On May 8, 2005, eight-year-old Laura Hobbs and her nine-year-old best friend, Crystal, left their homes in Zion, Illinois, to ride their bikes to a nearby park. The park was only a few hundred yards from their houses, and the girls knew the area well. They were expected home by dinner.
When they did not return by 7:00 p. m. , their parents grew worried.
A search of the park and surrounding streets turned up nothing. By 9:00 p. m.
, the police were called, and volunteers, search dogs, and local residents joined the effort. The search continued through the night without any trace of the girls.
At around 6:00 a. m. , Laura’s grandfather heard a cry from the park.
He found Laura’s father, Jerry Hobbs, in shock. Jerry claimed he had discovered the bodies of both girls off the bike path, hidden in thick undergrowth. Both had been stabbed multiple times.
Laura had 20 wounds; Crystal had 11.
The small town was shaken. Such a crime was almost unheard of in Zion. The police quickly focused their attention on Jerry Hobbs.
They found it suspicious that he had located the bodies alone after an extensive search. They also discovered his criminal history, which included drug offenses, assault, and an incident in 2001 where he chased three men with a chainsaw after they intervened in an argument with his wife. He had been released from prison just weeks before the murders.
Jerry agreed to questioning. After more than 20 hours of interrogation, he confessed. He said he had found his daughter and Crystal in the park, scolded Laura for being out without permission, and that an argument escalated.
He claimed Crystal pulled a small knife, and in a rage, he took it and stabbed both girls. He signed a confession and repeated it on camera.
The families were devastated. Jerry’s wife admitted she had always known about his aggressive tendencies. The prosecution announced its intention to seek the death penalty.
But then Jerry recanted. He said the confession was false, coerced by detectives who had threatened him and his family, kept him awake for over two days, and fed him the details of the crime. He said he was already broken from finding his daughter’s body and simply echoed what the police told him.
His attorney requested a case review, but it was denied. The case moved toward trial.
Jerry’s lawyer then pushed for a deeper examination of the physical evidence. The original medical examiners had collected samples from the girls’ bodies but never analyzed them. In 2008, independent labs tested the evidence.
The results were startling. Laura’s body contained foreign DNA: skin under her fingernails and male semen on her clothes and body. None of it belonged to Jerry Hobbs.
It pointed to a completely different man.
The prosecutor refused to accept the new evidence, suggesting the DNA could have come from young couples using the park for intimate encounters. Jerry remained in prison while his lawyer submitted the DNA profile to the FBI’s database. There were no matches.
Meanwhile, in Arlington, Virginia, 20-year-old Amanda Snell, a service member at a military base, was reported missing on July 13, 2009. She did not report for duty, and her room was found immaculate. Her body was discovered in her closet with a pillowcase over her head.
The cause of death was suffocation. There were no signs of trauma, and she had not been sexually assaulted. Her laptop and tablet were missing.
Investigators found a trace of a man’s shoe print outside the closet but could not match it to anyone.
In February 2010, a 26-year-old woman in Arlington was approached by a man with a gun who tried to force her into his car. She escaped and described her attacker and his beige Dodge Durango. Two weeks later, two women were attacked at their doorstep.
One was forced into the attacker’s car, raped, taped, and strangled until she lost consciousness. She survived and gave the same description. Another woman reported a similar attempted abduction just hours earlier, escaping with a stun gun.
Police traced the vehicle and found a student ID and earring belonging to the surviving victim inside. The owner was 21-year-old Jorge Avila Torres, a service member stationed at the same base where Amanda Snell had been found dead. He lived in the same building, just a few floors below her.
A search of his room turned up a pistol, ammunition, and explicit videos depicting violence against women. All three victims identified him as their attacker.
Torres was arrested. Investigators suspected him in Amanda’s murder but had no evidence. They placed an informant in his cell.
Within a week, Torres confessed. He boasted about killing Amanda, saying he did it for the adrenaline. He described placing her body in the closet, cleaning the room, and sexually assaulting