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Tonight here, the stunning new legal twist as a witness admits he lied on the stand in a grisly kidnapping case. For the first time tonight, you're going to see a startling tape. Could it free a man who's now behind bars? 2020 begins right now.

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Somebody has my daughter. They have kidnapped her. Please get everybody in the community out there, everybody trying to say, it's okay, Karen. This is all just a mistake. But see, they didn't know what I knew that morning.

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Nursing student Holly Bobo last seen being dragged away from her home by a man in camouflaged. She said, stop. Stop. Leave me alone. Stop.

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But she never called out his name. Just hours after Holly Bobo disappeared, more than 400 people turned up here to search these woods. Holly, I love you, zone. Mother, please try to get home to us. I just remember it was madness.

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Cops everywhere, helicopter swine. And it was already crazy. We were looking at everybody. Everybody was looked at. When did someone kind of pull away from the rest?

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He said if somebody like him had got Holly, she's just a toy to him, and it's all fantasy world. Dennis Benjamin says, there's a man on my porch who has just confessed to the kidnapping. Holly Bobo. Do you think the jury got this one wrong? Absolutely.

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Yep. Innocent people are in prison.

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Please help us find her.

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This is the Tennessee river. On its western bank is Decatur County, a patchwork of sparsely populated farms, dense woods, and neighbors who look out for each other.

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It's a rural county with a cute little, small town. Parsons very close to the Tennessee River. A lot of cattle farming and crop farming, hunting, fishing, boating. People that like to live out in the country, they have some animals or some horses.

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There's not a lot of industry in Decatur County. I started to say it might be compared to Mayberry, but it's nothing like that. We have. We do have crime just like every other town in America. But we are rural.

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Everybody pretty much knows everybody. Everybody knew Holly and her family. 20 year old Holly Bobo came from a loving family. She lived with her mother, Karen, father Dana, and her older brother, 25 year old Clint, in a home her dad built with his own hands. It was your typical little single story.

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Three bedrooms. Kitchen was in the middle, kind of, and then a little, small, little room. And they had a carport there, which is a two car carport to the back of the house. They're typical middle class, hardworking country folks. Holly's dad, me, had an excavating business, and her mother was a schoolteacher.

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Holly and I were just. Were very close. And we were about five years apart. Holly was raised like my little sister, and Clint was like my little brother. We were always growing up together.

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We just lived in our own world. Two kids in college. We had our church family, our family family gatherings, went to the movies together, rode four wheelers together, rode horses. The bobo kids grew up with a sense of caring for their community. Clinton is studying to become a social worker, and Holly is attending nursing school.

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They're the best people on earth. That's what hurt so bad that this happened to them. They didn't do anything that would have put them in harm's way of having this to happen. It just doesn't happen to people like them.

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It was just a normal morning, like anything else. Dana gets up first and gets ready. Well, I usually go out and feed the dog. Dana says holly is already up studying for a big test later that day. I asked her if she needed any money, I think for gas or whatever.

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That day she said, yeah, and I left her some money on the bar. I left out my regular time, 530 or something like that, and went on to work. Karen wakes up a short time later, so I went on about my business, getting ready. I packed her lunch like I always did. She was sitting at the kitchen table studying, and I kissed her goodbye and told her I loved her, just like every other morning.

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And I left.

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Around 745, a neighbor was getting ready to go to work. He heard a scream from next door.

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She said, stop. Stop. Leave me alone. Stop. But she never called out his name.

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It made such an impression on him. He told his mother that he heard somebody screaming over at the bobo's house. That neighbor calls Karen Bobo at work, worried, saying, we heard a scream coming from your house. That's just not a call you get every day. So I instantly knew something was wrong.

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Holly's brother Clint, who is asleep in the house, doesn't hear the scream, but he wakes up to the family dog, rascal, barking.

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He just continued to bark. So I decided to get up, you know, to see what he was barking at. As I was approaching that window, I heard people talking, voices. I could tell it was a male and a female voice. I never was able to really tell what they were saying.

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There's a side window next to the kitchen that faces their carport, which, of course, is an open carport.

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Clint looks into the carport, and he sees Holly and another person kneel down in a catcher stance. So I could see enough to tell that it was Holly and a man in camouflage who I identified as Drew, who was her boyfriend. At first, he thought it was Holly and her boyfriend, and they were arguing. He didn't want to get involved in it, so he stepped away and let them do whatever they were doing. At that point, he sent his mom a text and asked, does Holly not have school today?

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And I said, well, her and Drew were out here in the garage. I expected Drew to be dressed in camouflage because Drew and I had talked the night before, and he told me he was going turkey hunting that morning.

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But there were some things that Clint didn't know that his mother knew. Drew was at least 30 minutes drive away. Drew was hunting on my mom's property in southern Decatur county. Right away, her instincts told her, that's terribly wrong. I would say, like, 20 seconds later, well, I received a phone call from her.

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She says, call all the neighbors. Oh, my God, Clint, that's not Drew. I said, that's not Drew. Get a gun and shoot him. Miss, Karen is saying, shoot him.

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Get your gun and shoot him. He's like, what are you talking about? You want me to shoot Drew? He just woke up. He wasn't comprehending everything that was going on.

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And I said, so you want me to shoot Drew? And I think that's when she hung. She must have hung the phone up. I just hung up, and I collapsed to the floor. He said he went and got his gun, and he looked out the back window of the kitchen, and he saw that holly was walking with a man in camouflage.

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At that point is when I could see him, they were walking towards the woods, and there's a trail that Holly and I are both very familiar with. That trail leads you to a logging road, and they look like they were walking right toward that trail. She was walking on her own. She didn't appear to be heard. And still thinking it's Drew.

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And I'm watching them as they're walking toward this trail, as Clint Bobo is watching his sister Holly and this man in camouflage disappear into the woods. Back at work, Karen Bobo knows something is really wrong. And everybody trying to say, it's okay, Karen. This is all just a mistake. But see, they didn't know what I knew that morning.

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It couldn't be drew. And that the neighbor had heard a scream. And so my friend, she grabbed my hand, pulled me up, and we headed out of the building. She hands me her phone. 911 with your merchant.

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Somebody has my daughter. I have kidnapped her and somebody whole. Camouflage got Holly. Please get everybody in the community out there. They're on their way, sweetie.

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I've got everybody on their way right now already. Oh, my God. In the hours and days that follow, thousands of people will come to this small town, all asking the same question. Where is Halle Bobo?

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A quiet spring morning in the country interrupted by a scream. Then a deafening silence. 20 year old Holly Bobo vanished from her own backyard, and her family is in anguish.

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Holly was the absolute joy from the day she was born. It just seemed like there was something special about her. She was always kind to people and appreciated the small things in life. Holly's mother says she shares a special bond with her only daughter. We could finish each other's sentences.

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We enjoyed doing the same things, riding horses, listening to the radio. Holly's cousin, country singer Whitney Duncan, says music has always been a passion for Holly. We had singing in common, for sure, and she had a beautiful voice. Peace in the valley was her favorite gospel song. I have that clip and go back and watch it.

