What Happened to Holly Bobo?: The Appeal

Speaker 1 Hi, I'm Deborah Roberts here with another weekly episode of What Happened to Holly Bobo.

Speaker 1 Remember, you can get new episodes early if you follow What Happened to Holly Bobo on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Now, here's the episode.

Speaker 3 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 4 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland, Ohio, into a crime scene.

Speaker 6 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 7 The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 4 A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, The Hand in the Window.

Speaker 5 Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 11 In April 2024, my producers and I were in Tennessee conducting interviews for a 2020 episode on the Holly Bobo case.

Speaker 11 We'd spoken to so many people whose lives had been affected by this story, but there was one person we hadn't talked to yet. Zach Adams.

Speaker 11 The man convicted of murdering Holly Bobo was now in the Morgan County Correctional Complex in East Tennessee. Zach claimed he was innocent and was trying to appeal his conviction.

Speaker 11 While we were in Tennessee, we arranged a call with Zach. This would be his first ever interview since his conviction seven years ago.

Speaker 11 Remember, he didn't testify at his own trial, so this would be the first time we'd hear from him.

Speaker 11 My team and I were wrapping up an interview in a nearby town. We were expecting Zach to call us from prison at 12:30, so we were caught off guard when the phone rang a little early.

Speaker 11 The producers and crew rushed to get the cameras in position. Ready?

Speaker 3 Hello, this is a prepaid call from

Speaker 3 an inmate at the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Hello.

Speaker 11 Hey, Zach, this is Eva. How are you doing?

Speaker 3 Hi, I'm good.

Speaker 11 I guess we should probably just kind of start at the beginning.

Speaker 11 There were many tough questions I needed to ask Zach, but with him in prison, The call would have to be short. So I made sure to ask him about the morning of Holly's abduction on April 13th, 2011.

Speaker 11 I wanted to know his version of what happened that day. Here's what he told me.
After waking up, he spoke to his girlfriend a couple of times on the phone.

Speaker 11 He says they'd been arguing since the day before, though she would later testify that while she had tried to break up with him earlier in the week, they were together the evening before the abduction and she'd stayed the night.

Speaker 11 Zach says that in the morning, his friend Shane Austin called called him asking if he wanted to go out and try to buy some drugs.

Speaker 11 Zach didn't have a car, so he went to ask his brother Dylan if they could use his truck. He says he and Dylan then picked up Shane.
They stopped at an ATM to get cash and then a gas station.

Speaker 11 While Zach was pumping gas, Shane went in to pay.

Speaker 3 And while he's in there, I guess that's when he hears that somebody has been kidnapped or offended.

Speaker 3 So at this point, we don't know who. All I know is we're freaking getting drugs, and I need to get us back to our home area and be as safe as I can.

Speaker 3 Because, you know, in my mind, I'm thinking somebody's really messed up.

Speaker 11 Zach says, after about two or three days, the police showed up at his door.

Speaker 3 And I remember I was coming out off morphine. I was real, real sick.
And I'll never forget, they was in red coats because it had been raining. Then they were in these red, red, like raincoats.

Speaker 3 So they come out to my house, and they looked everywhere anybody could be, looked underneath the the house, and they asked me if I had camouflage. And I said, of course I got camouflage.

Speaker 3 I used to hunt all the time. I've got all kinds of camouflage.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 so I showed them all of my camouflage and stuff and

Speaker 3 they took their notes and then left. I think they might have left their cards.

Speaker 11 Remember, Holly's brother Clint said the man who took Holly was wearing camouflage. But Zach says it wasn't him.
In fact, he says he's been convicted of murdering someone he's never even met.

Speaker 11 Did you know Holly Bobo before this?

Speaker 3 Never knew, never met her, never knew of her to this.

Speaker 3 Never, I mean, never met her. The only connection I've had to her family was her mother was my fourth grade teacher.

Speaker 3 I never actually knew where their house was, and I still don't know that I know exactly where it's at to this day.

Speaker 11 I have to ask you,

Speaker 11 did you kill Holly Bobo?

