Father charged in murder of 8-year-old daughter and friend in Illinois town

ZION, Ill. - When the father of a missing 8-year-old found her bloodied body in a ravine, next to her lifeless best friend, it seemed every parent's worst nightmare.\nJerry Hobbs, just out of prison a few weeks, led police to the girls himself. They wanted to know how he found them. They kept asking him questions. Finally, after hours of being interviewed, Hobbs was charged with both murders, a crime that stunned this small city near the Wisconsin line.\n"I think it's safe to say his reaction to questions piqued the officers' interest to question him further," said prosecutor Michael Waller in announcing the charges Tuesday.\nHobbs' 8-year-old daughter, Laura Hobbs, and her friend Krystal Tobias, 9, were found dead Monday. Both girls had been beaten and stabbed multiple times and then left to die in the woods on Mother's Day.\nWaller would not discuss possible motives for the killings but said details would come out when Hobbs appeared at a bond hearing Wednesday. He said he couldn't comment on whether Hobbs confessed.\n"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. "There's no rational explanation or reasonable motive that can be ascribed to an act of horror like this."\nHe told NBC's "Today" on Wednesday that there had been "a minor discipline problem" with Laura, but it had been resolved and was not considered the motive.\nHobbs, 34, took authorities to the bodies just off a bike path early Monday, claiming he had spotted them while searching for the girl with Laura's grandfather, Arthur Hollabaugh.\nHobbs was questioned through the day Monday and again Tuesday. The county coroner, Richard Keller, said the girls were found side-by-side, facing up and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted. They appeared to have been killed near where they were found, he said.\n"If it was him, then good thing they brought him down," said Krystal's 15-year-old brother, Alberto Segura. "We never thought a father would do that to a daughter. They were just babies. They didn't do anything wrong."\nHobbs has an extensive criminal history dating to 1990 in Texas, including arrests for assault and resisting arrest, according to records kept by the Texas Department of Public Safety.\nJust 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, said Rick Mahler, assistant district attorney for Wichita County, Texas. No one was injured in that incident.\nHobbs was sentenced to 10 years probation but failed to appear for required meetings, so his probation was revoked in 2003.\nArthur Hollabaugh said Hobbs had been living with the Hollabaughs after his release.\n"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."\nHollabaugh said he and Hobbs were in the woods shortly before dawn Monday when they spotted Laura's bike partway down a ravine.\nMinutes later, he said, Hobbs was screaming that he had found the bodies. "I went and I seen them from a distance," said Hollabaugh. "It was clear they were laying there."\nZion, along Lake Michigan, was founded in 1901 by a religious faith healer. It has about 22,000 residents but retains a quiet feel despite being on the edge of both the Chicago and Milwaukee metropolitan areas.\nAt 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.\nOne sign read: "May your angels rest peacefully in heaven."\nParents upset about the police response packed a school gymnasium Tuesday night to hear public officials discuss the slayings, the charges and safety in the community.\nAt 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.\nThrough tears, Laura's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, read a poem written by her daughter's classmate. The "little angels," she said, "died too young."\nAssociated Press writers Nathaniel Hernandez in Zion and Don Babwin in Chicago contributed to this report.