Naman Shrestha
When 13-year-old Chris Hobson went missing in 1980, his family and the police launched an extensive search for him. When it yielded no result, the concerns surrounding his well-being increased. Several weeks later, Chris’ loved ones’ worst fears became reality when his body was found buried in a field, leaving the entire community shell-shocked and in a state of horror. The tragedy is covered in detail in the episode titled ‘Hitmom’ of ‘Evil Stepmothers,’ which also includes exclusive interviews with the victims’ close ones as they express their feelings about their loss while experts talk about the investigation.
Chris Hobson Was Found Buried in Bull Creek, Kansas
Christen A. Hobson, AKA Chris, was born on February 4, 1967, to a pair of lovely parents, Shirley Juanita Wilson Hobson and Edward “Ed” Hobson. Growing up in a lovely household, Chris received a lot of love and support from his parents. But around the age of ten, his life started to turn upside down when his mother died from cancer. Soon enough, Ed crossed paths with a woman named Sueanne, who was a divorced single mother of a daughter named Suzanne. The two felt a romantic connection between each other almost instantly, and they began seeing each other.
After dating for a while, Ed proposed to her, and the pair got married in December 1978. The same year, the couple purchased a new house in the posh neighborhood of Overland Park in Kansas, and they lived together with their respective children. Everything appeared to be going fine for the Hobsons, while Chris had so many things to look forward to in life. However, in April 1980, after Ed and Sueanne returned home from a dinner date, Chris could not be found anywhere in and around the house.
Chris’ stepsister Suzanne claimed that he was at home doing his homework when she went to take a shower. But when she came out of the shower, he was nowhere to be seen. When Ed went into the basement looking for his son, he noticed that one of his shotguns was missing. Without wasting any time, he reached out to the police for help. On April 17, 1980, the authorities launched an APB and went looking for the missing 13-year-old extensively. A few days later, they received a call from an anonymous man who found a wallet containing Chris Hobson’s library card at a popular shopping mall.
After the evidence surfaced, the investigators launched the biggest air and ground search in the Kansas City area, but unfortunately, it also came to nothing. When all hope seemed lost, a couple of young boys looking for worms in the Bull Creek area of Kansas came across something dreadful on May 3, 1980 — a dead body, which was later identified to be of Christen Hobson. When the police inspected the body and the crime scene, they learned that he had gunshot wounds on his head, chest, and throat. Further reports showed that two different types of shotguns were used to shoot at him, a 20 gauge one and a 12 gauge one.
Chris Hobson’s Stepmom Asked Her Son to Kill Chris
A couple of days before Christen Hobson’s body was discovered, the police had received a tip from a young girl who claimed that she had heard a guy named Paul Sorrentino talk about getting rid of a teenage boy at a party she attended the other night. The police reportedly made the tipster call Paul and get him to talk about Chris while they recorded the phone call. During the conversation, he admitted that he did it for his good friend James “Jimmy” Crumm Jr., step-brother of Chris and son of Sueanne. When Sueanne got divorced, she left her husband, James Crumm Sr., and their son, James Crumm Jr., while taking their daughter Suzanne along with her.
Having not contacted Jimmy for eight years, Suzanne convinced her to let him stay with them at their Overland Park house. But it did not turn out well for him, as he failed to meet her high expectations, be it academically or in other aspects. When he was asked to leave the house, Jimmy got a place of his own nearby while seeking to do something for his mother to get back in her good books. Not only was she rude towards Jimmy, but she allegedly hated the sight of her stepson, Chris, so much so that she even called him names in front of others. Considering all these factors, the police brought in Paul Sorrentino and Jimmy for questioning on May 3, 1980.
It didn’t take long for Jimmy to confess to murdering Chris along with Paul in April 1980. However, he also revealed that he committed the evil deed because his mother, Sueanne, asked him to due to her hatred for the 13-year-old. He also gave them a detailed account of what transpired that fateful night. He, along with his friend Paul, went to the Hobson house and convinced Chris to come out for a ride with them while Jimmy sneakily collected a shotgun from the basement. They took him to a Miami County field and forced him to dig a shallow grave at gunpoint before they shot him to death and buried him in the same grave. On the same day, they interviewed Sueanne and arrested all three suspects on the charge of murdering Christen Hobson.
Sueanne Hobson, Jimmy Crumm, and Paul Sorrentino are Out of Prison
After Sueanne was arrested, Edward Hobson divorced her, but the couple could not stay separated for long. While she was out on bail, Sueanne convinced him to remarry and continue their lives together. In April 1982, she stood for trial and blamed his son Jimmy for committing the crime of his own accord. Despite her claims of innocence, on May 7, 1982, she was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. On the other hand, Jimmy was found guilty of first-degree murder, while Paul, who pleaded guilty, was convicted of aiding and abetting Jimmy. All three convicts were sentenced to life in prison, with a possibility for parole.
Having served around 18 years in prison, Jimmy and Paul were reportedly paroled on January 4, 1999, and April 21, 2000, respectively. Meanwhile, with the help and support of Edward Hobson, Sueanne finally got paroled on February 25, 2011, after having been put up for parole multiple times previously. As of 2016, the couple were still married and living together in Kansas. Currently, it appears that all of the former convicts have been living regular lives while staying away from the prying eyes of the media.
Read More: Raul Ambriz Guillen Murder: Where is Lauren Wambles Now?
