Krystal Tobias was a 9-year-old girl murdered on May 8, 2005, in Zion, Illinois. She and an 8-year-old friend, Laura Hobbs, left to ride bicycles and did not return. Both girls were found the next day by Laura’s father, Jerry Hobbs; each had fatal stab wounds to the neck and face and had been sexually assaulted.

Investigators initially focused on Jerry Hobbs, who had recently moved to Zion. He was arrested on a weapons charge, interrogated, and confessed; he spent about five years in Lake County jail awaiting trial. Semen from Laura did not match Hobbs in 2008, and later evidence identified 16-year-old neighborhood resident Jorge Avila-Torrez as the actual perpetrator. Avila-Torrez later joined the Marines and was linked to additional violent crimes, including the 2009 murder of Amanda Jean Snell and a 2010 abduction in Northern Virginia. He was convicted for the murders of Krystal and Laura and received a lengthy sentence for the Illinois killings; he also received a federal death sentence for Snell that was commuted to life without parole on December 23, 2024.

Jerry Hobbs sued for malicious prosecution and settled for $8 million. What information do readers have that might clarify events around the girls the night they disappeared?