CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A month and a half after her highly publicized trip to the Midwest to refocus attention on the search for her murdered children, Teri Knight continues sifting through hundreds of tips, and contemplates a lower-profile trip so she can do some real searching herself.

“Everything is moving in slow motion,” she said of the renewed search for the bodies of her daughter, Sarah, 14, and son, Philip, 11, who were murdered by her ex-husband two summers ago and are believed to be buried somewhere along hundreds of miles of Interstate 80.

In July, Knight, of Hillsborough, and her husband, Jim, traveled to the Midwest in a media blitz, conducting interviews before, after and all during their exhausting drive along the interstate from Iowa to Pennsylvania. They succeeded in getting the search back on front pages, and on the minds of residents along the route, but did not get much time to investigate possible burial sites as much as she would have liked.

“I’d like to think I’ll get back out there this fall, maybe with a little less fanfare, so I can get more work done,” she said. Knight said she would like to investigate areas near Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio.

For now, Knight is relying on private investigators to follow up on tips prompted by last month’s trip.

The hundreds of tips range from some that are difficult to take seriously – like one from someone in Maine who said the children are alive and living in a cult there – to others that offer detailed directions and photos of potential burial sites.

Knight’s ex-husband, Manuel Gehring, was last seen arguing with the children as they left a 2003 Fourth of July celebration in Concord. He was arrested, alone, days later in California in a bloody van. He told police he killed the kids and buried them off Interstate 80.

He could not pinpoint the site, though he offered landmarks, such as tall grass, an old pump, concrete pipes and a wire fence. Gehring killed himself in jail, ending any hope he could be more helpful.

Last month, a forensic anthropologist and a team of students dug for the bodies in western Pennsylvania, after two cadaver-sniffing dogs signaled the possible presence of human remains.

They found nothing, but Knight said there still are questions about what attracted the dogs.

The area was near Grove City, Pa., where Gehring bought a shovel and plastic bags he said he used in burying his children.

That’s where a man and his teenage son traveled the highway this month, sending Knight a detailed diary and photos of what they saw. They left a Wal-Mart at exactly the time a receipt showed Gehring left and drove to I-80, documenting each exit.

They left the highway at some exits and looked for the landmarks Gehring described, including a spot in Ohio where they found pumps and a spot where the ground looked disturbed.

Knight said they went so far as to have the son lie down on the spot, so in a photo, Knight could see exactly how large it was.

“He put all in an Excel spread sheet and e-mailed me pictures,” she said. “He probably had 10 or so. This is really very helpful information.”

Knight said she’s gratified by the tips.

“That’s what keeps you kind of answering the phone because you don’t know what’s on the other end,” she said. “All it takes is one person – one lucky stop.”

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On the Net:

www.philipandsarah.com

AP-ES-08-22-05 1127EDT