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Authorities: Illinois Father Admits Killings (for breaking curfew)
Associated Press ^ | May 11, 2005 | Nicole Ziegler Dizon

Posted on 05/11/2005 10:21:39 AM PDT by AntiGuv

WAUKEGAN, Ill. - The father of an 8-year-old girl who was slain along with her best friend admitted to authorities that he was the killer, saying he was angry at the girl for breaking curfew, authorities said Wednesday.

A judge denied bond Wednesday for Jerry Hobbs after prosecutors described a videotaped interview in court in which he allegedly told investigators he stabbed the girls to death.

Hobbs' 8-year-old daughter, Laura Hobbs, and her friend Krystal Tobias, 9, were found dead Monday in a park in Zion, the day after they vanished.

The father, who had been released from a Texas prison last month, told investigators he was angry at Laura when he tracked her and Krystal in the wooded park, punched her and then killed both girls, prosecutors said.

Hobbs, shackled and in a dark blue jail uniform, stared at the floor as Assistant Lake County State's Attorney Jeff Pavletic described the case against him.

Hobbs led police to their bodies Monday morning, claiming then that he found them while searching for his missing daughter. In videotaped interviews, however, prosecutors say Hobbs told them he killed the girls, stabbing his daughter repeatedly in the neck and eyes, after Laura refused to leave the park when he ordered her to go home.

State's attorney Michael Waller told NBC's "Today" earlier Wednesday that the father had showed a lack of emotion and that "things didn't add up" in his interviews with police.

The prosecutor said Hobbs went looking for his daughter and that Krystal "just happened to be there," before the father killed both girls.

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

Just last month, he was released from a Texas prison after serving time for an assault in 2001. He had argued with Laura's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, then grabbed a chain saw and chased neighbors until someone hit him in the back with a shovel, according to Rick Mahler, assistant district attorney for Wichita County, Texas. No one was injured.

Hobbs was sentenced to 10 years probation but failed to appear for required meetings, so his probation was revoked in 2003.

Arthur Hollabaugh said Hobbs had been living with the Hollabaughs after his release.

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

Zion, along Lake Michigan, was founded in 1901 by a religious faith healer. 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.

At the entrance to Beulah Park, where the bodies were found, more than a dozen children stood quietly around a growing memorial of flowers, balloons and stuffed animals.

One sign read: "May your angels rest peacefully in heaven."

At a prayer vigil later Tuesday evening, Krystal's family and about 200 community members gathered outside her home and somberly walked the block and a half to Laura's house. The slain girls' families hugged each other and began crying.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: girls; psycho; zion
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1 posted on 05/11/2005 10:21:39 AM PDT by AntiGuv
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To: AntiGuv

Spare the rod, spoil the child.


2 posted on 05/11/2005 10:22:28 AM PDT by ambrose ("They killed the Giggler, man. THEY KILLED THE GIGGLER!")
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To: AntiGuv

There is absolutely no way to make sense of this.


3 posted on 05/11/2005 10:22:33 AM PDT by RushCrush (Never give in. Never, never, never, never!)
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To: AntiGuv
He admitted guilt. That's good enough for me.

Kill him.
4 posted on 05/11/2005 10:23:26 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (The theory of evolution is the great cosmogenic myth of the twentieth century - Michael Denton)
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To: AntiGuv
Do you suppose his defense will include postpartum depression?
5 posted on 05/11/2005 10:23:44 AM PDT by The_Victor (Doh!... stupid tagline)
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To: RushCrush

None.


6 posted on 05/11/2005 10:23:56 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun
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To: AntiGuv

This man - and I hesitate to call him such - is the lowest form of being in existence.


7 posted on 05/11/2005 10:24:48 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: reagan_fanatic

Agreed - no individual with this kind of rage should be allowed in society to kill again. The only way to assure that is to put him out of our misery.


8 posted on 05/11/2005 10:24:53 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun
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To: ambrose

Does anyone have a picture of this idiot?

Preferably one with a noose around his neck and his tongue hangin out, gasping his last.


9 posted on 05/11/2005 10:24:56 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
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To: AntiGuv
Well, that's one way to ensure they never come late again. Can't have disobedience, you know.

Wax him....

10 posted on 05/11/2005 10:26:01 AM PDT by freebilly (Go Santa Cruz Baseball!)
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To: AntiGuv
....after Laura refused to leave the park when he ordered her to go home.

Poor baby, I bet she was scared to death of him.

11 posted on 05/11/2005 10:26:40 AM PDT by najida (Living in my house with just a power cord, a garden hose & a bucket; what else does a girl need ; ))
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To: AntiGuv

I still say John Mason from Duluth did it. He's got them shifty eyes.


12 posted on 05/11/2005 10:27:01 AM PDT by Sloth (I don't post a lot of the threads you read; I make a lot of the threads you read better.)
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To: AntiGuv
"he was angry at the girl for breaking curfew"

Oh great, I can see it coming. This will now be spun as the kind of behavior you can expect from a prudish, uptight, controlling conservative, and just goes to show how crazy and unstable conservatives are.
13 posted on 05/11/2005 10:27:30 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Steve_Seattle

See #2.


14 posted on 05/11/2005 10:28:41 AM PDT by k2blader (If I have not yet replied to your kind FReepmail, my sincerest apologies.. {:-)
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To: AntiGuv

This "father" is a piece of puke filth. Execute him quickly so God can throw him in Hell.


15 posted on 05/11/2005 10:28:46 AM PDT by Luna (Lobbing the Holy Hand Grenade at Liberalism)
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To: AntiGuv
Sentencing by Judge Vlad Tepes, I hope.
16 posted on 05/11/2005 10:29:33 AM PDT by DTogo (U.S. out of the U.N. & U.N out of the U.S.)
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To: AppyPappy

17 posted on 05/11/2005 10:30:09 AM PDT by AntiGuv (™)
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: AntiGuv

Some folks just need killin'. This guy is one of them, and sorely overdue at that.


20 posted on 05/11/2005 10:33:37 AM PDT by Little Pig (Is it time for "Cowboys and Muslims" yet?)
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