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JayW said:Usually some sick shit like this is to cover up some even sicker shit... but the girls weren't raped. This puzzles me. I mean, I'm not in the business of trying to make sense of socio/psychopaths but nevertheless I cannot help but wonder why the $&#! someone would stab a couple of 4th graders to death unless it was they had been raped...
geesh
sitarro said:If it is extraordinarily violent and senseless , it is usually gang related . . .
JayW said:Usually some sick shit like this is to cover up some even sicker shit... but the girls weren't raped. This puzzles me. I mean, I'm not in the business of trying to make sense of socio/psychopaths but nevertheless I cannot help but wonder why the $&#! someone would stab a couple of 4th graders to death unless it was they had been raped...
geesh
no1tovote4 said:Think maybe they saw some illegal activity happening and with the social skills of 4th graders actually told the people that they would tell?
It could also be just the first of killings for a serial killer, they usually escalate in violence but usually don't sexually violate their victims either...
Kathianne said:Could be, the woods were supposedly a pretty rough area. At the same time, kinda weird that one of the fathers found them though.
The bodies were discovered at Beulah Park around 6 a.m. (7 a.m. ET); police did not identify the person who found them.
no1tovote4 said:Where do you get that one of the fathers found the bodies? According to the story:
2 missing girls are found slain
Zion 2nd graders disappeared Sunday while out playing
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By John Bebow, Susan Kuczka and Ofelia Casillas
Tribune staff reporters
May 10, 2005
[Read an update of this story.]
It started as a typical spring Sunday for two 2nd-grade girls: riding bikes, flying kites, swinging in a backyard hammock and, later, an adventure in a wooded public park that some feared was a danger to youngsters.
When Krystal Tobias, 9, and Laura Hobbs, 8, didn't make it home for dinner, Mother's Day turned into a frantic overnight search by police dogs and volunteers with flashlights.
The two girls, gregarious best pals in a blue-collar neighborhood, were found dead at 6 a.m. Monday about 50 yards into the woods at the northeast end of Beulah Park in Zion.
Both girls probably died from stab wounds in their necks sometime before dawn Monday, said Lake County Coroner Richard Keller. The girls probably died where they were found, face up, next to each other, fully clothed, with no sign of sexual assault, Keller said. Investigators recovered the girls' bicycles near the bodies.
Police continued to conduct interviews and gather evidence Monday evening, but no arrests had been made. Zion Police Chief Doug Malcolm said at an afternoon news conference that his department had no solid leads. The chief said he could offer no comfort to parents and neighbors chilled by the thought of a killer on the loose.
"It could be Santa Claus. Who knows?" Malcolm said. "There's nothing I can say to them to make them feel better."
The brutal deaths shook Zion, a working class town of almost 23,000 people nearly 50 miles north of downtown Chicago.
"I can't believe she's gone," Laura Hobbs' mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, said Monday afternoon, shortly after concluding what she said was a six-hour interview with police.
Hollabaugh and a police source said Hobbs' father discovered the bodies.
Hollabaugh said a relative was interviewed by police early Monday evening. Police confirmed that the relative was interviewed and released. Investigators left the Hobbs home with several bags of what they called evidence Monday afternoon, and Sheila Hollabaugh said police had taken clothing family members had worn on Sunday.
Family members and neighbors said Laura Hobbs was eager to get out and play in Sunday's warm breezes. She had made many friends after her parents moved in 2004 to Gilboa Avenue, a neighborhood of modest houses. By September, the girl's backyard was full of children for her birthday party.
By early afternoon Sunday, after a trip to a local beach and time spent flying a kite, Laura, had met up with Krystal, her classmate and constant companion at Beulah Park Elementary School, which is just steps from both girls' homes.
By about 2 p.m. Sunday, the girls were at the home of Hector Montes, 7, playing football. An hour later, they left when the Montes family went out for a Mother's Day ice cream treat.
"I feel so bad because we left," Hector's mother, Consuelo Montes said Monday. "They were safe when they were at my house. They were always welcome here. They were good girls, and well-behaved, and smiley and giggly."