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There won't be peace in the valley.

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Following graduation from high school, Holly has her eye on the future. Studying hard to become a nurse. Holly and I ended up in the same nursing class in Parsons. And so I really got to know her. She was very committed to the program.

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You could just tell she studied continuously on the day that she went missing. We got to class, and we're supposed to take a test. The first thing, the instructor went out and came back, and she announced that something terrible had happened.

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And so we immediately dispersed, went to the area, started searching.

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When tragedy strikes, Decatur county comes together on April 13, 2011, just hours after Halle Bobo disappeared, more than 400 people turned up here to search these woods, trying to help find any clue as to what happened to the 20 year old nursing student.

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The search response was almost immediate.

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By 830, half the neighborhood was out there. I've seen 800 people out here today. These guys here is gonna be the team leaders. Group one, is this. So it'd be group two that's down here.

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By ten, half the county was there. Nollie, I love you so much. Please try to get home to us. And if anybody knows anything about her, please, please help us find her. So when you first get there on the scene, what was it like there?

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Everybody was involved, trying to determine what happened to Holly Bobo. It was just a chaotic scene of fallen leads with hundreds of people involved. Just anybody that can help. Come on and help us, please. You know, Tennessee's known as the volunteer state, and that's what happened.

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Just about every county in half of Tennessee was there. From Memphis to beyond Nashville. Did you see anything that is not right? There were people on horseback, ATV's there were posters on telephone poles. There were posters throughout.

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The pink ribbons and pictures of Holly Bobo are posted all over the small, tight knit community of Parsons. So it becomes a pretty big story right away. Is everybody ready? It grew exponentially. We want to just bring everybody up to speed.

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When the days went on and there was no more signs of Holly, got a lot of ground left to cover still. First you had the local stations. It's been almost a week since Holly was last seen outside her family's home. From Jackson, from Decatur county, from Nashville and Memphis coming in, and then you had the national people coming in. And now we have the latest on the desperate hunt for Tennessee nursing student Holly Bobo, last seen being dragged away from her home by a man in camouflage.

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We're going to begin with the urgent search for a young woman gone missing. In addition to thousands of volunteers, law enforcement from across the country came to tiny persons to help in the search. Decatur County Sheriff's office, who responds with multiple deputies. They called in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The TBI came in with dozens of agents.

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They called in the us marshals and the FBI. This was the biggest investigation in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation history, that almost every agent in the whole Tennessee bureau had some type of involvement in it. This is where our virtual command center is. We've really been concentrating from Holly's house north up to I 40. We're talking about a distance of about 8 miles.

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Yes. They brought in bloodhounds and so forth, and the track was set towards that bigger pond. They had divers and they walked that pond, and they looked and didn't find anything. There were several times I took agents out in my patrol boat and looked at places on the river.

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So I just remember it was madness. Cops everywhere, helicopters flying. It was already crazy. And I just. For me, it was just surreal.

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I just want her back. Thank you.

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While authorities focus on the search, the crime scene itself reveals very little in the way of physical evidence. A footprint and spots of blood in the carport where Clint last saw his sister. There's two little steps that go into the carport. Her mustang was parked in the first slot, and the blood was found right in front of it. One of them was about the size of a fist.

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The other ones were much smaller, maybe a quarter sized or dime sized, and it was determined to be hers. The discovery of the blood obviously is disheartening and indicates she's at least injured. She was at least bleeding when she was taken away. The working theory, whoever took Holly had to be familiar with the area and know the bobo's schedule. We feel that she knew that she was in fear of her life, so she was complying with his command.

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It might have been somebody close, somebody that kind of knew our routine or when I left, when she left, and when my daughter left to go to school. In our minds, besides the very few people we were the closest to, anybody could have been a suspect. As the list of possible suspects grows, authorities begin to wonder if the abductor could be even closer to home than the bobos realize. There were a lot of people that felt telling the truth would be the secret to solving this case.

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It's been almost a week since Holly was last seen. A 20 year old nursing student who reportedly was abducted from her home a week ago today. Abducted from her home six days ago, weeks after 20 year old Holly Bobo is abducted from her home, investigators still don't know who took her, but thanks to cell phone tracking technology, they say they know where she was taken. So you mapped out where you thought her cell phone went? Yes.

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So where do you think her phone went? As she was leaving her home, it went straight north. Can we look at the map? Absolutely.

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Okay, so they go north about 32, 33 miles an hour. The red dotted area. And then it travels this way. Volunteers searching along the mapped out route. Find some of Holly's personal items, including her cell phone.

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We were going down the side of the road on each side of highway 641, just kind of in the ditches, walking elbow to elbow. We found the phone there. They found her notebook. They found her lunchbox. They found her school papers.

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And that essentially followed the same path of the gps tracking of her cell phone. It's confirmation they are looking in the right place. But that doesn't make the search any easier. The massive investigation has turned up nearly 300 new leads, but still no holly. Volunteers say they don't plan on stopping until she is found.

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It's just unbearable. I can't hardly imagine we are those people. We became those people that no one ever wants to be. The Bobos are living a nightmare, and it's only about to get worse. Once viewed as victims, they're now being viewed as suspects.

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Did she know her alleged abductor? Yes. There were a lot of people that felt Clint was lying, felt very strongly that Clint was lying and that Clint telling the truth would be the secret to solving this case. I've heard countless times if I would have been that. I mean, I'm talking sometimes people said this to my face, you know, if I had been that, if I had been that brother, I would have went out there, you know, I would have done something.

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They just don't understand the way that this event played out.

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The TBI, the FBI, and the US marshals interviewed Clint Bobo multiple times over several weeks, asking him over and over what he knows about his sister's disappearance. Just question after question after question and detail after, you know, just trying to pull any information they could out of me, which I understand is what they're supposed to do. I just wanted to be as helpful as I could, so I. But I was willing to do whatever they asked me to do. I interviewed Clint Bobo on several occasions, sometimes several hours at a time I spent with him.

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And I never, ever had Clint Bobo dishonest. I found him very trustworthy, and he never changed his story. What happened? Clint's cell phone data backs up his story. He never left the Bobo home that morning.

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The cell phone data. Holly was moving the whole time Clint's been here. The police were there at 810, and Holly's cell phone moved for another hour and 15 minutes. Clint couldn't have been involved in moving her, or somebody else would have had been involved, too. I just wish I had known more.

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I wish I had known that the neighborhood called mom at school. I wished I had known that the neighbor heard a scream. I wished I had known that Drew was turkey hunting. I didn't have the information that I needed. It will take several years, but Clint is eventually cleared, as are all the Bobo family members and Holly's boyfriend, Drew Scott.

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Meanwhile, as the investigation is seemingly going nowhere, the Bobo family is increasingly frustrated. Until your child is found or, you know, what happened to them, I don't think anyone could ever do enough. In a parent's eyes, there was all kinds of leads coming in. We were looking at everybody. Everybody was looked at.

