http://www.comcast.net/news/index.js...10/128464.html
Bodies of Missing Girls Found in Illinois
By MIKE COLIAS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour ago
In this family photo provided by the Zion Police ...
ZION, Ill. - Two second-grade girls who disappeared while riding bikes together were found dead Monday, both stabbed multiple times and left to die off a bicycle path in a park, authorities said.
A resident walking through a wooded nature area in the park discovered the bodies of best friends Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, at dawn.
"This is a heinous crime. It was a crime not only against those kids but against all of us," Police Chief Doug Malcolm said.
The parents of one of the girls had reported her missing about 8:50 p.m. Sunday, about two hours after she was expected home, Malcolm said. The parents of the other girl called shortly afterward, and authorities with rescue dogs began searching.
Malcolm said no weapons were found and there was no evidence of sexual assault. A girl's bicycle was found nearby. He said police had not identified any suspects and that there were "no solid leads that we're focusing on."
The killings stunned this town about 45 miles north of Chicago, prompting police and school officials to escort children directly onto buses at the end of the school day. Dozens of anxious parents waited until their children emerged from the front doors of the school, then put their arms around their kids or clutched their hands as they walked to their cars.
Constance Collins, superintendent of the Zion Elementary School District 6, said the girls were in the same second-grade class at Beulah Park Elementary School.
"They were best friends," said Laura Unrein, who lives near the park. "When one left, the other left. They were always together."
"They were very sweet girls," said Julie Dobnikar, who teaches second grade at the school. Dobnikar added that the girls' teacher is "very distraught right now."
School was in session Monday, and social workers and a crisis intervention team were called in to help the students.
Jeanette Ortiz said she is worried because her 11-year-old son plays and rides his bike in the same park. She came to the school to pick him up.
"I'm going to have to tell him that he needs to be careful no matter where he goes," she said.
Unrein said the area where the girls' bodies were found is well-known in the community as a place to avoid.
"There have been incidents of kids beating up people and taking their wallets and park rangers have had to shoo people out of there for hunting illegally," she said. "My husband and I don't go down there any more because you hear the stories."
The park where the girls were found has a paved bike path, a ravine and trails made by mountain bikes. Police tape cordoned off the area.
Zion, along Lake Michigan, was founded in 1901 by a religious faith healer as a utopian community. It has about 22,000 residents but retains a quiet, at times rural feel despite being on the edge of both the Chicago and Milwaukee metropolitan areas.
Why on earth, given the state of the world today, do you let your 8 yr old girl go off virtually alone without adult supervision? Did these parents not get enough information from the 2 recent Florida girls being killed?
It is not like it was in the 70s when my friends and I went out on our bikes for hours at a time without checking in at home. It is not safe for kids to be out by themselves anymore. How many times does this have to happen before parents figure this out???
This is horrible.
Jim is so right on the mark!
I don't let my 11 year old daughter out of my eye sight when she is out playing with her friends. I know she hates it but after she sees stories like this, I think she understands. she hates when the news is on, it sorta scares her.
Too right, if you have kids to not let them unsupervised.
There's just too many in Sick bas s out running around.
its like you guys say...when will these people learn?? Jeez!
Every parent always thinks or believes that it won't happen to them..not in their town...not to their children. They are idiots or just optimists. Either way, they must be realistic about the world.
I agree that 8 is too young but I do let my 10 and 11yo daughters ride their bikes around our neighborhood. Is it scary....yes, but you can't keep them locked in their rooms either.
Idiots because some sick, twisted individual decided to kill their kids?
My kids are outside all the time, but they know they have to stay within the vincinity of my house and if they want to go in someone's house or backyard they have to tell me.
Same her S y. When they do go ride their bikes I know exactly which streets they are on and they have to come check in every 15 min or so........and I give them my cell phone so I can call and check up on them every few minutes.
there is no excuse for this... supposedly they werent sexually assaulted...so why were they killed? terrible....
i can't wait til they find this person
I would never let my 8 yr old daughter go alone on a bike ride with another kid. No way, not even in the front yard. The only place she goes by herself is the backyard and thats because we don't have an alley back there. I can't even imagine why/how someone can do this. so sad....
