The Holly Bobo murder case potentially may have found a new lead with the discovery of human remains in a location within 10 miles of the home of the murder suspect Zachary Adams.
In a related report by The Inquisitr , Holly Bobo vanished from her home in Parson, Tennessee, on April 13, 2011 and was last seen at her family’s home in Darden when her brother told authorities he saw a man in hunting clothes leading the 20-year-old into the woods around the family home. Police and prosecutors are treating the missing persons case as a murder , though no trace of Holly Bobo has ever been found.
Zachary Adams and Jason Autry were arrested and indicted for the abduction and murder of Bobo. Adams has pleaded not guilty to the charges . A third suspect named Shayne Austin claimed he could lead police to the location of Bobo’s body in return for immunity but when police searched the area they found no trace of the missing nursing student.
Decatur County Sheriff Keith Byrd told reporters the human remains were found near where Holly Bobo was last seen alive, but they also caution everyone that it is too early to be certain whether or not the skeletal features belong to the missing woman.
“We have no reason to believe that this is the body of Holly Bobo and we have no reason to believe that it isn’t,” Sheriff Byrd said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says a human skull was discovered Sunday morning when two people were out looking for ginseng, although other reports say the human remains were discovered by hunters. The skull was not buried in the ground, nor was any other evidence recovered from the scene. Investigators are first looking for any other obvious bones located above ground, although they have not yet started digging. The exact location has not been released, although reports do claim the area was within 10 miles of previous search areas, and also within 10 miles of the home of Zachary Adams.
Whether or not the human skull belongs to Holly Bobo will be determined by DNA tests, and forensic tests will discover how long it has been in the woods, but in the meantime the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is not ready to confirm the connection to the murder case. Sheriff Byrd points out that there are two other missing persons cases in Decatur County and it’s unknown how long investigators will be combing through the new search site.
“This is someone’s missing loved one but at this point we don’t know who,” said District Attorney Matt Stowe . “We’re going to provide sad closure to a family who is missing someone.”