Holly

Lore & Background

On the morning of April 13, 2011, Bobo awoke at 4:30 a.m. to study for an exam. At 7:30 a.m., she answered a call from her boyfriend, Drew Scott, who was turkey hunting nearby. Her parents had left for work, and her brother, Clint, was still asleep. Twelve minutes later, Bobo made her last cell phone call; after that, all calls and texts were incoming and unanswered.

Shortly after that call ended, a neighbor heard a scream from the Bobo residence. Clint was awakened by the family dogs barking and saw Holly outside with a man dressed in camouflage. He later said, 'It appeared to be Holly kneeling down and Drew [Scott]. They looked like they were kneeled down, facing each other in the garage, and they were talking back and forth.

Holly sounded very upset and heated.' Clint believed the couple were breaking up. At some point, Bobo's mother, Karen, called home and told Clint, 'That's not Drew. Get a gun and shoot him.'

Clint replied, 'You want me to shoot Drew?' Karen called 9-1-1 but reached a dispatcher for the wrong county. Clint later saw the man walking with Holly into nearby woods and noted the man was larger than Drew Scott. He tried calling both Holly's and Scott's cell phones, but neither answered.

When Karen called again, Clint told her what he witnessed and was instructed to call 9-1-1. He fetched a loaded pistol, went outside, found bloodstains belonging to Holly in the garage, and dialed 9-1-1. Police arrived ten minutes later. Cell phone pings showed Holly's phone moving north to a wooded area near Interstate 40, where her remains were eventually found.

After stopping for 20-30 minutes, the phone began traveling south using a different route. The last ping came from the area where both the phone and its SIM card were later found.

Reader's Guide

The case has met with several setbacks: the death of a suspect, multiple changes to the prosecutorial team, and disputes with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). The prosecution has been heavily criticized for refusing to produce evidence against the defendants, missing multiple discovery deadlines, and making frequent changes to the charges with little explanation. The TBI even briefly withdrew its services to the entire district after the prosecutor accused the agency of compromising the case by proceeding 'so slowly that the culprits were always one step ahead and that TBI . . . was leaking information and possibly covering up evidence.'

Defense attorneys reported that, over a year after the arrests were made, they had still not received a bill of particulars detailing the case against their clients and the results of forensic testing done on evidence from the case, so they filed motions to dismiss charges on the grounds of 'silence or stonewalling.' The arrests took place in early 2014, but it was not until July 2015 that it was announced that the defendants finally received access to all evidence against them.

In 2014, District Attorney Matt Stowe said he and the TBI were still 'actively looking' to bring criminal charges against additional people, although he declined to name the parties or the charges.

Did You Know?

• Her brother Clint initially mistook the man leading her into the woods for her boyfriend Drew Scott, because the man was wearing camouflage and they appeared to be talking.
• The bullet that killed Bobo entered the back-right side of her head and exited the front-left side, fracturing her left cheekbone.
• Jason Autry, who testified against Zach Adams in exchange for a reduced sentence, later recanted his entire testimony and said he was given access to discovery material to synchronize his story with the evidence.