Speaker 3 absolutely not

Speaker 11 did you rape holly bobo

Speaker 11 absolutely not do you know anything about what happened to holly bobo

Speaker 3 absolutely not if i did i would have already told anything i knew

Speaker 11 zach adams is currently serving a life sentence without parole plus 50 years but now he has a new legal team who says they have newly discovered evidence they believe supports his effort to challenge his conviction.

Speaker 11 Is Zach Adams' fate about to change?

Speaker 11 I'm ABC News senior national correspondent Eva Pilgrim. From ABC Audio and 2020, this is what happened to Holly Bobo.

Speaker 11 Episode 6: The Appeal.

Speaker 11 What do you say to all those people who think you're guilty?

Speaker 3 Where's the evidence to support my guilt?

Speaker 11 Zach spent much of our conversation trying to point out what he says are flaws in the case against him.

Speaker 11 One of Zach's main points of contention is that he simply does not fit the description of the man Clinton Bobo says, took his sister into the woods.

Speaker 11 And neither does his brother Dylan, who took an Alfred plea, or Jason Autry, who served time for his role in Holly's abduction, or Shane Austin, who had red hair.

Speaker 3 He said the person was what?

Speaker 3 Five foot, what? Five foot nine, two hundred pounds.

Speaker 3 Who kidnapped her then? It wasn't Jason Autrey. He's six foot six.
Couldn't have been me. I was six foot three, 125 pounds.
My brother's six foot two, 125 pounds.

Speaker 3 The person that abduction

Speaker 3 wasn't one of us. I mean, he didn't match the encryption of any of us.

Speaker 11 But prosecutors did present evidence at Zach's trial, including testimony from several witnesses who recounted hearing Zach say incriminating things.

Speaker 15 He said, I'll kill you like I did Holly Bobo.

Speaker 16 He made the comment, I couldn't have picked a prettier.

Speaker 16 He just had a couple of his friends, you know, they got drunk and they went into the woods with this girl.

Speaker 11 And then he was like, you know i was i was there for the worst of it and i was like what did you do it and he was like i was there for the worst of it during our phone call i asked zach about those incriminating witness statements did you say those things a normal person don't live in the drug world like i did

Speaker 11 my life used to revolve around drugs and selling drugs and stuff Zach told me when he was selling drugs, he wanted to make sure people were afraid of him.

Speaker 11 That way, they wouldn't stiff him on what they owed owed him.

Speaker 3 So I said things that I should have said, but I never directly said, I did this

Speaker 3 to Holly or I did that.

Speaker 11 I also asked him about his brother, Dylan, whose interviews with authorities led TBI to arrest Zach for Holly's disappearance.

Speaker 11 Remember, in episode four, we heard the tape of Dylan's confession to TBI, where he said he took part in Holly Bobo's rape along with his brother brother Zach.

Speaker 11 At the point that you found out that your brother had confessed,

Speaker 11 were you surprised? Yes.

Speaker 3 I didn't understand. Confessed to what? He was with me that day.
Confessed to what happened. I was very shocked.

Speaker 3 He's lying. That's the first thing I thought.
He's a liar. He's lying.
My brother, he's...

Speaker 3 He just wants everybody to like him.

Speaker 3 He's non-confrontational. He'll lie to you about little small stuff that don't even matter.
But

Speaker 3 other than that, he's a good person. He just wants people to like him.

Speaker 11 As Zach told me, he didn't think his brother Dylan or his friend Shane were involved. He says they were together all day.
But he went even further.

Speaker 11 Remember, another friend of Zach's, Jason Autry, went on to testify against him. He was a crucial witness at trial.
But Zach says he doesn't think Jason was involved at all.

Speaker 11 Why do you think you guys became suspects in this case?

Speaker 3 We didn't have a hard alibi, and we were local, you know, drug users and stuff. And would it matter putting us away? I felt like

Speaker 3 they had to arrest somebody,

Speaker 3 even if it was the wrong person, which it was.

Speaker 11 When I interviewed Zach, he had already appealed twice and been denied. Now, he had begun trying a third appeal.

Speaker 11 In January 2024, the Hardin County Court received a petition from Zach's lawyers asking for a new trial for Zach.

Speaker 11 The petition claimed that the defense had new evidence, including a video recording of one of the witnesses who testified at Zach's trial.

Speaker 18 Boom.

