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Police: Man killed his daughter, 8, and her friend, 9

ZION, Ill. - A man was arrested on murder charges Tuesday in the Mother's Day stabbings of his 8-year-old daughter and the girl's best friend, who were killed after they went biking in a park.

Jerry Hobbs, who was recently released from prison, had led police to the bodies just off a wooded bike path early Monday, saying he saw them while searching for his daughter, said the girl's grandfather, Arthur Hollabaugh.

Hobbs, 34, was questioned through the day about the deaths of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9. Both girls had been beaten and stabbed repeatedly in the woods and left to die, Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said.

The girls were found side-by-side and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted. They appeared to have been killed Sunday evening near the area where they were found, he said.

Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller on Tuesday said he could not discuss possible motives for the killings, but prosecutors said details would come out when Hobbs appears in court today.

"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.

Hobbs has a criminal history dating to 1990 in Texas, including arrests for assault and resisting arrest, according to state Department of Public Safety records. Before his release April 12, he served two years in a Texas prison for chasing neighbors with a chain saw during an argument with Laura's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, according to Wichita County, Texas, Assistant District Attorney Rick Mahler.

Hobbs was sentenced to 10 years of probation but failed to appear for required meetings, so his probation was revoked in 2003 and he was imprisoned.

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

Hollabaugh said authorities confiscated clothes and a computer from the house. He described the search for his granddaughter and said the two men were in the woods before dawn Monday when they saw Laura's bike part way down a ravine in the brush. Minutes later, he said, Hobbs was screaming he had found the bodies.

[Last modified May 11, 2005, 01:12:10]