IL - Krystal Tobias, 9, & Laura Hobbs, 8, found dead in Zion park, 8 May 2005 - #1

[KatherineQ]

Packerdog - I think they took all the family clothes, including the mother's. They also took measurements of the shoes the grandfather was wearing.

They're looking hard - and I guess, really, you have to know the grandpa's shoe print even if you don't suspect him so you can weed out his shoeprints from where the girls were found.

Another article, and a very dear picture of the blonde girl:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050510zion,0,4901213.story?coll=chi-newsbreaking-hed

 

[misterallgood]

On FOX NEWS, FORMER DC INVESTIGATOR ROD WHEELER saying girls were lured to that remote spot. Says family issues going on....

He also says there is a motive behind it, such as a family member having aggression against another family member.

FOX NEWS getting update any minute.

Like maybe the father against the mother? I wondered if there was significance to their being murdered on Mother's Day. Since they keep bandying about the idea that it's the father they are focused on, it's hard to not interpret that statement I put in bold thusly.

 

[packerdog]

KathrineQ, Thanks for the info. They must have shoe prints where they were found.

 

[mrs4point0]

Like maybe the father against the mother? I wondered if there was significance to their being murdered on Mother's Day. Since they keep bandying about the idea that it's the father they are focused on, it's hard to not interpret that statement I put in bold thusly.

That's what Wheeler was hinting at; he didn't come out and say it, but everyone keeps talking about the father.

FOX NEWS keeps saying 'an update any minute,' so why don't they?!

 

[golfmom]

That's what Wheeler was hinting at; he didn't come out and say it, but everyone keeps talking about the father.

FOX NEWS keeps saying 'an update any minute,' so why don't they?!

I switched over to WGN, but same deal. I'm betting that info will be released at noon.

 

[tuppence]

didn't I hear there was a 15 year old brother? I hate to say it but if this was an area where older kids hang out it could make more sense that they would go there with him. the crime seems almost childish in a sense and I thought the parents had an alibi for the time of the killings. I imagine they would be careful not to let that leak of it was the case.

 

[KatherineQ]

You're welcome. ;D The thing is, it could be the dad, I just don't think so and I can't make the timeline work out even near close for it to be him.

They were last seen at 4 p.m. by neighbors riding their bikes.

They were reported missing at 9:50 p.m., but the family had been searching for them since 8 p.m., so the dad's whereabouts were known at 8 p.m. and after.

That would give him between 4 and 8 p.m. to kill them, and the coroner says they were killed around midnight.

I can't make it come out that the dad did it.

 

[lostfaith]

Packerdog - I think they took all the family clothes, including the mother's. They also took measurements of the shoes the grandfather was wearing.

They're looking hard - and I guess, really, you have to know the grandpa's shoe print even if you don't suspect him so you can weed out his shoeprints from where the girls were found.

Another article, and a very dear picture of the blonde girl:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050510zion,0,4901213.story?coll=chi-newsbreaking-hed

Well, yesterday, they were in the Tobias house, dusting their car for prints, taking somekind of swabs, so I guess we should not read too much in to what is going on at the hobbs house. It will be a interesting news conference. Could be either family so far.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

You're welcome. ;D The thing is, it could be the dad, I just don't think so and I can't make the timeline work out even near close for it to be him.

They were last seen at 4 p.m. by neighbors riding their bikes.

They were reported missing at 9:50 p.m., but the family had been searching for them since 8 p.m., so the dad's whereabouts were known at 8 p.m. and after.

That would give him between 4 and 8 p.m. to kill them, and the coroner says they were killed around midnight.

I can't make it come out that the dad did it.

I read that they were last seen at 6 pm

 

[KatherineQ]

The latest most detailed Tribune article says 4 p.m. - but certainly it could be wrong.

 

[nanandjim]

...I can't make it come out that the dad did it.

I'm confused, too. It seems like the third child's family knew the girls were going to this secluded area and wouldn't let their child go with them. Couldn't the Hobbs' father have talked to this third family and then went looking in that area on his own? If so, his footprints would be there.

I briefly saw or heard them say on Fox that 'LE was searching for the suspect.' I haven't heard it since and don't know if this was accurate or not. If they are searching for the suspect, I wouldn't think that it would be the fathers.

 

[lauriej]

You're welcome. ;D The thing is, it could be the dad, I just don't think so and I can't make the timeline work out even near close for it to be him.

They were last seen at 4 p.m. by neighbors riding their bikes.

They were reported missing at 9:50 p.m., but the family had been searching for them since 8 p.m., so the dad's whereabouts were known at 8 p.m. and after.

That would give him between 4 and 8 p.m. to kill them, and the coroner says they were killed around midnight.

I can't make it come out that the dad did it.