Speaker 8 The gun sounded, the gun went off.

Speaker 12 And And it sounded like boom, boom, boom.

Speaker 11 Remember, at the time of Holly's abduction, Jason Autry was a friend of Zach's, someone he used to do drugs with. Jason claimed at trial he'd witnessed Zach shooting Holly.

Speaker 8 It was just one shot, but it echoed underneath that bridge all the way down that damn river bottom.

Speaker 8 And when that gun went off, Birds went up just

Speaker 8 all up under that bridge.

Speaker 16 And it just dead silence for just a second.

Speaker 11 Jason testified that Zach asked him the morning of Holly's abduction to help bury a body.

Speaker 11 He says he then drove with Zach to a spot under the bridge at the Tennessee River, helped him move the body, and then served as lookout as Zach shot Holly.

Speaker 11 Then, Jason said Zach dropped Jason off at his car. He also said Zach later told him that he, Dylan, and Shane Austin had kidnapped and raped Holly and that Zach had disposed of her body.

Speaker 11 But now the defense said someone on behalf of the defense team had interviewed Jason Autry

Speaker 11 and he was claiming something new.

Speaker 8 My name is Jason Autry.

Speaker 11 Can we just start at the very beginning of when... The video was recorded in December 2023, and it was filmed by a woman named Katie Spirko.

Speaker 11 She's a neuropsychologist who's currently working for Zach Adams, but at the time was working for Zach Adams' defense team. Katie Spirko provided 2020 with the recording.

Speaker 11 I want to know your whole experience. How did it get from you being arrested for this to you being on the stand telling this crazy story.

Speaker 12 That's a long ways.

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 14 That's a lot.

Speaker 11 Yeah, we got until one.

Speaker 11 In September 2020, Jason Autry pleaded guilty to solicitation to commit murder and facilitation of especially aggravated kidnapping in Holly's case. And with credit for time served, he was set free.

Speaker 11 But just a few months later, he was once again back in prison after pleading guilty to an unrelated federal gun charge. He was still in jail when Spirko began working on this case.

Speaker 11 She went to speak with Jason.

Speaker 11 In the video, Jason discusses the events leading up to his decision to testify in Zach Adams' trial.

Speaker 11 He says that originally he had intended to fight the charges and go to trial, but when he spoke to his attorney, he got an answer he wasn't expecting.

Speaker 12 So, all of this in the beginning

Speaker 8 was just all routine question.

Speaker 14 He said

Speaker 8 I got you by 95% chance. You spend rest your time right now.

Speaker 12 You know I need to know what they want to know what do they want from me.

Speaker 14 I want you to testify.

Speaker 9 Straight up about it.

Speaker 8 They need someone to understand.

Speaker 14 I said, well, what if I say all I see was just a body, you know, lying in the back of the truck.

Speaker 8 That's not enough to get you out.

Speaker 11 We spoke to Katie Spirko in 2024 about the video. What does he tell you?

Speaker 11 Tells me he made the whole thing up. Took the phone records and the case file to craft a story that fits in with the evidence that exists and cannot be changed.

Speaker 11 Why would someone admit to killing someone if they didn't do it? He's sitting in jail for years.

Speaker 11 He's being told that Zach's going to be telling a story against him.

Speaker 11 And basically, it's this or the death penalty. And so under that amount of pressure,

Speaker 11 I think a lot of people would have folded the way he did.

Speaker 11 In its petition to the court, the defense claimed the video would, quote, exonerate and exculpate the defendant from any guilt in this case.

Speaker 11 But prosecutors responded by saying that Jason's statements in the video were unsworn, not given under oath, and not subject to cross-examination.

Speaker 11 They said that Jason Autry's credibility was thoroughly impeached during Zach Adams' trial and that the jury who convicted Zach Adams was aware of inconsistencies in Jason's testimony and had heard him acknowledge that he agreed to testify for the state in hopes of receiving favorable treatment in a separate criminal case.

Speaker 11 For these reasons, prosecutors argued that Jason's statements did not amount to newly discovered evidence.

Speaker 11 Prosecutors added that Jason's testimony was just one piece of the state's substantial proof of Zach Adams' guilt.

