Introducing a new six-part podcast from 20/20 and ABC Audio, "What Happened to Holly Bobo?" In this series, you'll hear about one of the biggest cases in Tennessee history. The series starts here with episode one, "A Scream on Swan Johnson Road." A young nursing student walks into the Tennessee woods — and vanishes. To catch new episodes early, follow What Happened to Holly Bobo for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the podcast 'What Happened to Holly Bobo?' about?
This is Deborah Roberts. You're about to hear what happened to Holly Bobo. In this series, ABC News' Eva Pilgrim will take you through the twists and turns of a murder case that captivated Tennessee and the nation. Here's Episode 1.
Hey, it's Brad Milkey. This week on The Crime Scene Weekly, we're talking about a mom who gained national attention for faking her own kidnapping. Sherry Papini is back in the spotlight, but now she's changing her story and trying to change her custody arrangement with her kids. Listen to the latest from the case on The Crime Scene Weekly.
Chapter 2: What was happening in Tennessee before Holly Bobo's disappearance?
On Saturday, April 9th, 2011, Tennessee's wildflowers were in full bloom. Its rolling hills were a vibrant green, and that weekend, winter seemed long gone as temperatures soared into the 80s. It was the perfect setting for one of the most beloved traditions in western Tennessee, the annual raccoon hunt in Decatur County. The hunt dates back to 1976 and is billed as the largest in the world.
Throughout the weekend, dogs chase after raccoons and are rated on their performance, including how fast they can track down the raccoons. The winning dogs and their owners get prize money, which is donated to St. Jude Children's Hospital. There are country and bluegrass performances, auctions, and lots of local food vendors serving barbecue and pies.
Every April, thousands gather at the county fairgrounds for the hunt. But in 2011, less than a week after the hunt, the quiet community on the banks of the Tennessee River, where it feels like everyone knows everyone, was shaken.
Somebody has my daughter. They have kidnapped her. Please get there now. They're on their way.
Chapter 3: How did Holly Bobo go missing?
The caller was Karen Bobo. She and her family had deep roots here. They lived on quiet Swan Johnson Road for decades in a home tucked away in the woods.
Hey, what's your daughter's name, Miss Karen? Holly. Okay, Miss Holly.
Holly was 20 years old and studying to be a nurse while living at home with her family.
All right. 20-year-old female, blonde hair.
20-year-old female, blonde hair.
Yeah, male subject, dressed in full camouflage, drug her off through the woods. Okay, I got them on the way, honey. Everybody is on the way.
Holly was led into the woods, and then she vanished. It was an all-out search. Local and federal law enforcement, Holly's friends, neighbors, former classmates, and complete strangers. Thousands of local volunteers, people from all over this tight-knit community, came together to find one of their own. But Holly would never be found alive.
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Chapter 4: Who is Eva Pilgrim and what is her role in the podcast?
It would take years for her remains to be found, and what started as a missing persons case became a horrific, complicated murder investigation that would tear apart relationships between neighbors and families and change the small Tennessee community forever. I'm ABC News Senior National Correspondent Eva Pilgrim. This story has a long history.
Before I got to ABC News in 2016, I remember hearing about it. The shocking crime, the long investigation. Reporters from across the country had made their way to Tennessee to cover it. In 2017, the case seemed to be finally closed after a guilty verdict. But years later, I was sent to Tennessee to cover new developments in a story that just keeps unraveling.
Once I got to Tennessee and started talking to people who knew Holly and who had worked on the case, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Here was a girl who was doing all the right things. She was close with her family who described her as responsible and caring, and she was studying to be a nurse. If this could happen to her, this could happen to anyone.
Usually, the more I dig into a case, the more I feel like I'm solving the puzzle. But this time, the opposite happened. As I learned more, I had more questions. How could someone just vanish from a house like hers, tucked so far away in the Tennessee woods? How could you commit a crime this brazen and get away with it for years?
When police sprung into action and so many people joined the search for Holly, how could no one find her? And after so many years, why was it so hard to find answers? I want to take you with me through the twists and turns in a case that captivated Tennessee and the nation. And let's not forget, there's a young woman at the middle of all of this.
This was a case that would leave her family and community brokenhearted and forever changed. I'll go back to the very start of the investigation on that otherwise unremarkable spring morning in 2011, and I'll walk you through the latest developments more than a decade later. Someone will be given a life sentence for Holly's murder, but that won't stop the questions for some.
Did they find the right people, or could Holly's killer still be out there?
To this day, there's a rumor mill that flows. The first time I interviewed him, I was like, oh my God, this guy did it.
This guy did it.
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Chapter 5: What is the community background of Decatur County, Tennessee?
Why speak up now? Because it's been years.
I've always spoken up. Nobody's ever asked me.
From ABC Audio in 2020, this is What Happened to Holly Bobo? Episode 1, A Scream on Swan Johnson Road. To understand the Holly Bobo case, you have to understand Decatur County, Tennessee. It's the kind of place where locals can tell you're not from there. Literally, my first day there, my producers and I went to a restaurant and they asked me, where are you from?