.............as i understand it, they weren't killed at midnight, time of death was approx. midnight....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7791977/

The newspaper did not elaborate. Police had earlier said they had no leads in the deaths of the second-graders, who were left to die off a bicycle path in a park.
Dad had been in prison
Hollabaugh said Hobbs had just returned to the area about a month earlier to reunite with Laura’s mother after serving time in a Texas prison.

“Jerry just got out of prison for aggravated assault and I think they’re holding that against him,” Hollabaugh said. “I don’t think he did it.”

Hobbs could not be reached for comment Tuesday; Hollabaugh said he was still with the police.

 

[mrs4point0]

I'm confused, too. It seems like the third child's family knew the girls were going to this secluded area and wouldn't let their child go with them. Couldn't the Hobbs' father have talked to this third family and then went looking in that area on his own? If so, his footprints would be there.

I briefly saw or heard them say on Fox that 'LE was searching for the suspect.' I haven't heard it since and don't know if this was accurate or not. If they are searching for the suspect, I wouldn't think that it would be the fathers.

I truly hope it wasn't the father. FOX NEWS keeps hinting at the father. Oh, but I'm sure they couldn't be biased in their reports, though...

 

[mrs4point0]

.............as i understand it, they weren't killed at midnight, time of death was approx. midnight....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7791977/

The newspaper did not elaborate. Police had earlier said they had no leads in the deaths of the second-graders, who were left to die off a bicycle path in a park.
Dad had been in prison
Hollabaugh said Hobbs had just returned to the area about a month earlier to reunite with Laura’s mother after serving time in a Texas prison.

“Jerry just got out of prison for aggravated assault and I think they’re holding that against him,” Hollabaugh said. “I don’t think he did it.”

Hobbs could not be reached for comment Tuesday; Hollabaugh said he was still with the police.

Not looking good.......

 

[KatherineQ]

Lauriej - what's the difference in what you said and what I said?

I said, "the coroner says they were killed around midnight"

and you said

"the time of death was approx. midnight".

Those two statements are identical. What are you disagreeing with?

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Its impossible to get an exact time of death anyway and I'm sure the cool temps don't help.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Lauriej - what's the difference in what you said and what I said?

I said, "the coroner says they were killed around midnight"

and you said

"the time of death was approx. midnight".

Those two statements are identical. What are you disagreeing with?

the coroner did not say they were KILLED at midnight, he said the approximate time of death could've been midnight or earlier. That's a big difference. They could've been left to die earlier in the night, thus not "killed" at midnight, but died at midnight because they were left to die. They could've been stabbed repeatedly around 9pm or so, and the girls may have been unable to move, thus remained there in the spot where they were found bleeding to death

 

[1986]

The missing bicycle is a big deal I think. So is the fact that both girls were reported stabbed in the throat and beaten about the head. I'm just wondering if this could have been an older child or someone in the woods that didn't want to be seen. The girls may have stumbled on this person, he freaks out and leaves them for dead as he rides away on the missing bike. Find the bike, find the killer. It worries me that the natural reaction is to focus on the father. Sort of like all the attention paid to the Lunsford family while Jessica was missing. I could be wrong. I guess I just don't want these girls to have been killed by a family member.

 

[golfmom]

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-05102005-487398.html

Grandfather Describes Finding Slain Girls
By ANNA JOHNSON
The Associated Press

Colias reports the grandfather of the one of the slain girls says the father had just been released from prison.

ZION, Ill. - Arthur Hollabaugh says he had searched through the night for his missing granddaughter when he spotted something in bushes part way down a ravine: a child's bicycle.

Minutes later, he said Tuesday, his son-in-law, Jerry Hobbs, was screaming that he had found the bodies of his 8-year-old daughter, Laura Hobbs, and her best friend, Krystal Tobias, who disappeared together on a Mother's Day bike ride.

"I went and I seen them from a distance," Hollabaugh, 51, told The Associated Press. "It was clear they were laying there."

Laura and 9-year-old Krystal were stabbed repeatedly and left a few yards off a wooded bike path near their homes in this small city near the Wisconsin line. On Tuesday, a memorial of flowers and balloons marked the area where the bodies were found a day earlier.

Police weren't commenting on the case Tuesday morning, but Hollabaugh said investigators were questioning his son-in-law and had also talked to Laura's siblings about Hobbs. Donald Meadie, assistant commander of the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, confirmed late Monday that Jerry Hobbs had been questioned but said there were no suspects. He declined to comment further.

Hollabaugh said Hobbs had just returned to the area about a month earlier to reunite with Laura's mother after serving time in a Texas prison.

"Jerry just got out of prison for aggravated assault and I think they're holding that against him," Hollabaugh said. "I don't think he did it." Hobbs could not be reached for comment Tuesday; Hollabaugh said he was still with the police.

Police searched the family home and Hollabaugh said they took measurements of his shoe soles. "They went through our stuff, took clothes," he said, adding that they took the computer to see if the girl had been on any Internet chat rooms.

,...............................

 

[packerdog]

I know midnight or around midnight, same difference IMO.