Girl's father questioned in killings
May 10, 2005
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter
Advertisement
The father of one of the two 8-year-old girls whose bodies were found in a area in Zion Monday was being questioned today and has given a statement to police, a law enforcement source said. Jerry Hobbs — who with his father-in-law found the bodies in a remote, wooded area of the far north suburb’s Beulah Park — recently was released from a Texas prison, records show and the family confirmed.
Hobbs “just got out of prison for aggravated assault, and I think they’re holding that against him,” said Arthur Hollabaugh, the grandfather of murder victim Laura Hobbs.
He added, “I don’t think he did it.”
Hobbs and Hollabaugh found the bodies of Laura and her best friend, Krystal Tobias, in the park.
No charges have been filed in the deaths of the two girls, who were repeatedly stabbed and possibly slashed.
And Zion police and the Lake County state’s attorney’s office declined to comment on a possible suspect or when charges might be filed.
But the law enforcement source said charges could be filed later today.
Police searched the home where Laura lived, Hollabaugh said. ‘‘They went through our stuff, took clothes.”
This morning, a memorial of flowers and balloons marked the area of Zion’s Beulah Park, where the girls’ bodies had been found.
Grief counselors were brought to nearby Beulah Park Elementary School, where the two had been in the same second-grade class. The students just read Charlotte’s Web and A Taste of Blackberries, both of which deal with loss, school superintendent Constance Collins said today.
Fifteen-year-old Albert Tobias said he didn’t know of any reason why someone would want to attack his sister. ‘‘I really don’t know anything. All I know is she got stabbed,’’ he said in a phone interview. ‘‘But I would like to know what happened.’’
Contributing: AP
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/zion10.html
Sick MF in this world.
To all the parents: Give your daughters pepper spray, just make sure they dont misuse it...
But seriously, I think that is terrible. What kind of a man are you to kill a little girl? What kind of a person are you to kill anyone? I just don't know how you could even consider anything like that.
Imagine being 8 years old and being stabbed to death, that is a terrible way to die...and being 8 years old....wow.
If I were the dad, I would hunt this bas down, and I would kill the er the slowest way possible.
that was great...when he tied that guy to the hood of the car and stuck the time bomb up his ass was priceless...I've had a couple of people I wanted to do that to...
If I were the dad, I would hunt this bas down, and I would kill the er the slowest way possible.It very well may have been one of the dads. Which makes it even worse if that is at all possible.The father of one of the two 8-year-old girls whose bodies were found in a area in Zion Monday was being questioned today and has given a statement to police, a law enforcement source said. Jerry Hobbs — who with his father-in-law found the bodies in a remote, wooded area of the far north suburb’s Beulah Park — recently was released from a Texas prison, records show and the family confirmed.
I don't understand why people do these kind of things...if you don't like your life, kill yourself. Don't make others pay for you being a sick bas .
the dad did it... any reason he should not be killed if found guilty?
Terrible and Why???
Father Arrested in Slaying of Two Girls
Father Arrested on Su ion of Killing 8-Year-Old Daughter and Her Friend in Illinois
By MIKE COLIAS
The Associated Press
May. 10, 2005 - A father who had just been released from prison was arrested and was being charged with murder Tuesday in the Mother's Day stabbings of his 8-year-old daughter and the little girl's best friend, authorities said.
Jerry Hobbs, 34, had led police to the bodies just off a wooded bike path early Monday, claiming he had spotted them while searching for his missing daughter with the girl's grandfather, Arthur Hollabaugh, Hollabaugh told The Associated Press.
Hobbs was questioned through the day by authorities and charged Tuesday in the deaths of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9.
Both girls had been beaten and stabbed multiple times in the area where they were found and then left to die in the woods, Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said. He said the girls were found side-by-side, facing up and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted.
Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller said in announcing the charges Tuesday that Hobbs would appear at a bond hearing Wednesday morning.
"This horrific crime has terrorized and traumatized the Zion community and I think it's safe to say people of good will everywhere," Waller said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures
The FATHER???
I am stunned.
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