Co-defendant recounts gruesome details

SAVANNAH, Tenn. - For more than six years, there were no confirmed ties from Holly Bobo to Zachary Adams.

That changed this past week, when Jason Autry took the stand to testify against his co-defendant, who faces the death penalty in Bobo’s death.

Adams’ trial on charges of felony murder, kidnapping and rape charges is expected to continue for at least another week. If convicted, Adams would be the first person to receive a death sentence in Hardin County.

The details Autry revealed this past week were gruesome — going step by step through an almost rehearsed set of events that happened more than six years ago. He called Zach Adams for morphine. Adams asked for help. They met. Autry got the morphine. Adams asked for help burying a body.

The duo headed off toward the Tennessee River, when Autry said he pointed out that they didn’t have anything to dig with.

“I don’t know of nowhere you can get shovels or pickaxes with a dead body in the back of the truck,” Autry said.

Autry remembered telling Adams about another body — one he’d seen in the Tennessee River 11 years earlier.

“All that was holding it up was the gases and intestines,” he said.

They decided to “gut” the nursing student who had been abducted from her home only hours before, and toss her body in the river for the turtles to eat.

But when they got to the river, Holly Bobo moved.

“She’s heard my name. She heard my voice,” Autry told Adams.