And we laughed because it was just so obvious we weren't from there. Not because our clothes were different, but because it's rare in a place like this for a stranger to walk in, let alone a whole table full of them. I grew up in South Carolina, and it reminded me of the small southern towns I knew. There is a tangible warmth that comes from a history between people that goes back generations.
Neighbors truly help neighbors. They care about each other. And even if you don't like someone, you know them. Decatur County runs right along the Tennessee River. If you look up the county on Google Maps, you'll see mostly green. The vastness of the woods is interrupted just once in a while by a church, a sawmill, or maybe a gravel company.
There are two main roads and then a few smaller ones that pass by farms and big towering pine trees. The county has a lot of creeks which look like long skinny fingers on the map. And then there are the few small towns in the county which stand out as gray splotches from above. Keith Byrd is the former sheriff of Decatur County.
Its rural or eastern boundary is along the Tennessee River. That's probably our biggest natural resource, and people move there to retire.
The biggest employers in the county include the local government, a construction company, a manufacturing company, and a trailer company that employs 36 people. Many people in the county also work in agriculture and logging. According to the U.S. Census, 94% of the county is white and nearly 20% of its residents live in poverty. That's almost double the national average. Decatur County is small.
The population of the entire county is just under 12,000 people.
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Chapter 6: What was Holly Bobo's family life like?
The house is on 23 acres of land and has a private pond for fishing. It's normal to see wildlife, deer, turkeys, and squirrels. The house has a carport that's basically a garage, but without a door, a back deck, and a pool. It has dark brown siding and brick with white window shutters. Holly's parents, Dana and Karen Bobo, built the house with Dana's father in 1982.
Karen and Dana raised their two kids, Holly and Clint, there. My former colleague, Elizabeth Vargas, interviewed Karen and Dana back in 2017.
Holly was an 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.
She was a real caring of other people. I think that's why she wanted to be a nurse.
Dana Bobo worked for a tree cutting company where he operated the mowing machine. Karen Bobo was a teacher at Scotts Hill Elementary School. She had Holly and her brother in her class.
I taught plant in the sixth grade and I had Holly in the fourth grade.
What was that like?
Yeah. Well, Holly was the perfect student. Always wanted to get her work finished and had everything ready ahead of time. Clint, I had to tap on his desk just about every day. And then when we'd get in the car, he'd say, why are you always tapping on my desk and no one else's? And I said, because everybody else is paying attention.
Holly had an especially close relationship with her mom.
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Chapter 7: How did the Bobo family react to Holly's disappearance?
When Holly got her driver's license years earlier, she would drop her mom off at the elementary school and then head to the high school.
She said, well, that's silly for us both to drive. You could just ride with me. It's kind of a joke around school, like carrying your rides here.
After graduating high school, Holly attended a local community college and then began her nursing studies at the University of Tennessee at Martin Parsons Center. Karen says her future was bright. She planned to get her nursing degree and marry her boyfriend, Drew, who had given her a promise ring the Christmas before she disappeared.
You know, we even talked about, could they live close to us and things like that.
But on April 13th, 2011, Karen left for work, and she would never hear from her daughter again. The morning Holly disappeared, Karen and Dana got up around 5.30 for work, like they usually did. Karen went to check on Holly, who was preparing for an upcoming test in one of her nursing classes.
She was sitting up against the wall on her bed and had her books in her hands, and she said that she'd been up since about 4.30, studying for the test.
It was Wednesday, which meant Holly had class later that day. Karen made Holly's lunch, a sandwich, some bite-sized candy bars to satisfy Holly's sweet tooth, and water. She packed it in a white lunch bag with black polka dots and a blue H sewn on the front. Before Karen left for work, Holly came to the kitchen to eat breakfast.
So that morning I got her muffins out of the refrigerator, put them on a plate and stuck them in the microwave. She was sitting at the kitchen table studying and I kissed her goodbye and told her I loved her just like every other morning.
Holly's parents went off to work. Karen Bobo was with her class of second graders in the cafeteria when the school secretary came up to her and told Karen something that would change her life forever.
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Chapter 8: What were the initial challenges in the investigation?
I said, that's not Drew. Get a gun and shoot him. And Clint said, you want me to shoot Drew? And I think that's when I hung up and called 911. You know, when things like this happen, everybody's like, oh, I would have done this, I would have done that. The truth is, you don't know what you would do or say. So I never got the words out.
I've talked to Drew on the phone because I am in a full-fledged panic by then.
There wasn't enough time for you to tell him that.
No, I was just trying to get someone over to the house.
So she left the library and ran to the school's office to call 911, but it went to the wrong county's dispatcher.
And I collapsed to the floor, 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. Which was? Drew was not in our house. It couldn't be Drew. And that the neighbor had heard a scream. No one in that office knew that.
Karen's co-worker helped her off the floor and walked her to the parking lot so that she could drive Karen home. Karen called 911 again. This time, it went to the right dispatcher in Decatur County.
Somebody has my daughter. They have kidnapped her.
Karen and her coworker sped through the county's winding roads.
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