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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2005)
0192851 iddlefielD Golf Course 942-8730 484-1927 STUDENT SPECIAL GOLF 9 HOLES *12 Students Only. Must show ID. (Monday - Friday) New Releases weekly VHS & DVD 5-day ReRtals Over 3,000 DVDs • Arcade • Novelties • Oases HE & SHE I HE & SHE II ALBANY 290 River Rd., Eugene 720 Garfield, Eugene 1-5 EXIT 233, 3404 Spicer Dr. 688-5411 345-2873 541-812-2522 ADA accessible gm carfls aya||aMe r IN BRIEF Six bodies found at rural California ranch home GARNER VALLEY, Calif. — An in vestigator for the district attorney’s office was found dead Tuesday in his sprawling ranch home along with five other people, including three children, who were all shot to death in their beds in the middle of the night, authorities said. Sheriff Bob Doyle said detectives have not reached any conclusions about the slayings, but they had not ruled out a murder-suicide. The sher iff said there was no evidence of a break-in or struggle in any of the rooms, and he added that the “com -munity is in no danger.” “We are not at this time looking for a suspect,” he said. David McGowan, 44, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head close to the entrance of the home, Doyle said at a news conference. A handgun and a phone, which may have been used to call 911, were found near his body. A 14-year-old boy, two girls — ages 8 and 10 — and two adult women were found in beds through out the house, all of them shot in the head. Names of the victims were withheld pending positive identifica tion, Doyle said. “The beds were undisturbed. The house itself was undisturbed. It did not appear that the house had been ransacked,” Doyle said. The sheriff said someone called 911 from the house at 4:33 a.m. A 911 dis patcher didn’t hear any voices on the line, but was able to identify the sounds of the telephone hitting the wall and a gunshot, Doyle said. “It was pretty much no one on the other end of the phone. There was some noise that was heard by dis patch,” he said. McGowan was a five-year veteran of the Riverside County district attor ney’s office and previously worked as a detective with the Cathedral City Police Department. Public records show David and Karen McGowan bought the 4.5-acre property and 3,331-square-foot ranch house for $425,000 in 2000. Neighbors said they were shocked by the scene unfolding nearby. “It’s just really quiet here,” said David Merriman, whose parents live about a mile from the McGowans. “A i GET EXPERIENCE [ now hiring advertising executives ] Now hiring for summer and fall. Job description and application form is available in EMU Suite 300 or by emailing Advertising Director Melissa Gust at: ads@dailvemerald.com. Application deadline is Monday, May 16 at 5 p.m. 022264 Oregon Daily Emerald The independent campus newspaper for the UO community lot could happen right next store and you wouldn’t even know it.” Father arrested in slaying of two girls in Illinois ZION, 111. — A man was arrested on murder charges Tliesday in the Moth er’s Day stabbings of his 8-year-old daughter and the little girl’s best friend, who were killed after they went biking in a park. Jerry Hobbs, who was recently re leased from prison, had led police to the bodies just off a wooded bike path early Monday, claiming he spotted them while searching for his daugh ter, the girl’s grandfather, Arthur Hol labaugh, told The Associated Press. 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 said in announcing the charges Tliesday that he could not discuss possible motives for the killings, but prosecutors said more de tails would come out when Hobbs ap pears in bond court today. Authorities said Tliesday that addi tional charges could be filed, but they did not specify what they might be. “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. Hollabaugh said the family would not be able to afford an attorney. The public defender’s office said Tliesday it had not been asked to take the case. Outside the Tobias home, Krystal’s 15-year-old brother, Alberto, said he had never met Hobbs but knew Hobbs was searching with his own family the night his sister was killed. “We never thought a father would do that to a daughter,” Alberto Segu ra said. “They were just babies. They didn’t do anything wrong.” In front of the Hollabaughs’ house, “No Trespassing” and “Keep Out” signs printed in black and or ange had been posted on a fence. Hobbs has an extensive criminal history dating back to 1990 in Texas, including prior arrests for assault and resisting arrest, according to state Department of Public Safety records. Before being released April 12, he had served two years in a Texas prison for chasing neighbors with a chain saw during an argument with Laura’s mother, Sheila Hol labaugh, according to Wichita County, Texas, Assistant District Attorney Rick Mahler. No one was hurt in the 2001 inci dent, and someone subdued Hobbs by hitting him in the back with a shovel, Mahler said. Hobbs was sen tenced to 10 years of probation but failed to appear for required meet ings, so his probation was revoked in 2003 and he was imprisoned. Hobbs had been living with the Hollabaughs after his release, Arthur Hollabaugh said. He said he worried authorities might be trying to rail road Hobbs in their search for the girls’ killer. “Jerry just got out of prison for ag gravated assault, and I think they’re holding that against him,” Hol labaugh said before police an nounced charges against Hobbs. “I don’t think he did it.” He described the search for his missing granddaughter and said the two men were in the woods shortly before dawn Monday when they spotted Laura’s bike partway down a ravine in the brush. Minutes later, he said, Hobbs was screaming that he had found the bodies. — The Associated Press