Speaker 11 Shortly after watching the video Spirko provided, one of our producers spoke to Jason Autry.

Speaker 11 You recanted your testimony in the Holly Bobo case.

Speaker 11 Is that true?

Speaker 14 Yes, that's true.

Speaker 11 In a court filing, the defense referenced the video recording by Katie Spirko, in which Jason Autry alleged, quote, he was very well trained by ADA Jennifer Nichols, who he referred to as the boss of it all.

Speaker 20 You're an engaging witness.

Speaker 8 Well, I was trained.

Speaker 11 I could tell you're trained. I'm on the witness stand a lot, you know, as trained witness.
Who was doing the training?

Speaker 8 Jennifer Nichols. Yeah.

Speaker 21 Yeah,

Speaker 16 she was the boss of it all.

Speaker 11 In response, prosecutors denied that claim.

Speaker 11 Zach Adams' defense team has also claimed that their video interview with Jason provided new information to show that Zach's constitutional rights to due process were violated by the state's prosecution of him.

Speaker 11 Prosecutors denied these rights were violated and argued that the claim should have been raised at trial. I'm curious, you know, why, why now? Why are you recanting

Speaker 11 now?

Speaker 11 And do you have anything to gain from it?

Speaker 11 I don't think there's really nothing to gain from it. I think it's all to lose, really.

Speaker 11 What do you think of the fact that Jason recanted his confession? I'm glad.

Speaker 3 I'm glad everybody's telling the truth.

Speaker 3 It's got time.

Speaker 3 I wish he would have never lied in the first place.

Speaker 11 We reached out to Jennifer Nichols, the prosecutor in the Zach Adams trial, about Jason Autry's allegation against her.

Speaker 11 We didn't hear back, but 2020 had reached out to Nichols in 2024 prior to its episode about the Holly Bobo case.

Speaker 11 In a statement then, Nichols denied the allegation, telling us that it is a false statement. She says the only guidance ever given to Jason Autry was to tell the truth.
There was no training.

Speaker 11 In 2024, she also declined 2020's request for an interview, but did send a statement that says in part, at trial, we presented proof through 62 witnesses and 250 exhibits.

Speaker 11 The jurors heard testimony of Zachary Adams' confessions to multiple and unrelated individuals. I remain confident in the jury's verdicts of Zachary Adams' guilt.

Speaker 11 In September 2024, a judge noted that in the video, Jason Autry did not provide Zach with a clear alibi and that Jason's testimony was not the only evidence of Zach's guilt.

Speaker 11 The judge ruled that, quote, false testimony does not equate to actual innocence here, and granted the state's motion to dismiss Zach Adams' petition.

Speaker 11 Nevertheless, the defense has continued to try and argue that Zach should get a new trial.

Speaker 11 And in May of 2025, the defense finally had an opportunity to make its case in open court.

Speaker 11 Eight years after his conviction, would the the man convicted of Holly Bobo's rape, kidnapping, and murder be granted a new trial?

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Speaker 11 In May of 2025, Zach Adams' defense team tried once again to get a new trial.

Speaker 11 A series of hearings were held in Hardin County, Tennessee before Judge Brent Bradbury, the same judge who had previously ruled against the defense's attempt to introduce the Jason Autry video into evidence.

Speaker 11 On day one of the hearing, the prosecution and defense discussed the video that Katie Spierko had filmed of Jason Autry recanting his 2017 trial testimony.

Speaker 11 Remember, in a case where there was no DNA evidence linking Zach to the crime, Jason's 2017 testimony was significant.

Speaker 11 The trial judge at the time called it, quote, some of the most credible, persuasive testimony I've ever heard. For this new hearing, Zach's defense team tried to call Jason back to the stand.

Speaker 11 But through a lawyer, Jason exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. And when the defense tried to subpoena him, the Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to transport him.

Speaker 11 That made Jason an unavailable witness. In lieu of Jason physically coming to court, the defense asked the judge to consider the videotaped interview admissible.

Speaker 11 Prosecutor Amy Weinrich argued that the video was recorded for revenge.

Speaker 11 This isn't a recantation. It couldn't be further from the truth.
This is a publicity stunt.