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When did someone kind of pull away from the rest? There was a point in the investigation to where the FBI agent and Dicus, the TBI agent, come up with a suspect. And who was that guy? Terry Britt. He spent the majority of his life in prison for kidnapping and rape.

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He was on that list of local people that were sexual predators. And, of course, we ran his name and Terry Britt right away. He fit the description that Clint gave. He was about 510 eleven. I estimated him to be about 510 and about 200 pounds.

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I guess it was just assumed, you know, that he had black hair or dark brown. It just kind of blended in with his camouflage clothing. Terry Britt fits the description. He knows the routes. He lives at the end of the route where her stuff was thrown out.

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And he has a strong history in this kind of behavior. According to Terry Dicas. Terry Britt did have, for lack of a better term, a type. He liked pretty, blonde, blue eyed girls. And Holly fit that type.

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Agent Dicus wants to talk to Britt, and he has no trouble tracking him down. Britt is locked up on another charge. Dicus records the conversation with him. How you doing? I'm getting in there.

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While Britt says he has an alibi and denies having anything to do with Holly Bobo's abduction, he spoke hypothetically about who may have done it and why. He said if somebody like him had got Holly, she's just a toy to him, and it's all fantasy world. She's young, pretty, perfect somewhat body. Yeah, okay. Like a toy.

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Some people would think, see this man? When he goes and gets this female, and he's gonna go snatch her up. He can't wait to get her to wherever he's gonna take her to. Cause he's wanting that body. He's living in this fantasy.

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He's got this perfect girl, and he's gotta get to that body as quick as he can. But as soon as he gets. As soon as he gets done, now reality sinks in. But here comes reality. Now I've got a body.

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What am I gonna do with it? Cause if you keep it, you gotta feed it, right? You gotta hide it. It ain't gonna happen. And if you kill it, what you gonna do with it?

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I mean, there's no way.

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The first time I interviewed him, I was like, oh, my God, this guy did it. This guy did it. But the Bobo investigation is about to take a turn. I've been hearing about these guys in the investigation. They were brought up early and often is a new prime suspect about to take center stage.

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He would tell people, you're going to end up in a hole just like Holly.

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We've got the exclusive view behind the table every day right after the show, while the topics are still hot, the ladies go deeper into the moments that make the view. The view. The views behind the table podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcast. Lainey Wilson.

[00:24:11]

Now streaming on Hulu, the story you haven't heard. I experienced a lot of heartache. I'm a tough woman, but it's not easy. Lainey Wilson. It's taken me a really long time to even get to this moment.

[00:24:22]

And the CMA award for entertainer of the year goes to. Lainey Wilson. Hey, y'all, it's Lainey. I cannot wait for you to see my special streaming on Hulu. This has been a wild ride, and you'll get to ride alongside me on this journey.

[00:24:36]

Lainey Wilson, Bell bottom country now streaming only on Hulu.

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Months into their investigation, no arrests have been made, but TBI agent Terry Dikas is convinced he has his guy. We conducted a thousand interviews. We looked at five counties around. Terry Britt's the one. It's either this guy or we have no idea who.

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There were some disagreements, some very heated disagreements at the TBI. It was just the argument. You don't have enough proof for it. You can't prove that he did it. That's what I was faced with, and I was taken off the investigation.

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With new TVI agents now taking the lead, they clear Terry Britt and go back to sifting through all those tips that have been gathered over the years. As investigators dig into this case, a variety of possible suspects emerge. But one group of men well known to law enforcement becomes the focus of their investigation. I've been hearing about these guys that people are saying they're into all kinds of things, stealing things. They were friends.

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Four guys, Zach Adams, Dylan Adams, Jason Autry and Shane Austin. All four were suspects separately. Zach had criminal histories. Dylan had drug charges. Jason Autry had a history of theft and drug charges.

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Shane Austin admittedly had a drug problem. They all had that common link of having a criminal past. Tell me about your son Shane. It was just the life of the party. He was just a fun person to be around.

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But he had a. Had a problem between his 9th and 10th grade year of high school. He dislocated his shoulder playing football. I think the opioid stuff started after his first surgery. He wanted to not be addicted to drugs.

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He tried not to be addicted to drugs for a long time. Jimmy and Rita Austin had given Shane a place to live, a little trailer to live in that was down the road from their family home.

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Their last names all started with a. And the locals referred to them as the. The A train. They were known for getting in trouble in the investigation. They were brought up early and often by people that know that they're into drugs.

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Zach would tell people, you're going to end up in a hole, just like Holly. Comments everywhere that normal people would not make. And in the early days of the investigation, Holly's mother, Karen thought these guys could know something, given what they had been heard saying around town. So she tracked them down herself. I asked them, did they know anything about our daughter's abduction?

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Of course, they all denied it. She was kind of doing her own investigation. I mean, she came here and asked to talk to Shane. I guess I would have fought Goliath, you know, I just had no pharaohs trying to find my daughter. And at the time of Holly's abduction, witnesses tell investigators that before she went missing, Shane Austin crossed paths with her at a local raccoon hunting festival.

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The story was that Shane had seen Holly Bobo at the coon hunt and that he'd kind of followed her around like a stalker. Did you hear anything about that? I guess we heard that rumor. We heard that he was trying to take a picture of her and pretending like he was talking on the phone. But now Shane only had a flip phone.

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So I don't think you could hold that flip phone up to your head and take a picture of somebody. But that's what we heard. Investigators followed up on this story. Within a week of Holly's disappearance, they showed up at the Austin's property wanting to speak. They come and brought the dogs and come down and search Shane strayler.

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And that was the start of it. Throughout their investigation, authorities say they never found evidence at the Austin's property that connected him to Holly Bobo. Were you surprised that they were down there? Yes. I mean, I know Shane had drug issues, and that's what I told the TBI guy when he come to the.

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To the gate down there. And I said, hey. I said, if she'd been made a morphine, I'd said, you come to the right place, but no, no way. And then two years later, with those new agents on the case, authorities zeroed back in on the Adams brothers, Jason Autry and Shane Austin. At what point did you realize that he might be in trouble with all of this when they come back at 06:00 in the morning, tooting a horn.

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So we went down and opened the gate and let them in. And they said, we're down here to get this over with, so we want Shane. That's when they wanted to know where the body was at. The TBI met with Shane, and they got that immunity deal. Investigators offered Shane immunity to cooperate and tell them what he knew about his friend's involvement in Halle Bobo's abduction.

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You take an immunity deal, you're. You've done something. You've done something. But the lawyer said, if you don't do it, they're going to arrest him. They've done.

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Told me they're going to arrest him. And he said, it's going to cost thousands of dollars. So us three, we talked and we agreed. We talked hard we talked hard. We talked hard.

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If you got any part of this, you better be telling it. Shane Austin had nothing, nothing at all to do with this. So Shane Austin takes the deal. But when he sits down with investigators, they're disappointed. They was very unhappy because he didn't know where the body was at.

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According to authorities, all he can tell them is that he, too has heard Zach Adams make incriminating comments about what happened to holly. There was talk that Zach had blurted out, I'm gonna do you like I did to holly. But Shane also said that he didn't believe that Zach was telling the truth. He thought that Zach was just boasting. But investigators believe Shane knows more than he's telling, and they revoke that immunity deal.

