Father charged in girls' slayings

[Seph]

what a dick ZION, Ill. - A man was arrested on murder charges Tuesday in the Mother's Day stabbings of his 8-year-old daughter and the little girl's best friend, who were killed after they went biking in a park.

 

Jerry Hobbs, who was recently released from prison, had led police to the bodies just off a wooded bike path early Monday, claiming he spotted them while searching for his daughter, the girl's grandfather, Arthur Hollabaugh, told The Associated Press.

 

Hobbs, 34, was questioned through the day about the deaths of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9.

 

Both girls had been beaten and stabbed repeatedly in the woods and left to die, Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said. The girls were found side by side and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted. They appeared to have been killed Sunday evening near the area where they were found, he said.

 

Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller said in announcing the charges Tuesday that he could not discuss possible motives for the killings, but he later told MSNBC's Dan Abrams that Hobbs had apparently been angered by a dispute with his daughter that had to do with money, and then headed to the park to find her.

 

"He was unhappy with (Laura) and wanted her to come home and the issue with the money certainly played a role in it," said Waller.

 

Asked whether Hobbs was planning to kill the girls, Waller responded: "We'll never know what was in his mind when he was heading over there."

 

If convicted, he said, Hobbs would be eligible for the death penalty.

 

Authorities said Tuesday that additional charges could be filed, but they did not specify what they might be.

 

More details were expected after Hobbs appears in bond court Wednesday morning.

 

‘They were just babies’

"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.

 

Outside the Tobias home, Krystal's 15-year-old brother, Albert, said he had never met Hobbs but knew Hobbs was searching with his own family the night his sister was killed.

 

"We never thought a father would do that to a daughter," Albert Tobias said. "They were just babies. They didn't do anything wrong."

 

In front of the Hollabaughs' house, "No Trespassing" and "Keep Out" signs printed in black and orange had been posted on a fence.

 

Extensive criminal background

Hobbs has an extensive criminal history dating back to 1990 in Texas, including prior arrests for assault and resisting arrest, according to state Department of Public Safety records.

 

Before being released April 12, he had served two years in a Texas prison for chasing neighbors with a chain saw during an argument with Laura's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, according to Wichita County, Texas, Assistant District Attorney Rick Mahler.

 

No one was hurt in the 2001 incident, and someone subdued Hobbs by hitting him in the back with a shovel, Mahler said. Hobbs was sentenced to 10 years of probation but failed to appear for required meetings, so his probation was revoked in 2003 and he was imprisoned.

 

Investigation leads home

Hobbs had been living with the Hollabaughs after his release, Arthur Hollabaugh said. He said he worried authorities might be trying to railroad Hobbs in their search for the girls' killer.

 

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

 

Hollabaugh said authorities confiscated clothes and a computer from the house.

 

He described the search for his missing granddaughter and said the two men were in the woods shortly before dawn Monday when they spotted Laura's bike part way down a ravine in the brush.

 

Minutes later, he said, Hobbs was screaming that he had found the bodies.

 

"I went and I seen them from a distance," Hollabaugh said. "It was clear they were laying there."

 

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.

[Datheus]

Is there some reason that journalists couldn't write their way out of a wet paper bag?

 

Jesus.

[Surfnshannon]

I know - sounds like they wrote a novel with hardly any information on the matter. Sounds like the police are keeping things pretty quite. Sad for those girls - the bastard. Where's the mom in all of this?

[Datheus]

Probably drunk in a ditch somewhere--as seems to be the case in stories like these.

[Seph]

Either that or dead, and yea, not much detail.

[Sabretooth]

That guy should be tortured for the rest of his miserable life in prison and kept alive till his dies. The world needs to know that you can't just kill and get away all the time.

[jon_hill987]

Originally posted by Sabretooth

The world needs to know that you can't just kill and get away all the time.

 

And peole who get the death penalty have got away with it. Death should be a release, not a punishment.

 

I don't think any sane person could ever fully understand what drives someone to do something like this, they were just kids. What had they ever done to him?

[toms]

Well, sounds like the guy had serious anger issues. I know a lot of parents loose it with their kids, but stabbing them is rediculous!!

 

That said, I couldn't really get any facts from that article... like any evidence against him... so it's always possible he didn't do it. With his record of anger and violence he would be a fairly obvious police suspect.

[Sabretooth]

Originally posted by jon_hill987

And peole who get the death penalty have got away with it. Death should be a release, not a punishment.

 

It is a release. It releases you from life. But that is fair. This man killed those children for no reason whatsoever. If he gets killed, it only evens it. Even if he is gets a death penalty, justice isn't served. He needs to feel the pain, the pain of dying for no reason. Except this time, he won't die.

[Crow_Nest]

Heh, so its all about money eh? Typical.....

[El Sitherino]

Originally posted by toms

That said, I couldn't really get any facts from that article... like any evidence against him... so it's always possible he didn't do it. With his record of anger and violence he would be a fairly obvious police suspect.

Indeed, that was a poorly written article.

[Surfnshannon]

CNN has a better article now - He was mad at his daughter for not coming home when asked and when she back talked him he punched her twice in the face. When the other girl tried to come to the rescue he beat her down - the little girl took out a potatoe knife - to which he used to stab them over 30 times. This is just sick - on Mother's Day no less.

[RoxStar]

This reminds of the Christmas attempted murder-suicide that we had around where I live....

[Sabretooth]

Originally posted by STTCT

30 times

 

*uses a pencil to touch himself 30 times*

 

 

 

Ouch.

[toms]

Originally posted by STTCT

CNN has a better article now - He was mad at his daughter for not coming home when asked and when she back talked him he punched her twice in the face. When the other girl tried to come to the rescue he beat her down - the little girl took out a potatoe knife - to which he used to stab them over 30 times. This is just sick - on Mother's Day no less.

 

Sigh. I thought it might be something like that... major anger control issues.

 

Makes you wonder if someone should have seen this (or at least some danger to the girl) coming. Though of course it is always easy to say things like that with the benefit of hindsight.