Speaker 11 The prosecutor argued that the state had information that the reason Jason Autry had filmed the video with Katie Spirko was to seek revenge against the authorities.

Speaker 11 She referenced a recorded jail call between Jason and his mother in February 2024, where Jason is heard saying, they're effing with me in federal court. I'm going to F with them in state court.

Speaker 11 In addition, the state also argued that the videotaped interview was hearsay because Jason was not in court to be questioned about it.

Speaker 11 But Zach's attorney Doug Bates countered that there's an exception to the hearsay rule, which is that because the videotaped interview wasn't made in Jason's own interest,

Speaker 11 it should be admissible.

Speaker 11 The judge ruled that the Jason Autry video was hearsay and that the exception to the rule did not apply.

Speaker 11 He pointed out that the statement was not made under oath, that it was quote, predominantly self-serving, and that Jason's actions since then, such as pleading the fifth, do not align with the quote, free-flowing nature of the conversation he had with Katie Spirko.

Speaker 11 The defense said it would appeal the ruling, but it meant they'd have to proceed with this hearing without a key element of their case.

Speaker 11 The defense detailed its other evidence, including surveillance footage from the morning Holly Bobo was abducted on April 13, 2011.

Speaker 11 The video shows a truck pulling up outside a BP gas station in front of an ATM at 11.12 a.m. The defense says Zach was in that truck and that it was his brother Dylan's Silverado.

Speaker 11 We should point out that while Zach told us in an interview that he'd been pumping gas that morning and that Shane had gone in to pay, the defense did not introduce video of either of those events.

Speaker 11 But the defense says the video showing this truck outside the gas station at 11.12 a.m.

Speaker 11 is important because in 2017, Jason Autry had testified that around that time, he and Zach were in Zach's car with Holly's body in the trunk driving along the back roads of Parsons, Tennessee.

Speaker 11 Bates argues that the video means the prosecution's timeline is impossible.

Speaker 11 Bates pointed out that the defense tested their theory by hiring someone to drive the route in the timeframe Jason Jason testified about.

Speaker 24 It is impossible. Now let that sink in, Your Honor.
This timeline is impossible.

Speaker 11 But the prosecutor, Amy Weinrich, struck back. She said there is no smoking gun and that the route was explained to the jury at the 2017 trial and that they still found Zach guilty.

Speaker 11 The defense called a number of TBI agents to the stand, including Mark Lewis, who worked on the Bobo case, to ask about that ATM video.

Speaker 24 Okay, do you remember a conversation at any time where anyone in TBI said, I have a question, if they're so worried about getting rid of a body during this same time frame, why are they at Sonic?

Speaker 10 And why are they at ATM?

Speaker 10 Why are they at

Speaker 10 VP specifically?

Speaker 10 I don't recall.

Speaker 16 It's possible that we had those conversations.

Speaker 10 You don't remember that conversation?

Speaker 9 No, no.

Speaker 11 But prosecutors argued that the ATM footage of the car did not prove Zach's whereabouts, suggesting authorities ultimately determined that the footage did not have any value in the investigation.

Speaker 11 Here's Amy Weinrich cross-examining another TBI agent, Brett Booth.

Speaker 11 You've seen the video. Did it have any value? Does it today?

Speaker 9 No.

Speaker 11 Can you tell whether it is human or canine in the front of that truck?

Speaker 10 That's what I said. There's no way of knowing who's in that truck or what's in that truck.

Speaker 11 Are you convinced it's a Silverado?

Speaker 9 No.

Speaker 11 However, the defense called a witness who testified that he did know who was in that truck.

Speaker 16 Dylan Adams, Your Honor. Mr.

Speaker 5 Dylan Adams. Still Adams.

Speaker 11 Dylan Adams, Zach's brother, took the stand. It was the first time he had seen his brother Zach in over a decade.
Zach was sobbing.

Speaker 11 Dylan had accepted an Alford plea and was serving 35 years for his role in Holly Bobo's murder. But during the hearing, he said he was innocent.

Speaker 11 In the hearing, Dylan was shown the surveillance video and testified that the truck in the ATM video was his and that he was in the truck that morning with with his brother Zach and their friend, Shane Austin.