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I scared for my son. If the TBI wasn't here, they was calling him, harassing him. So we didn't have any peace. I don't know if it was them calling him or whatever, but anyway, his drug use just escalated, and that's from that. So.

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And Christmas, last time we see. Shane's parents say his life continued to spiral, and in 2015, he died by suicide. Shane opened that door to addiction. They just grabbed him and pulled him in. This time, it pulled him in for real.

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Wasn't going to let him go.

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Authorities have lost one cooperating witness, but they're about to get a new one.

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You ain't going to be scared of nobody now. There ain't no reason to be scared of nobody. Could what he has to say finally explain what happened to Halle Bobo?

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More than two years after Halle Bobo disappeared, investigators are still searching for answers. Rumors about four local small time criminals, Zach Adams, his brother Dylan Adams, Jason Autry, and Shane Austin, have failed to lead to any hard evidence. But in 2014, investigators catch a break when Dylan Adams is arrested on unrelated gun charges. When he was arrested this time, it was big. This guy that he had been hanging with was a convicted felon, and they had a couple guns on them and drugs.

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So he got in trouble for having the firearms around a felony.

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They had him in a federal holding facility up in northwest Tennessee. While Dylan Adams is incarcerated on these gun charges, investigators speak with him at least six times over eight months, and he seems to implicate his brother Zach and Jason autry in the kidnapping and murder of Holly Bobo. I had to go through the TBI to make sure my son was still alive, still safe. And, you know, each time that I spoke with him, there was no indication that he was being interrogated. He has no concept of what is really going on.

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Dylan's family says he has intellectual disabilities. Dylan was. He was slow. He really was. Dylan would have a hard time completing a simple task, maybe a little slow in reading, comprehending things like that.

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According to court documents, Dylan eventually pleads guilty to lesser federal charges and is released, but not into the custody of his mother. In fact, she says she couldn't even see him because of the conditions of his release. I was told that I would not be able to contact him or he would not be able to contact me. I think safe house was the word that they used because Dylan was their key witness and he had to be protected. I had no idea where he was going.

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As it turns out, prosecutors arranged for Dylan Adams to be released into the custody of a private citizen and former Memphis police officer named Dennis Benjamin.

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Dennis Benjamin takes him back to his house for several weeks. And is this normal for someone to be released into the custody of someone that they don't know? That's a law enforcement person? It's real strange, that's for sure. We reached out to the prosecutor in that case about Dennis Benjamin's involvement, and they would not comment.

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And while Dylan Adams is there, a huge break in the case. The moment the Bobo family had been dreading for years, the three year and five month search for Holly had come to an end. Two men searching for Ginseng found her remain. Sunday morning off a country corner road and holiday. Holly's skull was found with a single gunshot.

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Among the remains, some of her schoolwork, her sandals, and her promise ring from her boyfriend, Drew Scott. It was just a miracle she was fam. Because to this day, as broken as my heart is, my heart is so broken for those people that still don't have that, because I don't think I could have kept going.

[00:36:25]

And just weeks later, the Decatur county sheriff's office receives a shocking phone call. The caller is Dennis Benjamin, telling them that Dylan Adams, still in his custody, has just confessed to taking part in the kidnapping and murder of Holly Bobo. Dylan, have you sleep right there, if you don't mind. Dylan Adams is brought in to speak with TBI agents. And through halting one word answers, he tells them that he, Zach Adams, Jason Autry, and Shane Austin committed the crime together.

[00:37:00]

You came forward to Dennis and told him some things that are above and beyond what you've ever told me or Brent about this case, right? Yes, sir. Okay, describe what was she doing? What did she look like? What was she wearing?

[00:37:17]

Long pants on, pink shirt.

[00:37:24]

Dylan says that all four men sexually assaulted Holly at Zach's house. And now you're saying that Shane Austin is sitting there. You're sitting there, Jason Auster's sitting there, and Zach. Is there anybody else involved? Was Holly bubble kidnapped?

[00:37:49]

Was she raped? Raped by you? I just. Someone being bullied into saying something they didn't do. I think that he was just trying to get through it.

[00:38:00]

You withheld information. That ain't how this works. He was in a federal holding facility for almost two years. The TBI agents there pounded him, and he never, ever once said, I rape Polly. And then he's moved to this Dennis Benjamin's house, and suddenly he's raped Holly.

[00:38:26]

We attempted to contact Dennis Benjamin, but we were unable to reach him. She was shot in the back of her head. How did that happen? This one? How much blood was on the floor?

[00:38:40]

What was ever done to clean that up? As far as I know, just to ask.

[00:38:48]

Armed with Dylan's confession and a search warrant, investigators go to Zach Adams house looking for any physical evidence to corroborate his story. They come to the door there and asked me, said, you want to unlock it or you want us to tear the door down? And they knocked a hole in it to see what was back there. I reckon tore the fan down as they was tearing the floor out. They used my pick and things to tear this out with, but they cut it out with a saw.

[00:39:18]

And the story was raping her and attacking her in the house. Well, they pulled up floorboards. They DNA tested all the couch and the bed and everything. Never found nothing. We reached out to the TBI, and they declined to answer specific questions about this case.

[00:39:34]

In my heart of hearts, I know my boys. They're drug addicts. They're not murderers. But despite a lack of evidence, authorities believe that's exactly what they are. Zach Adams, Jason Autry, and Dylan Adams are eventually all indicted for murder.

[00:39:52]

Decatur county grand jury handed down indictment of especially aggravated kidnapping and first degree felony murder. With all three heading to trial. The state announces that it will seek the death penalty. And Jason Autry proclaims his innocence to anyone who will listen. Innocent man, Boston accused.

[00:40:14]

And tonight, for the first time, you'll hear from Zach Adams. In his own words, I have no meaning. And the brand new development that Adams hopes may finally exonerate him. If you go play with him, you might as well go all the way.

[00:40:41]

All right, we're ready to continue. A nursing student who was last seen being dragged away from her home by a man in camouflage. Nolly, I love you so much. The Bobos are living a nightmare. And it's only about.

[00:40:58]

I know that my daughter begged for her life. Look at me, please. You have shown absolutely no remorse. But is she saying that to someone who's innocent? Why do you think you guys became suspects in this case?

[00:41:16]

There were a lot of people at your trial that testified that you had made comments and that you had killed Holly Bobo. I don't think they're capable of kidnapping a woman and keeping it secret for two years. I don't think they're capable of doing arithmetic. Raise your right hand, please. Did a key witness lie on the stand?

[00:41:35]

He said, I need you to help me bury this body. He said, that's Holly Bobo. Now. Video never seen before of that same crucial witness. If you gonna play with it, you might as well go all the way changing his story.

[00:41:49]

So we've been out of the way. What does he tell you? Tells me he made the whole thing up. Why would someone admit to killing someone if they didn't do it?

