The last time Alondra Denise Hobbs saw her daughter alive, she put the 7-year-old into a stroller, pushed her into a closet and left without any intention of returning, according to an arrest warrant released Monday.
As many as four months passed before anyone found Alivia Hobbs-Jordan, and by then it was far too late. What remained of the child’s body was in such a state that the DeKalb County police officer who found the girl assumed she was between 2 and 4 years old.
Investigators have accused the 27-year-old mother of abandoning her child inside an apartment in the Hidden Valley complex south of Decatur sometime between Feb. 28 and June 25, when the girl’s decaying body was discovered.
Any time a child dies and a parent is held responsible, it raises the question of why. And in the early days of a police investigation, those answers are seldom available. DeKalb police have not provided a possible motive, and the child’s cause of death remains under investigation, authorities said Friday.
Other oddities surround the case. The person who initially found Alivia and called 911 never identified themselves, and the cellphone they used was promptly disconnected. Another tipster sent a video of the discovery to a Channel 2 Action News reporter but refused to answer any further questions about how he obtained it.
Hobbs was arrested Thursday and accused of felony murder related to a second-degree charge of cruelty to children, which implies criminal negligence but not malicious intent. In her arrest warrant, police accused Hobbs of causing Alivia’s death by “placing her in a stroller and then rolling her into a closet before leaving the apartment with no intention of returning.”
When the body was found, a next-door neighbor told police that the apartment had been vacant for many months, but other neighbors said there had been a history of squatters. Police also found a piece of mail addressed to Alondra Hobbs, but they could not confirm whether she and her daughter were the last known tenants.
The Hidden Valley complex, formerly known as Spring Valley, is located on Misty Waters Drive in the Candler-McAfee area of DeKalb, bordered by I-285 to the east and I-20 to the south. It is among 272 of the metro area’s persistently dangerous complexes, according to an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that looked into serious crimes, lax maintenance and other hazards in Atlanta neighborhoods.
At the four listed addresses within the complex, police reported 56 crimes from 2017-2021. At least three people were killed there since 2017, culminating in a deadly shooting in April 2022.
Other crimes included aggravated assaults and robberies, and one arson. DeKalb listed 12 code complaints, the AJC’s investigation found. The AJC’s calls to apartment management regarding the child’s death have not been returned.
Following her arrest, Hobbs was taken to a hospital rather than to the county jail. As of Monday, she had yet to be released from the hospital, according to a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.
Her criminal history in DeKalb County includes at least two prior arrests related to family violence. In 2019, she was accused of simple assault, a misdemeanor, in an incident involving threats made while holding a kitchen knife. She later pleaded no contest to an associated charge of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 12 months probation. As a condition of her sentence, she was also ordered to attend anger management and parenting classes.
A second incident in 2020 resulted in a misdemeanor charge of battery. According to a warrant, Hobbs was accused of scratching her husband’s neck and throwing a toolbox at him. It was not clear how that case was disposed. Also unclear is whether police have since been in touch with Hobbs’ husband.
A woman who said she is Alivia’s grandmother created a GoFundMe page to assist with funeral costs.
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