SpinnerBait_Nut
Honorary Moderator Emeritus
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- Aug 25, 2002
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ZION, Ill. - Authorities identified two young girls who disappeared Sunday and were found slain Monday in a park in this city north of Chicago, authorities said.<br /><br />At a news conference Monday afternoon, police identified the girls as Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9. The girls suffered stab wounds that were the cause of death, said Richard Keller, the county coroner. <br /><br />The cause of death appears to be stab wounds, and we have found no evidence of sexual assault, Keller said. The investigation is ongoing, and we're still examining in our office. <br /><br />Zion Police Chief Doug Malcolm said there were no leads on suspects yet. It's a broad investigation; we're going everywhere, he said. Theres a lot of conjecture and a lot of rumors. ... There's no solid leads we're focusing in on. We have evidence technicians the best in the business, I might add. No stone will be unturned. <br /><br />Discovered Monday morning<br />A resident walking through a wooded nature area in Beulah Park discovered the bodies around 6 a.m., Deputy Police Chief Clyde Watkins said earlier. A bike path and a ravine run through the area, which police cordoned off Monday.<br /><br />Constance Collins, superintendent of the Zion Elementary School District 6, said Hobbs and Tobias were in the same second-grade class at Beulah Park Elementary School.<br /><br />She said school was in session Monday and that adults would escort children home at the end of the school day. No child would be allowed to leave unescorted, she said.<br /><br />She also said social workers and a crisis intervention team had been called to help the students.<br /><br />Safe, quiet neighborhood<br />Brent Paxton, a Lake County Board member who lives across the street from the nature area, said the neighborhood is generally safe and quiet, and his three young children play in the park.<br /><br />"Obviously, if it was a random act, somebody just picking up kids in the park, I would be very concerned about that," Paxton said.<br /><br />Jim Goetz, a Zion resident who lives across the street from Beulah Park, told the Chicago Tribune that he last saw the two missing girls about 9 a.m. Sunday. Goetz said the two rode their bicycles to his house to play with his 7-year-old daughter.<br /><br />I'm in shock<br />At one point, Goetz told the newspaper, he scolded the children for drawing in chalk on his garage and made them clean it off. After about an hour, Goetz said, the two visiting girls got on their bikes and rode away, saying they were going to ride by the ravine in Beulah Park.<br /><br />About 8 p.m., Goetz said, a relative of one of the girls came by looking for them. The relative told Goetz the families were contacting the police to report the children missing, Goetz told the paper.<br /><br />"I'm in shock. I'm in utter disbelief," Goetz told the Tribune. He said the girls were "very outgoing and very friendly."<br /><br />Zion, about 45 miles north of Chicago, has about 22,000 residents.<br /><br />We are not safe anywhere anymore it seems. This saddens me so that 2 young lifes are snuffed out this way. 