[00:42:07]

Circuit court, Hartton County, Tennessee's nine session. Pursuant with journey, the honorable St. Creed McGinley presiding. God bless the United States, the state of Tennessee, the county of Hardin, and this honorable court. You may be seated.

[00:42:27]

It's been six years since Halle Bobo was taken. Six years since she died. Everybody. Judge, jury, prosecution, defense gathered inside this courthouse. It's September, but it's stuffy.

[00:42:41]

The jurors are sweating. People fanning themselves in the Tennessee heat. And no one has a hotter seat than the defendant, Zach Adams. He's charged with kidnapping, murdering and raping Hallie Bobo. He could face the death penalty if convicted in this case.

[00:43:00]

State of Tennessee versus Zachary Briar Adams. State read to proceed. We are not. Yes, ma'am.

[00:43:13]

Zach Adams has put on a suit and a lot of weight. He is the only defendant in this trial. His friend, Shane Austin died by suicide. Co defendants Jason Autry and Dylan Adams expected to stand trial later. Zach was the one that the state of Tennessee thought was the most culpable.

[00:43:32]

So they chose to try him first. Hello? This is a prepaid call from an inmate at the Tennessee department of corrections. Hello? Hey, Zach, this is Eva.

[00:43:42]

How are you doing? Hi. I'm good. Adams does not testify, but years later, he tells us his story in his first interview ever. What do you say to all those people who think you're guilty?

[00:43:56]

Where's the evidence? There's not one single piece of evidence. Did you think you were gonna get off? Well, I knew I was innocent. When you're innocent, it doesn't matter.

[00:44:04]

You're thinking. Yeah, of course you're thinking. You're gonna come home. Did you innocent.

[00:44:13]

He took her. He raped her, killed her.

[00:44:21]

He covered it up. He bragged about it, and he almost got away with her. But he did, because we're here now. He did not murder Holly Lynn Bobo. He did not kidnap Holly Lynn Bobo.

[00:44:39]

He did not abduct Holly Lynn Bobo. He did not rape Holly.

[00:44:49]

And do you remember Karen Bobo knew the man now accused of killing her daughter when he was just a boy. Did you know Zach at. I had Zach in the fourth grade. I was his fourth grade school teacher. The very first day you have Holly's mother basically fall out on the stand during her testimony.

[00:45:14]

Let's take the recess. I want everyone to remain with me while the jury files out, please. Got a nerve.

[00:45:25]

Holly's father also testifies. What day did you give up hope for the very first time? About three years into it. Give her tape to TBI, come to our house, told us that was Holly. Holly had been planned.

[00:45:45]

That was her remains.

[00:45:49]

I'm gonna actually look at this picture. You recognize it? Prosecutors produced the alleged murder weapon. It's a 32 caliber revolver witnesses claim was owned by Zach Adams friend, Shane Austin, and it was recovered in a drainage ditch. Just months before the trial.

[00:46:08]

We located a metal object that was later identified as a revolver. A parade of no fewer than nine witnesses testify that over the years, Adams, often while on drugs or in jail, made incriminating statements. They said, I'll kill you like I did Halle Bobo. He made the comment, I couldn't have picked a prettier bitch. He just had a couple of his friends, you know, they got drunk and they went into the woods with this girl.

[00:46:37]

And then. And he was like, you know, I was there for the worst of it. And I was like, well, did you do it? And he was like, I was there for the worst of it, and he just left it like that. Somebody that would brag about that, my God, that's the devil's work.

[00:46:52]

You don't do that. Did you say those things? My life used to revolve around drugs and selling drugs and stuff. So if I could get people intimidated or make them think that, you know, fear me or whatever. So I said things that I shouldn't have said, but I never directly said I did this to Holly.

[00:47:15]

The prosecution and defense each call a cell phone expert. Both agree Adams and the other suspects phones did not hit cell towers near the Bobo home at the time Holly was taken. At the time of this abduction. Do we have any idea where Zach Adams phone is, where Shane Austin's phone is, where Dylan's Adam's phone is, or where Jason Arthur's phone is? No.

[00:47:43]

The prosecution expert says it's possible Holly and Zach Adams phones were in the same general locations later that morning. But the defense expert disagrees. In very general terms, the devices were not together at the same location at the same time during that morning. Did you kill Holly Bobo? Absolutely not.

[00:48:04]

Why do you think you guys became suspects in this case? We didn't have a heart alibi, and we was local, you know, drug users and stuff. And what it matter? Putting us away? I felt like they had to arrest somebody, even if it was the wrong person, which it was.

[00:48:23]

As the trial continues, astonishing testimony. A witness you might think would be the last person to believe Adams is innocent. I looked at Zach personally a total of two or three times. Whenever the last one was over with, I stopped looking at him. And a stunning courtroom appearance.

[00:48:41]

That former suspect with a theory of what Holly's killer was thinking. You gotta hide it. And if you kill it, what you gonna do with it? Terry Britt, the man investigators say they cleared is about to take the stand.

[00:49:05]

People who disappear without a trace. The most notorious murder cases in New York. Pure evil and the most devious killers. Hannibal Lecter. Feel to him for chilling true crime stories, follow the true crimenyc podcast wherever you listen.

[00:49:21]

When it comes to winning elections, is it really the economy? Stupid. Are soccer moms the quintessential swing voter? And does it matter which candidate you'd rather share a beer with? Every election cycle, cliches come easy, but are they right?

[00:49:37]

In a new series on the 538 Politics podcast, were taking a look back at conventional wisdom from past elections. Where did that wisdom come from? And does it hold up? Today? Find the campaign throwback series in the five hundredthirtyeight politics feed wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:50:03]

All right, we're ready to continue defense regency state regulation. Yes, sir. All right, Carl, you're next. Terry Douglas. The prosecution of Zach Adams for the murder of Halle Bobo not surprisingly, features plenty of law enforcement witnesses.

[00:50:19]

That's standard. What is unusual, the defense calls six current and former law enforcement witnesses, including the TBI's very own former lead investigator, Terry Dikas. The determination I made is that, that he could not have been involved in the kidnapping. Is it really unusual for law enforcement? Absolutely it's unusual.

[00:50:40]

I've never testified for the defense. No, it doesn't happen. Law enforcement guys don't come forward for the defense. I was wasting my time. Wasting your time doing what?

[00:50:52]

Investigating these idiots. Can you be more specific about these idiots? Jason Autry, Zach Adams, and Shane Austin and Dylan Adams. I don't think they're capable of kidnapping a woman and keeping it secret for two years. I don't think they're capable of that.

[00:51:11]

I don't think they're capable of doing arithmetic, much less this. In August of 2012, Terry Dikis had a new supervisor come in, and that supervisor looked at the leads and looked at the way that Terry Dicus was doing that investigation. Case agent on the case needed to be benched. Why was he benched? In my opinion, based on statements he made as well as statements other agents made to me, he had lost his objectivity.

