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

[Pharlap]

They were best friends, one 8 and one 9....

 

[Jeana (DP)]

You should hear my daughter's reaction to the press conference. "Why in the hell are two girls, one mile from their homes, unsupervised?" I guess I'm not looking so bad anymore.

My 10 year old daughter has that same reaction when we hear about stuff like this. We'll just look at each other in amazement! I stand at the front door and watch her bring in the mail. Yes, I realize that's going overboard, but I've lived with not knowing where someone was for 11 years. I'm not going through that with one of my kids.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

This sounds like a major "sicko" on the loose...maybe if the girls were sisters or something then revenge killing toward the mother might be the case but these kids were just best friends, right??

yeah... just two little girls who were best friends

I am just speculating but it sounds like a fit of rage... either another little friend mad at them or a neighbor mad about something? Neither person, of course, is justified in doing what they did. Terrible.

Why weren't the kids with their mothers on mother's day??

 

[joanofarc]

yeah... just two little girls who were best friends

I am just speculating but it sounds like a fit of rage... either another little friend mad at them or a neighbor mad about something? Neither person, of course, is justified in doing what they did. Terrible.

Why weren't the kids with their mothers on mother's day??

Oh you just set off some awful thoughts in my head.....I don't even want to entertain the idea....yet, you hear of 9 - 12 year olds doing stuff like that....scary....

 

[LovelyPigeon]

the father who yelled at them for writing in chalk on his garage door

?? I thought that Jim Goetz was at work and his wife saw them writing on the garage door at 10 a.m.?

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Oh you just set off some awful thoughts in my head.....I don't even want to entertain the idea....yet, you hear of 9 - 12 year olds doing stuff like that....scary....

there appararently was no known sexual assault so it had to be something personal and not neccesarily random. Unless they witnessed something they shouldn't have seen??

 

[PrayersForMaura]

?? I thought that Jim Goetz was at work and his wife saw them writing on the garage door at 10 a.m.?

Not the way I read it, but I could be wrong:
"Jim Goetz, a Zion resident who lives across the street from Beulah Park, said he last saw the two girls about 9 a.m. Sunday, when they rode their bicycles to his house to play with his 7-year-old daughter.

At one point, Goetz said, he scolded the children for drawing in chalk on his garage and made them clean it off. After about an hour, the two visiting girls got on their bikes and rode away, saying they were going to ride by the ravine in Beulah Park."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050509zion,1,4949577.story?coll=chi-newsbreaking-hed&ctrack=2&cset=true

 

[PrayersForMaura]

originally i saw time of death was around 1am. Now I read that it's estimated at 12am....


"Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said the girls appeared to have been killed around midnight, but an autopsy was still being conducted to determine for sure. He said it was difficult to tell because of rain and cool temperature."

same link from my post above.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

"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, Deputy Police Chief Clyde Watkins said. The parents of the other girl called shortly afterward, and authorities with rescue dogs began searching..
"

 

[misterallgood]

?? I thought that Jim Goetz was at work and his wife saw them writing on the garage door at 10 a.m.?

I thought so too.

Here's a link to my post about the 5 pm news conference about this at the Blogger News Network -- Laura Hobbs And Krystal Tobias Murdered in Zion, Illinois.

This one is slasher-movie creepy. And worse yet, on mother's day.

Found some interesting info on sex offenders in the area, even though Dr. Richard Keller, the medical examiner in Zion, says there was no sexual assault.

I can see why this one is getting newsplay, even though the Abaroa case is still inexplicably not -- this was a horrific crime occurring on a special day to two relatively low-risk victims. Obviously no one seemed to think there was anything wrong in that neighborhood with 8 and 9 year olds roaming around on their bikes, and apparently Zion police are saying that they've not had a crime in recent memory that was similar.

One to watch, if I can keep my appetite doing so. My eldest daughter by my first marriage is 9, so seeing such stories is really rough sometimes.

 

[joanofarc]

there appararently was no known sexual assault so it had to be something personal and not neccesarily random. Unless they witnessed something they shouldn't have seen??

What bothers me is the time of death...where were these kids before they were reported missing....no sexual assualt is really strange as I understand that two children could be murdered with this as a motive...but without it, it just seems very weird....Who would do this.....someone who is very angry with these kids...why????

 

[Pharlap]

there appararently was no known sexual assault so it had to be something personal and not neccesarily random. Unless they witnessed something they shouldn't have seen??

The reports say at this time, it appears that way about the sexual assault.
They need to be examined to be sure, thou.....

