The Holly Bobo murder case took another twist this week as prosecutors tried to strip one of three suspects in the 2011 kidnapping and murder of the 20-year-old Tennessee nursing student of the immunity they granted him for cooperating. And the suspect, Shayne Austin, is suing the prosecutors for breach of contract .
Holly Bobo vanished from her home in Parson, Tennessee on April 13, 2011. Police and prosecutors are treating the case as a murder, though no trace of Holly Bobo has ever been found.
Two men have been arrested and indicted for the abduction and murder of Holly Bobo. Zachary Adams and Jason Autry, two friends who were allegedly part of a local drug gang, are now in jail awaiting trial. Austin may now also be indicted if prosecutors are successful in revoking his immunity.
Austin told law enforcement authorities that he could lead them to where Holly Bobo’s body was disposed of. But when police searched the location, they found no trace of the missing nursing student.
But when Austin appeared in court Tuesday, a judge in Decatur County Chancery Court said that she had no jurisdiction to rule on whether 29-year-old Austin should have his immunity revoked or not. Decatur County Chancellor Carma D. McGee said that only a criminal court could make that call.
Autry recently gave an interview to a Tennessee TV station in which he denied taking part in the kidnap and murder of Holly Bobo.
“Right hand before God. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I didn’t bother that girl in no form or no fashion and I don’t know who did,” said Autry interviewed in Riverbend Maximum Security Prison.
Autry also denied that he and Adams were part of a drug gang, though he admitted that their friendship was based on their mutual drug use.
“Some people portray us as big dope dealers and gang members and that’s not the case. This is a community that’s real small. It was just a few dopeheaded boys just hanging out,” Autry told News Channel 5. “Our relationship is what you might call drug-based. The only time we hung out was when we was getting high.”
Autry’s attorney, Fletcher Long, said that he plans to defend the accused killer based on what he says is a strong alibi. Long says he can prove that Autry was miles away, not even in the same county, when Holly Bobo went missing.