CRIME 2 girls, 8 and 9, found dead in park

No promising leads have been gathered yet, the police chief said.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ZION, Ill. -- It was a typical spring Sunday for two typical second-grade girls: riding bikes, flying kites, swinging in a backyard hammock, and later, an adventure in a wooded public park.
But 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 by Jerry Hobbs, Laura's father, according to the girl's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh. Police, who would not confirm that Jerry Hobbs had found the bodies, said they were located about 50 yards into the woods of a public park.
Both girls likely died instantly from multiple stab wounds to the neck sometime in the hours before dawn Monday, said Lake County Coroner Richard Keller. The girls likely died where they were found, face up, next to each other, fully clothed, with no sign of sexual assault, Keller said.
The deaths shook the community of Zion, a working class town of about 23,000 people nearly 50 miles north of downtown Chicago.
"I can't believe she's gone," Hollabaugh said Monday afternoon, shortly after concluding what she said was a six-hour interview with police.
Gathering evidence
Hollabaugh said a relative was being interviewed separately by police early Monday evening. Investigators left the Hobbs home with several bags of what they termed "evidence" Monday afternoon and Hollabaugh said police had taken clothing family members had worn on Sunday.
However, Zion Police Chief Doug Malcolm said at a 4 p.m. news conference that his department had no solid leads and 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."
Family members and neighbors said Laura Hobbs was eager to get out and play in Sunday's warm breezes. She'd made many fast friends after her parents moved last fall to Gilboa Avenue in a neighborhood of modest houses. By last September, the girl's back yard was full of kids for her birthday party.
The girls' earlier activities
By early afternoon Sunday, after a trip to a local beach and time spent flying a kite, Laura, a blonde, had hooked up with Krystal, a brunette, her classmate and constant companion at Beulah Park Elementary School just steps from both girls' homes.
By about 2 p.m., the girls were at the home of 7-year-old Hector Montes, playing football as they often did after school. An hour later, the girls 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."