 

[golfmom]

Seems strange that an Amber Alert wasn't sent out on these girls. At that age it's highly unlikely they'd run away.

News reports showed one of the family's car (I think Krystals) covered with pink powder checking for finger prints and LE bringing in swabs ... I'm assuming to DNA test relatives.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Seems strange that an Amber Alert wasn't sent out on these girls. At that age it's highly unlikely they'd run away.

News reports showed one of the family's car (I think Krystals) covered with pink powder checking for finger prints and LE bringing in swabs ... I'm assuming to DNA test relatives.

Are amber alerts issued only when a known car is involved in an abduction or is that a sarah alert?

 

[golfmom]

Are amber alerts issued only when a known car is involved in an abduction or is that a sarah alert?

I know that there is a criteria, but I'm not sure what it is . . .

ILLINOIS CRITERIA ... You would think that these girls met at least one of the criteria

Criteria for Activation: Law enforcement must confirm a child has been abducted.

The child must be under the age of 16 or have a proven mental or physical disability.

Police must believe the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death.

There is enough descriptive information about the child, abductor, and/or suspect’s vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast alert will help.

 

[joanofarc]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155940,00.html


Oh I hate media reports....different stories coming out again..now they are saying the one girl was suppose to be home at 7 p.m., and they were reported missing to L.E. around 9 p.m. but it also states that they weren't seen since that afternoon....who or what do you believe...LOL.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

i'm just amazed that these kids were seemingly roaming all day long!
Did they eat?

Timeline...

1. they were at a friend's house at 9am,
2. scrubbing off chalk on garage at 10
3. in a neighbor's hammock at 4pm
4. riding a bike at 6pm
5. reported missing at 9pm
6. dead at 12am by coroner's report (estimated)
7. found at 6:00am

references:

1. Jim Goetz, a Zion resident who lives across the street from Beulah Park, said he last saw the two girls about 9 a.m. Sunday, when they rode their bicycles to his house to play with his 7-year-old daughter. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050509zion,1,4949577.story?coll=chi-newsbreaking-hed&ctrack=2&cset=true
   
2. At one point, Goetz said, he scolded the children for drawing in chalk on his garage and made them clean it off. After about an hour [10am implied], the two visiting girls got on their bikes and rode away, saying they were going to ride by the ravine in Beulah Park. Same link as reference 1.
3. "Apparently two little girls came here looking for my daughter to play with and said they were playing in the hammock for a while and then left around 4:00 yesterday," said Dora Florek, neighbor. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/050905_ns_zion.html
4. NBC5 reported the bodies wer discovered by a male jogger and that the girls disappeared after leaving a friend's house around 6 p.m. Sunday. http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=46645
5. One of the girls' parents reported her daughter missing around 9 p.m. Sunday. The girl was supposed to be home at 7 p.m. same link as reference 4.
6. Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said the girls appeared to have been killed around midnight, but an autopsy was still being conducted to determine for sure. He said it was difficult to tell because of rain and cool temperature. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050509zion,0,7457125.story?page=1&coll=chi-news-hed
7. A resident walking through a wooded part of the city's Beulah Park discovered the bodies around 6 a.m., Deputy Chief Clyde Watkins said. A bike path and a ravine run through the area, which police cordoned off Monday morning. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/050905_ns_zion.html

 

[PrayersForMaura]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155940,00.html


Oh I hate media reports....different stories coming out again..now they are saying the one girl was suppose to be home at 7 p.m., and they were reported missing to L.E. around 9 p.m. but it also states that they weren't seen since that afternoon....who or what do you believe...LOL.

I posted this on the thread in the crimes in the news forum:

i'm just amazed that these kids were seemingly roaming all day long!
Did they eat?

Timeline...

1. they were at a friend's house at 9am,
2. scrubbing off chalk on garage at 10
3. in a neighbor's hammock at 4pm
4. riding a bike at 6pm
5. were supposed to be home at 7pm, never showed
6. reported missing at 9pm
7. dead at 12am by coroner's report (estimated)
8. found at 6:00am

 

[golfmom]

I caught he grandmother of one of the girls on tv saying something about they were headed over to the park to fly kites. Perhaps they were at one of the girls homes for a bit and headed back out.

 

[Pharlap]

What's going to be hard about this case is:

It's very close to the Wisc border.
Lake Michigan is right there and at that location it's VERY DEEP, so if the weapon was thrown in the water, may never be found.
It's also the location of a closed nuclear power plant.

Also what was stated is the police aren't sure where they were killed....