight, on July 7.