[00:51:40]

He had tunnel vision on a particular suspect, and was not objective about all of the facts coming into the case. I've weighed the information that I had at the time, and I believe I'm objective to have the lead case agent who was removed from the case to take the stand and still saying during a murder trial that he still doesn't think that Zach Adams is guilty of this. That's something that's very hard to hear. Dicus admits he does not know what evidence investigators gathered against Zach Adams and the others after he left. But you can't tell us anything about the three and four years after that.

[00:52:24]

You're right. I don't know what y'all done since then. In a murder trial, it's usually the prosecutors pointing fingers, but in this case, the defense attorneys took a turn. They argue Zach Adams is the wrong guy. Somebody else kidnapped and murdered Holly Bobo.

[00:52:42]

That guy terry, Brittany. And you don't have to go far to find him. He's sitting right up there on the witness stand. Terry Britt. T e r y b r I t t.

[00:52:53]

Terry Britt was a registered sex offender who lived fairly close to the Bobo home. He lived also very, very close to where some of her property was found. Later on during the search, would you tell the jury what you're currently incarcerated for? Kidnapped. Contempt.

[00:53:08]

You have other convictions in your history? Yes, ma'am. Had a rape charge, robbery charge. I got on to him because, number one, he is the exact size of what our witness said the abductor looked like. Okay?

[00:53:27]

His history tells me he's capable of kidnapping her. Do you remember Terry Dykas coming out to talk to you about the disappearance of holly bubble multiple times? Oh, yeah, we all know diapers, don't we? Britt's history of rape, kidnapping, and firearms convictions made him such a strong suspect, the TBI got a subpoena to bug his home. Were you aware that for the first time in the state of Tennessee, they had actually bugged your house?

[00:53:57]

No, ma'am. But that extraordinary scrutiny of Britt yields no evidence to warrant an arrest. And he says he has an alibi. Your wife, Janet Britt was with you the entire day. The entire day.

[00:54:10]

You were never part from one another? Never. I checked his alibi and found out it was garbage. Why did you think the alibi was garbage? His cell phone.

[00:54:20]

Called Janet's cell phone and talked to it for two minutes and 56 seconds. His alibi is not true. It's. It's fabricated. Okay.

[00:54:31]

Nevertheless, the Brits insist they were together the whole time, and their alibi is legitimate. Terry Dicas called me to go interview Terry Britt because all Dicus wanted to know was if he is interested in talking about Holly Bobo and working out some kind of deal. US Marshal John Walker says he visits Britt, who is in prison on an unrelated charge, and lays out how he believed Britt committed the crime. I said, I know you're a sociopath. I know you have issues with women.

[00:55:02]

And I walked him through what we knew. He interrupted me and looked at me, very, very straightforward, and said. He said, sounds like you have it all figured out. I'll plead to it, and you can close the case. Do you remember at one time offering to plead guilty to the murder of Holly Bobo?

[00:55:19]

If you. He could get a 20 year sentence?

[00:55:26]

No, I'm saying that's a lie. When I got up to leave, he stood up behind me and he said, if I need to show you something, how long would it take you to get me out of here? He wanted to take me and show me where the remains were at. And did you relate all of this information to the TBI? Yes, I did.

[00:55:45]

And as far as you know, did the TBI go back to follow up with an interview? They didn't follow up the next few days, like I told him that they were probably gonna do. That did not happen. Okay. I thought the next day they'd get the confession from him and find her remains, and nothing happened.

[00:56:00]

And I'm like, what do you mean nothing happened? We asked the TBI about this. A spokesperson said because of the ongoing legal processes, they are not able to answer specific questions, but they remain confident in the investigation. Did you have anything to do, anything at all? No, I did not.

[00:56:22]

With the abduction of Holly Bobo? No, I did not. The rape of Holly Bobo? No, I did not. Put the bullet in the back of her head.

[00:56:33]

No, I did not. And I wouldn't do that. All right, you can step in, Terry. Brittany leaves the witness stand. Not a free man, but never charged in the Hallie Bobo case.

[00:56:45]

Now the jury is about to hear from the most compelling kind of witness, one who claims to be an eyewitness to murder. Is this the testimony that could send Zach Adams to death row at that time? Boom. The gun. Gun went off.

[00:57:05]

Boom, boom, boom. Underneath that bridge.

[00:57:18]

Chilling testimony today in the trial of Zach Adams, one of the men charged in the murder of Holly Bobo. The prosecution opened up with a somber message to the jurors saying Adams bragged about killing Bobo. So far, there's no concrete evidence pinning Adams to the crime. No DNA, no fingerprints, no video, no recordings. His attorney insists the case against Zach Adams is flimsy, largely circumstantial, with little direct evidence connecting him to the crime.

[00:57:46]

There was no evidence. There's not one single strand of evidence that points to me or anybody, Dylan or Shane or Jason. In the first three days of the state's case, none of the witnesses claim to have seen Zach Adams with Halle Bobo. But that is about to change. On day four, the state calls Jason Autry.

[00:58:08]

Jason Autry for a long time, said that he was innocent. He had nothing to do with Hallie Bobo's abduction, nothing to do with her rape, nothing to do with her murder. I want to say one thing. I'm innocent of these charges. I heard you say that.

[00:58:23]

Right hand before God. I'm innocent, sir. But then in late 2016, Autry changed the story. We get a call from Jason Autry's attorney, and he informs us that Jason has been talking to prosecutors and that he's going to be testifying against Zach at trial. I raise your right hand, please.

[00:58:47]

So I'm going to swear the testimony about here is the truth, the whole truth, and doesn't let the truth go for sure. There are witnesses, there are star witnesses, and then there's Jason Autry. From Gavel to Gavel, the entire fourth day of testimony is all autry. When I pulled in, there was a large fire burning in a burn barrel. Dill and Adams were standing at the door of the trailer with his shirt off.

[00:59:19]

Shane was walking around in the yard hollering, y'all need to hurry up and get the goddamn hell out of here. With a firearm holstered on the right side. And just details his entire day on April 13 like it was yesterday. Autry says Adams tells him later that he and his brother and Shane Austin had kidnapped Holly Bobo and raped him. He said, I need you to help me bury this body.

[00:59:44]

He said, that's Holly Bobo. Jason Autry testifies that he and Zach Adams brought Holly Bobo here to this long, winding dirt road that runs along the Tennessee River.

[01:00:06]

Autry says they take the body, which was wrapped in a blanket, and lay it on the ground. I'm standing over the top of it with my hand on my knees.

[01:00:19]

She bend right here. At that time, I see your foot move. And the sound of distress, it sounded like come from the blanket. I told him, I said, this still alive. Autry says he keeps a lookout while Zach gets a pistol from the truck.

[01:00:43]

And at that time, boom, the gun sounded. Gun went off. And it sounded like boom, boom, boom underneath that bridge. It was just one shot, but it echoed underneath that bridge all the way down that damn river. And when that gun went off, the birds went everywhere, just all up under that bridge.

[01:01:06]

And it just dead silence for just a second. Autry says at that point, he hears a boat motor and fears they'll be discovered. We load the body back into the truck in the same fashion, shut the tailgate. We drove in just a ratchet. Panic, panicked just pretty much to hear him telling that story.