The girls continued on to 9-year-old Cristela Florek's house. Cristela and her mother, Dora, weren't home, but neighbors saw the girls playing in the Florek's backyard hammock at about 4 p.m.
Police said the girls were last seen about that time on their bikes in the neighborhood.
"I'm just thinking if we had been home the girls would have been safe," Dora Florek said.
Laura Hobbs was known in the neighborhood for her punctuality. She had a 7 p.m. curfew, and as that time drew near she would remind other kids that "it's time to come in," said Qadira Williams, 12, a playmate.
The curfew hour came Sunday with no sign of either Laura or Krystal. Both girls' mothers reported their daughters missing around 9 p.m., police said.
"There are no words," said Joaquin Tobias, 35, an uncle of Krystal's and spokesman for the family. Tobias said the family moved from Mexico 17 years ago. "She was a happy girl. She liked very much being outside. [On Sunday] she went out with her friend and we didn't see her again."
Malcolm said his police force quickly mobilized, searched neighborhoods, downtown Zion and nearby Beulah Park with the help of dogs and volunteers. Investigators also contacted school officials, got the names of all the girls' classmates, and interviewed the other children and their families well into the night.
As word of the tragedy quickly spread, concerned parents drove to Beulah Park Elementary School on Monday morning and removed some children from class. The children who stayed at the school of 415 pupils weren't allowed outside for recess or lunch.
Constance Collins, superintendent of Zion Elementary District 6, said she was preparing a crisis team of social workers to provide counseling for pupils Tuesday and a meeting for parents was planned for Tuesday evening.
Laura Hobbs' mother said the girls were not allowed to play in the park. But another neighbor, Eliena Goetz, said Laura and Krystal were, indeed, planning to play on Sunday in a ravine in the park.
Goetz said her daughter, Destinee, "asked if she could go play in the ravine with them and I said, `No, I'm taking you to the park.'"
Collins said school officials had urged children to steer clear of the ravine area.
"We have encouraged the students, as they come to and leave school, to not go through that particular area," she said.
Neighborhood residents said Beulah Park and its ravine area were a haven for fights and muggings. The 80-acre park, a part of the town for 100 years, has a creek at the bottom of the ravine. A paved bike path winds around the ravine. Much of the park is heavily wooded.
"There have been problems with alcohol and drugs in these woods," said Maxwell Isaac, 18, a senior at Zion-Benton High School. "Some people even live in the woods."
Zion officials downplayed concerns about the park where the bodies were found. Malcolm said he knew of no crime problem in the park. And Lake County board member Brent Paxton, who lives across the street from the park, called it "a really nice area."
"Like any area, if somebody wanted to do some mischief back there they could," Paxton said. "About the worst thing that we get is, teens park their cars by my house at night and I'll see them carry a six-pack of beer. They can go back in the wooded areas and not be seen."
Fear was palpable in the neighborhood Monday.
"I'm scared because my kids want to walk to school and I let them last Thursday because it was nice, but I followed them in my car," said Judy Marquez, who has a 10-year-old and a 6-year old at Beulah Park Elementary. "After today, I don't think I'd feel safe having them walk to or from school."
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Tribune staff reporters Lisa Black, Richard Wronski, Jodi S. Cohen, Jennifer Lebovich, M. Daniel Gibbard and Angela Rozas contributed.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune
Mr. P said:Just heard coming news conf. to announce arrest...no details...
-=d=- said:Homosexuality has killed more kids, I'd bet...Abortion for sure...those are protected activities. What if the guy was just BORN that way (homicidal urges)??
GotZoom said:FOX New is reporting that one of the girl's father will be arrested and charged.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156032,00.html
SmarterThanYou said:early this morning they are reporting that there are no leads, but NOW they have arrested the father? could he just be a scapegoat because of his record?
SmarterThanYou said:early this morning they are reporting that there are no leads, but NOW they have arrested the father? could he just be a scapegoat because of his record?
