Bodies identified as missing kids
Hudson, Ohio 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 announced.
Dental records confirmed that the bodies are those of Sarah Gehring, 14, and her brother, Philip, 11.
A woman walking her dog had discovered the children’s shallow grave on Thursday in a wooded area.
The area closely fit the clues the children’s father had given authorities before killing himself. Manuel Gehring told authorities he wrapped his children in plastic and buried them with duct-tape crosses on their chests. The children disappeared in 2003 amid a custody dispute.
JetBlue airliner returns to airport as precaution
Long Beach, Calif. A JetBlue airliner circled the ocean for more than two hours and then returned to the Long Beach Municipal Airport early Saturday after a warning light erroneously indicated a problem with the landing gear.
The warning light came on shortly after New York-bound Flight 216 took off from Long Beach.
The captain reset the system and the light went out but decided to burn enough fuel to land in Long Beach and have the problem checked out in the interest of safety. The Airbus 320 had 146 passengers aboard.
The aircraft is the same model as another JetBlue plane that made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport in September when its nose landing gear locked askew on takeoff from Burbank.
Death penalty sought in ‘Precious Doe’ case
Kansas City, Mo. A prosecutor announced Saturday he would seek the death penalty against a man charged with beheading his 3-year-old stepdaughter, whose body was unidentified for nearly four years and was known only as “Precious Doe.”
Harrell Johnson, 26, was initially charged with second-degree murder in the death of Erica Michelle Green. But that charge was upgraded in August to first-degree murder, opening the door for the death penalty.
Johnson and his wife, Michelle M. Johnson, 30, of Muskogee, Okla., were arrested May 5 when Kansas City police followed up on a tip from a relative identifying Erica and linking them to her death.
Erica’s body was found in a park in Kansas City in 2001, when she would have been almost 4. Her head was discovered in a trash bag nearby. The community called her “Precious Doe” and hundreds gathered for a funeral in December 2001.