Prosecutor: DNA links Lake Co. double murder to new suspect

Lake County prosecutors announced Tuesday they have identified a DNA match in the 2005 murders of Laura Hobbs and Krystal Tobias that may add a new suspect in the grisly Zion killings.

Deputy State's Attorney Jeffrey Pavletic called the match "a significant development" in the case that has always centered on Laura Hobbs' father, Jerry Hobbs III.

But Pavletic said it is too early to say if Hobbs will be released from custody or if the donor of the DNA sample will be charged. The name of that person has not been released.

Pavletic said detectives from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force are reviewing all aspects of the original investigation.

He said among the reasons the name of the person with the DNA match is not being released is he does not want to influence any part of the investigation.

"We do not want people who may know this man to create stories to cover for him, nor do we want people to make up stories implicating him," Pavletic said. "All we want is to find the truth and follow the evidence wherever it goes."

Assistant public defender Keith Grant, the attorney for the 39-year-old Hobbs, said he was content to wait, at least for a while, to see what develops from the current efforts.

"All we know at this point is essentially what has been put out there to you guys (the media)," Grant said. "I can't tell you what our next move will be because, frankly, I do not know enough at this point to decide what will be the best way to proceed."

The announcement of a DNA match with someone other than Jerry Hobbs III is a shocking development in a case that has become synonymous with shocking.

First, there was the discovery of the bodies of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, who had been butchered in a Zion park on Mother's Day 2005.

Then there was the arrest of Laura's father, the man who found the bodies and who, according to police, killed the girls when Krystal pulled a knife on him.

Two years after the killings, a defense expert said he had developed a DNA profile from semen taken from Laura's body and clothing, even though the coroner said the girls had not been sexually assaulted before they were killed.

That profile did not match Hobbs, both sides of the case agreed, and it did not match anybody until DNA from a suspect in another criminal case was recently added into the national database and matched what was taken from Laura.

Grant, who brought the motion seeking to free Hobbs two years ago and said he may file another, also said it was too early to draw any conclusions.

"It appears they (prosecutors) are taking the match very seriously, and I am encouraged by that," he said. "We will have to wait and see what comes of this, but I have always said that Jerry Hobbs did not commit these murders."

Police said Laura left her house in Zion with her best friend and Beulah Park Elementary School classmate on May 8, 2005, to ride bikes.

When the girls did not return home for dinner, the police were notified and a search began, with Hobbs and family among those who searched Beulah Park late into the night.

The following day, police said, Hobbs and his father-in-law returned to the park, and Hobbs found the girls' bikes in a heavily wooded area and discovered the bodies soon afterward.

He was taken into custody the same morning by the task force investigators, who said his initial statements to them raised certain "red flags."

By 4:40 a.m. the following day, police said Hobbs confessed to killing the girls after Laura refused to return home with him and Krystal attacked him with a knife after he struck Laura.

Grant and other public defenders challenged the validity of the confession in 2006, but Circuit Judge Fred Foreman ruled it had been legally obtained.

In the motion for bond after the DNA profile was discovered, Foreman again ruled against Hobbs saying he was "not persuaded at all" that the DNA was conclusive proof Hobbs did not commit the crimes.

State's Attorney Michael Waller is seeking the death penalty in the case, which is scheduled to go to trial in October.

Hobbs is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning for a pretrial conference that was scheduled before the DNA match was discovered.

Now that the DNA does match somebody, attorneys on both sides of the case say anything is possible.