[01:01:32]

Anger. What I felt, I felt anger, sadness because I thought he was my friend. Why would he lie on me? The BoA family told us in 2017 they believe Zach Adams is responsible for their daughter's murder and that Jason Autry's testimony rang true to them. It did, and it matched.

[01:01:54]

It matched what the prosecutors had also. My cross examination of Autry was everything. I mean, it was really important. The defense attorney points out at the time Autry says the murder happened, he was on phone calls with his girlfriend and also his mother. In the middle of all this, you were able to take a telephone call from your mother, Shirley King, that morning at 942, weren't you?

[01:02:22]

If your records reflect that, that's true. Autry also mentions a burn barrel at Shane Austin's house. 55 gallon barrel with all the paint off of it, with flames shooting at the top of it, three to four foot high. Shane's mother says there was no burn barrel. Shane didn't have a burn barrel at his trailer.

[01:02:49]

Shane's mother also says Jason Autry was wrong about a fence at Shane's trailer. The gate was open. No, the driveway did not have a gate at that time. We did put a gate and a fence up. And it was June of 2011.

[01:03:09]

After we bought shayna puppy, the prosecution basically adopted Jason Autry's story of what happened. But they left huge gaps in their prosecution, and they don't explain who it was that came and abducted Holly. They don't explain how her body got at that cell tower. Prosecutors argued at trial that Shane Austin could have been the one who took Holly. Jason Autry is the best evidence that these prosecutors have in this case because they have very little physical evidence.

[01:03:44]

They're banking on the jury completely, wholeheartedly buying his account. Inside this courthouse, the jury is about to deliver a verdict. It could be a life or death decision for Zach Adams. Either way, it won't be the end of it. Years later, a new investigation, another courtroom battle, and prison interviews.

[01:04:07]

What Zach Adams and Jason Autry say now when the verdict is announced, out of respect for this jury, I will tell you, I want you to contain your emotions. I want there to be no displaced. The jury deliberates 11 hours over two days and then finds Zach Adams guilty on all counts in the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Holly Bobo. When you heard them read the verdict and they said guilty, it was guilt. It was terrible.

[01:04:51]

It was terrible. Worst day of my life. Probably there will never been a punishment for him. He don't deserve to be breathing air that he's breathing today.

[01:05:04]

Zach Adams avoids a possible death sentence in a deal with prosecutors approved by the Bobo family, he gets life in prison without parole, plus 50 years. Here. Is that a picture? That's Holly and myself.

[01:05:23]

That's Holly and her nursing student classmates. Just a few days before, Karen Bobo, the woman who taught Zach Adams in the fourth grade, gives him a lesson on heartbreak. I know that she begged for her life because my daughter loved and enjoyed life. But you chose to take that from her.

[01:06:00]

Tonight, a man accused of killing and raping Halley Bobo pleads guilty. Dylan Adams pleads guilty to a lesser offense, facilitating murder. He now faces 35 years in prison without the possible.

[01:06:14]

Three years later, Jason Autry pleads guilty to lesser charges related to Holly's kidnapping and murder. And with credit for time served, he is set free. His testimony was some of the most credible, persuasive testimony I've ever heard given in a courtroom. The state had to make a deal with the devil to get Zach Adams prosecuted. In my opinion, all three of them should be hanging in this big oak tree on the backside of this courthouse.

[01:06:48]

From his prison cell, Zach Adams has tried and failed over the years to have his conviction overturned. Now he is trying again. You hear people say that they're innocent all the time. In jail, in prison. Yeah.

[01:07:01]

Yeah. So people were skeptical. What do you say to those people? He said the person was, what, five foot, 9200 pounds? It wasn't Jason Alfrey.

[01:07:10]

He's six foot six. Could have been me. I was six foot, 3125 pounds. My brother's six foot, 2125 pounds. The person that abducted wasn't one of us.

[01:07:22]

I mean, he didn't match the description of any of us. A flurry of legal filings beginning January 2024 lay out why Zach Adams says he deserves a new trial and why prosecutors say he does not.

[01:07:39]

April 2024, a hearing at the Hardin county courthouse. The court's going to order that the temporary order placing these exhibits under seal is to remain in effect. Adams new attorney is there and some familiar faces. Trial prosecutor Jennifer Nichols and the Bobos. Zach Adams is searching for new evidence, new witnesses.

[01:08:00]

He's being helped by Katie Spurko. She's a neuropsychologist, and she's been re examining the case against him. How did you end up involved in this case? The attorney who's representing Zach Adams, Doug Bates, is an attorney I've worked with before. What was he looking for you to do?

[01:08:18]

He wanted me to review the case file, watch the testimony, and see if there were things that stood out to me in terms of whether someone was being honest or not. Sperko says she is now working for Zach Adams mother instead of his attorney. As psychologists, we are trained on how to interview people to elicit accurate information.

[01:08:40]

Spurko provided 2020 with interviews she recorded during her investigation. I want to know everything about you. I want you to be able to look into your soul and know every single thing about you. I wanted to get a sense for what he was like because he didn't testify. And I remember the first thing he asked me was if I thought he was innocent, and I said I didn't know yet.

[01:09:01]

Do you now think he's innocent? I am so confident he's innocent. Hi, my name's Katie, and I'm so sorry to come here unannounced. I had your address, and I didn't have your phone number. Spurko looked for more information about former suspect Terry Britt, who was later cleared by the TBI.

[01:09:20]

She went to see his wife Janet, who still stands by her husband. There was some evidence that came up with, with Terry regarding the holly, the Holly Bobo situation. I don't see how, because he didn't have nothing to do with it. There's no way he could have been went and kidnapped her. He was here with me.

[01:09:35]

Just because he has a record that doesn't mean he had anything to do with it. Some of Katie Sperko's investigating has provoked a reaction from the prosecutor in a court filing that includes an affidavit from Janet Britt. The prosecutor accuses Sperko of trying to intimidate Britt and of offering to show her confidential discovery files. Spurko denies she tried to intimidate Britt and says the only files she offered to share were public records of Terry Britt's criminal history.

[01:10:09]

Zach Adams court filings also say Sperko found a witness who claims she saw Terry Britt behaving oddly the morning Holly was taken. She said he was in a smaller truck and was kind of leaning over, had made eye contact with her and was leaning over, adjusting his body to block her view of his passenger seat. Prosecutors say Adams attorney, Ann Spurko, have not gotten a sworn statement from that witness, which they say the law requires before it can be considered. Still ahead, the effort to free Zach Adams brings Katie Sperko face to face with the person who helped send him to prison. He said, somebody's got to pay Jason.

[01:10:53]

He said, he gonna be you? Hell, no, I ain't paying.

[01:11:07]

Forensic neuropsychologist Katie Spurko, now working for Zach Adams family, has spent nearly a year studying his case file, watching the trial testimony, tracking down and interviewing witnesses. But the person she most wanted to talk to was the man many say sealed Adam's fate. Jason Autry. Mister Autry, raise your right hand, please. So I'm going to swear the testimony about the kids, I found him to be such an engaging witness, and at the same time, there were aspects of his story that were red flags.

