Concord, N.H. ? “Wash car.” “Vacuum car.” “Get newspaper.”

Manuel Gehring, who once created spreadsheets to chronicle his daily and monthly tasks at work, liked to make “To Do” lists.

But the one he carried on July 10, 2003, was unusual. The car he reminded himself to clean was soaked with his children’s blood. A few days later, the newspapers would carry the story of his arrest.

The list was among more than 2,000 pages of documents released this week by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, which has closed the case. The files show the dark side of the man who once wrote, “I care and love those kids more than anything in the world.”

Gehring killed himself in February while awaiting trial on charges he murdered his 14-year-old daughter, Sarah, and 11-year-old son, Philip, on July 4. He told authorities he pulled off the highway in New Hampshire to shoot them and buried their bodies somewhere in the Midwest along Interstate 80.

Bodies still missing

He was arrested in California, but the bodies have not been found, despite extensive searches last year in parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Nebraska.

Gehring said he decided to kill the children because their lives were in a “downward spiral” due to a custody dispute with their mother, who had remarried and was expecting twins. Under the latest custody arrangement, Gehring had the children slightly more than his ex-wife, but he remained unsatisfied.

“As a parent, I feel it is my responsibility to help them, protect them, nurture them and rise to the occasion whenever they need me,” he wrote to a counselor as part of the efforts to reach a custody agreement.

Manuel Gehring is pictured with his two children Philip, 11, and Sarah, 14. Gehring killed himself in February after confessing to killing them. Their bodies have not been recovered.

Darker side

But the files tell a different story.

A two-page note Gehring wrote to Sarah chastises her for not properly cleaning the kitchen after she made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Sarah’s boyfriend said Gehring frequently argued with his daughter and once hit her in the face because she was making too much noise when she was sick, according to a transcript of an interview with investigators.

Co-workers described Gehring as a “control freak.” The boyfriend’s father, a school administrator, said Gehring was so aggressive about knowing where his daughter was at all times that he avoided talking to him.

“I deal with parents every single day, and I think that the professional term for this gentlemen would be cracker head,” he said in the transcripts.

Gehring worked hard to portray himself as “Father of the Year,” but it all was for show, Knight contended.

“He was really very controlling and emotionally and physically abusive,” she told police.