Holly Bobo trial about to begin
MEMPHIS — No one in the pastoral Tennessee town of Parsons will forget April 13, 2011.
That was the day Clint Bobo told law enforcement he saw a man dressed in hunting camouflage lead his 20-year-old sister, Holly, into the woods that loomed beside their house.
The disappearance of Bobo, a talented, church-going nursing student everyone seemed to like, transformed the peaceful Decatur County town of about 2,400 people into a panicked whirlwind. Despite an intense search, it was three years before the hunt ended in tragedy when her remains were found in woods near her home. Hope among Parsons residents turned into pain.
Then they began to seek justice. On Monday, the long nightmare takes one more step toward resolution. Opening statements are scheduled in the trial of Zachary Adams,
one of three men charged with Bobo’s kidnapping, rape and murder. The trial is expected to reveal new information about Bobo’s disappearance and death. Details of what prosecutors think happened have not emerged, and Adams’ attorney has provided few details on what defense might be offered.
Adams, who lives in Decatur County, has pleaded not guilty, as have the other two men — Jason Autry and Adams’ brother, John Dylan Adams — who also face kidnapping, rape and murder charges. Their trials have not yet been scheduled.
Adams, who served six months in jail for shooting his mother in the knee in 2004 with a handgun, faces the death penalty if convicted at a trial that caps an investigation Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn has called the most exhaustive and expensive his agency ever conducted.
Yet, it was two men looking for ginseng who found Bobo’s remains, not the TBI.
Friction between investigators and prosecutors has surfaced periodically. In December 2014 — after Bobo’s remains had been found — the TBI said it was suspending investigations in the judicial district where the case was being handled amid dispute with District Attorney Matt Stowe. At the time, Gwyn said Stowe attacked the TBI’s work and that Stowe alleged misconduct by the agency. Stowe, an elected official, denied he asked the TBI to suspend investigations in the district. A day later, the TBI resumed its work there.
Stowe stepped aside for a special prosecutor, Jennifer Nichols of the Shelby County district attorney’s office in Memphis, 200 miles from where the trial is being held. Seeking an unbiased jury, Judge C. Creed McGinley has moved the trial from the county seat of Decaturville to Savannah, in neighboring Hardin County.
Lawyers’ travel costs, plus the years of effort by the TBI, have likely raised the cost for taxpayers. Intense national interest has put added pressure on the state, said Patrick Baker, a law professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
“If the defendants are not convicted and they’re found not guilty, there’s always going to be a shadow looming over this,” Baker said.
Key evidence could come from a voice from the dead.
Shayne Austin, a friend of Adams’ who was interviewed by investigators and was once considered an important witness in Bobo’s killing, committed suicide in Florida in February 2015. Statements he made have been presented in a pretrial hearing.
In building their complex case, prosecutors will refer to the day Bobo disappeared. Lawyers have said about 190,000 documents and 4.5 terabytes of information have been assembled as possible evidence.
After Bobo’s disappearance, investigators and volunteers scoured the town and the surrounding pastures, barns, flowery fields and dusty back roads. Residents adorned mailboxes, lamp posts and store fronts with pink bows, a symbol of hope and solidarity with the family. Pink became the color associated with Bobo because she was wearing a pink shirt when she disappeared.
Almost from the moment of Bobo’s disappearance, the case became a cable television sensation. Elizabeth Smart, the Utah woman kidnapped and held captive for nine months when she was 14, visited Bobo’s high school in 2012 to tell townspeople to keep faith that Bobo was alive.
As the mystery grew, the town changed. Community members worried Bobo’s kidnapper lived in the area and rubbed elbows with residents at gas stations and grocery stores. Parents feared leaving their teenage children unsupervised. Parsons residents locked their doors for the first time in years.
Some gave up hope of finding her alive. Her family members didn’t. They held vigils and sent balloons skyward on the anniversary of her death. Her parents and brother prayed with neighbors and attended every pre-trial hearing.
Family friend Kelly Allen, owner of Parsons Florist, made the pink bows honoring Bobo. She said it was “very crushing” to hear she was dead.
Now she just wants peace. “The whole town is just ready for this to be over with, to be put to rest,” Allen said.