two girls went to the park on their bikes and disappeared this marked the beginning of events that were incredibly hard to believe from the very beginning this story resembled a detective Thriller with an unbelievable plot as things unfolded it became even more puzzling until all the Mysteries converged into one solution Laura Hobbs was born on September 25th 1996 in Texas later her parents had Three Sons but soon after the couple separated Laura's mom moved with the children to the small town of Zion in Illinois Laura loved this place her maternal grandparents lived there and she quickly made new friends moreover Zion was located on the shore of Lake Michigan and she enjoyed going there with her relatives in the spring of 2005 when Laura was 8 years old her father decided to reconcile with his wife and move back into the children's lives he relocated from Texas to live with the family on Sunday May 8th it was Mother's Day Laura along with her brothers and parents went to the lake to celebrate the occasion and fly kites they had a great time and later Laura wanted to go for a walk with her best friend 9-year-old Crystal the girls attended the same school and lived close to each other when Laura moved to Zion they immediately became friends and spent almost all their free time together they visited each other's homes played near their houses and rode bikes sometimes when l mom didn't allow her to go out Crystal would come to her window and they would talk on that day they decided to take their bikes and go to the park which was only a few hundred yards from their homes they often went there since the park was very close and it had a long bike trail despite their age parents weren't afraid to let their daughters go there because both girls knew the area well and serious crimes in the town were extremely rare the girls left around 3:00 p. m. and were supposed to be back for dinner however As Time passed their parents started worrying when it was 7:00 p.
m. and Laura and Crystal still hadn't returned they decided to go to the park and call them home to the surprise of the adults the girls were not there they walked along the bike path calling their names but there was only silence in return other relatives and Friends of the families quickly joined the search they continued to search the park and also went through the streets of their neighborhood hoping to find them this went on for several hours until it started to get dark by 9:00 p. m.
the parents realized that something might have happened to their daughters and they decided to contact the police the police immediately joined the search efforts they contacted volunteer organizations and Enlisted the help of several dozen volunteers as well as search dogs in addition to this local residents who heard about the girl's disappearance also joined the search the police focused their efforts on the Park area since the girls were supposed to go there speaking to other children living living along the route from their homes to the park the police learned that Laura and Crystal did indeed pass by them stopped to chat and mentioned that they were heading to the park parallel to the search the police went door too in the neighborhood in hopes of finding anyone who had seen the girls that evening they also began Distributing Flyers with information about their disappearance as each hour passed it became increasingly evident that something terrible had happened to the girls Darkness had already fallen and they were being searched for throughout the town but there were simply no traces of Laura and Crystal the search continued practically until dawn and at around half 4 the police decided to take a break however Laura's father and her grandfather refused to return home and continued scouring the area they went to the park and decided to split up to cover more ground around 6:00 a. m.