[01:11:41]

Just impossible. Dylan Adams was standing at the door of the trailer with his shirt off. Shane was walking around in the yard with a firearm holstered on the right side. Okay, so this is in 2017, and he's having a recollection. A friend goes around with a firearm, has it holstered on his right side.

[01:12:07]

That's a really specific thing to remember. That's my testimony. The truth. There were just a lot of question marks for you. Yes.

[01:12:17]

He's going through the events of this day, minute by minute, almost with this crazy level of attention to detail and memory.

[01:12:30]

That was a discrepancy that caught my attention. After being released from prison for his admitted involvement in Halle Bobo's murder, it doesn't take long for Jason Autry to get in trouble with the law again. Requesting assistance on Morris Road with a subject that has a rifle. The advice the subject has taken on front end well, two months later, after they let him out of jail, he gets caught in the neighboring county with a. With a firearm.

[01:13:03]

Well, breaking news now. The man who served time for the killing of Holly Bobo has been arrested once again, this time in Benton county in a field there. There he goes back to jail, and he's still there to this day. Autry ultimately pleaded guilty to these new weapons charges and remains behind bars awaiting sentencing. In that case, back in 2017, Jason Autry told the jury that spell binding story of what happened to Holly Bobo under the eye bridge right here at the banks of the Tennessee river.

[01:13:36]

But what's he saying now? That's what Katie Spurko had to find out, if Zach Adams was going to have any hope at all. My name is Jason. Audrey. There you go.

[01:13:51]

Thank you. When you went to see Jason, what were you hoping was going to come from that conversation? I was just super curious what he would be like if he would talk to me, what he would have to say. Can we just start at the very beginning of when he first started getting questioned related to the Bobo case? I asked him, what did you do that day?

[01:14:12]

And he gave me what seemed like a really honest answer. No, I couldn't tell you what I done today. Yeah. Katie Sperkl provided ABC News with this video, and it's the first time it's being seen publicly. I want to know your whole experience.

[01:14:27]

How did it get from you being arrested for this to you being on the stand, telling this crazy story? So all of this in the beginning was just all routine questions? Autry says that when he told his attorney that he intended to fight the charges and go to trial, he got an answer he wasn't expecting. He said, I got you about a 95% chance. You spend the rest of your time right away.

[01:14:57]

You know, what do they want? You know, I need to know what they want. What do they want from me? Yeah. I want you to justify straight up by, what does he tell you?

[01:15:11]

Tells me he made the whole thing up, took the phone records and the case file and put together what he did that day to craft a story that fits in with the evidence that exists and cannot be changed. I said, well, what if I say all I see was just a body, you know, laying in the back of the truck? It's not good jail. Why would someone admit to killing someone if they didn't do it? He's sitting in jail for years.

[01:15:42]

He's being told that Zach's gonna be telling a story against him. And basically it's this or the death penalty. And so under that amount of pressure, I think a lot of people would have folded the way he did. And he said, I need you to help me bury this body. He said, that's Holly Bobo.

[01:16:05]

You're an engaging witness. But I was trained. I could tell your train I'm on the witness. Trained witness. Yeah, she was doing the training.

[01:16:17]

Jennifer Nichols. Yeah, she was the boss of it all. Zach Adams defense team made this claim in their legal filing, and we reached out to Jennifer Nichols about it. She denied the allegation, telling us that it is a false statement. The only guidance ever given to Jason Autry was to tell the truth.

[01:16:37]

There was no training. That's the worst I've ever felt in my life. Coming back, knowing that you just lied. But an innocent man in prison, now, he has no benefit to be gained other than morally to address the remorse. This isn't helping him whatsoever.

[01:16:57]

He's facing sentencing on federal gun charges. But it's important, important to remember that one way or another, Jason Autry is an admitted liar. And prosecutors argue that Autry's recantation should not get Zach Adams a new trial, saying Mister Autry's credibility was thoroughly impeached during cross examination at trial, and that the jury was aware of inconsistencies in his testimony. They also contend that Autry's testimony was vetted and corroborated. What do you think of the fact that Jason recanted his confession?

[01:17:36]

I'm glad I'm Gladys is telling the truth. It's about time. I wish he would have never lied in the first place. So what does this mean for Zach Adams? Is there a chance Jason Autry's new story could set him free?

[01:17:51]

A request for a new trial for. For a man convicted in the 2011 murder of a Holly Bobo. So I'm in here for something I didn't do. So I'm hopeful.

[01:18:14]

This case is a tragedy. There was never a day in that courtroom that I didn't feel for care. And Balboa. And you have shown absolutely. Look at me, please.

[01:18:26]

You have shown absolutely no remorse for anything that you have done at sentencing. Holly Bobo's mother, there was that very dramatic moment where she wanted to speak to you and look you face to face, eye to eye. Well, she felt like she was talking to the person that took her daughter's life. But she don't realize that I'm not that person. They're the real victims of all this.

[01:18:53]

But they didn't know that we didn't have anything to do with it. And if I knew anything, I would have helped any way I could have. Before this happened to Holly, we lived in what we thought was one of the safest communities.

[01:19:10]

The day. The day that Holly was abducted, not only was something taken from us, it was taken from our whole county community and the surrounding counties. The goal was to get justice for Holly. And I feel like that happened, and obviously it didn't bring her back. There will still be sad, but there is a little peace in knowing that the people that did this to her will be in jail.

[01:19:39]

But now there are questions about whether one of those people, Zach Adams, will remain behind bars. A request for a new trial for a man convicted in the 2011 murder of a Holly Bobo. Zach Adams team will now need to convince a judge that Jason Autry's new story amounts to new evidence that would have changed the jury's verdict. Jason Altri recanted his testimony, and that would give Adams an alibi for Bobo's murder. We reached out to Jennifer Nichols, the prosecutor in this case.

[01:20:12]

She declined our request for an interview, but sent us a statement that says, in part, at trial, we presented proof. Through 62 witnesses and 250 exhibits, the jurors heard testimony of Zachary Adams confessions to multiple and unrelated individuals. Today, nearly eight years after the verdicts, I remain confident in the jury's verdicts of Zachary Adams guilt. We understood, you know, when the trial and sentence and everything took place, that there'd be a number of events down through the years. We're going to be patient because we still are seeking justice for our beloved holly.

[01:20:49]

Holly was always about helping someone. Whatever Holly did, she put forth her best effort, and it was just in her soul to be that kind, loving, nurturing person. It's been more than 13 years since Holly's passing, and her legacy still remains. A stretch of Tennessee highway has been dedicated in her honor, and Holly's cousin, country singer Whitney Duncan, recorded a song to honor Holly. I wanted to convey a message of, she's not hurting anymore.

[01:21:27]

You know, she is in a better place, but I know she's watching down and she sees everything and she is happy.

[01:21:41]

After Holly's death, the Bobo family established a scholarship in her name for other nursing students. As for Zach Adams, a hearing is scheduled next month when a judge is going to consider some of his legal filings. That's our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.

[01:21:56]

And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.