Speaker 11 Then, the defense showed Dylan a photo, a surveillance picture from inside the BP gas station store later that morning.

Speaker 10 Mr.

Speaker 24 Idams, do you recognize the individual in this store?

Speaker 11 The defense also played some of the tape you heard in episode four, in which Dylan confessed to TBI agents that he, Zach, and Jason Autry had raped Holly.

Speaker 11 That's when the mood of the court seemed to shift.

Speaker 11 When the defense said it would play the video of Dylan's TBI interview, the prosecutor argued that she wasn't sure what the purpose of this was and that this was hearsay.

Speaker 11 But the judge overruled the objection saying, quote, I'm going to see this video.

Speaker 11 Even though the defense only played a portion of it in court, the judge assured them he would watch the several hours long video in its entirety on his own.

Speaker 9 What were they saying?

Speaker 9 We couldn't go get her later on tonight.

Speaker 9 What they said. Her to find her.

Speaker 11 I mean, this is what

Speaker 9 they said, her.

Speaker 16 They didn't say Holly's name. They said her.

Speaker 9 Okay?

Speaker 11 After playing a few minutes of the taped TBI interview, Doug Bates asked Dylan about the circumstances leading up to it, including Dylan's release from federal prison the previous month into the custody of a former Memphis police officer named Dennis Benjamin.

Speaker 10 Who's Dennis Benjamin?

Speaker 17 Just somebody they knew right on.

Speaker 17 I never made him

Speaker 17 after I got sentenced in my federal trial.

Speaker 10 Who's they, TBI?

Speaker 11 Remember, we mentioned in episode four, it was federal prosecutors handling Dylan's gun gun charges who arranged to have him released into the custody of Dennis Benjamin.

Speaker 11 Dylan says he did not know Dennis Benjamin, but that he was told he would live with him for his protection.

Speaker 10 Did you feel you needed protection?

Speaker 19 No, sir.

Speaker 11 Dylan testified that Dennis Benjamin would hound him every day with questions. about the hollybobo case

Speaker 17 and you told him what uh i said rape and induction holly holly bubble.

Speaker 17 That was a lie just to get him off my back.

Speaker 11 Dennis Benjamin was also on the defense witness list, but was not called to testify. When we reached out to him previously, he said he couldn't speak to us because of the ongoing litigation.

Speaker 11 During cross-examination, the prosecution didn't directly challenge Dylan on his claim.

Speaker 11 that he lied to Dennis Benjamin, nor did they press him on the photo he says was of him at the BP gas station the morning Holly was kidnapped.

Speaker 11 But they did try to contextualize Dylan's relationship with Benjamin. The prosecutor showed Dylan a letter the state says he wrote to Benjamin after staying with him at his home.

Speaker 11 Do you recognize that riding?

Speaker 19 No, ma'am, I do not.

Speaker 19 Sir?

Speaker 9 No, ma'am, I didn't ride. I know I know my riding.

Speaker 19 I can't spell it good, so

Speaker 9 that's not enough. Okay.

Speaker 11 All right. You don't remember telling the Benjamins how much you missed them?

Speaker 9 Nope.

Speaker 11 How much you enjoyed living with them? Nope.

Speaker 11 The prosecutors also brought up various interviews Dylan had with TBI before he went to live with Dennis Benjamin.

Speaker 11 Remember, it was during this time period that investigators spoke with Dylan at least six times over eight months.

Speaker 11 And he seemed to implicate his brother and Jason Autry in the kidnapping and murder of Holly Bobo.

Speaker 11 The judge appeared to take an interest in those and asked prosecutors for more details about what exactly Dylan said in those earlier unrecorded TBI interviews.

Speaker 5 The statement that's been talked about was made

Speaker 6 in September of 2014.

Speaker 5 So the statement that they're talking about is not the statement that the court has seen this morning.

Speaker 11 Correct. It's another statement.
Yes, sir. The judge looked at the prosecutor.

Speaker 5 Is the court going to see that statement?

Speaker 24 Yes. Okay.

Speaker 11 We asked the circuit court whether the judge has received that statement and whether it will be made public, but haven't heard back.

Speaker 11 At the hearing, the prosecutors also played Dylan's recorded calls with his mom, Cindy, which took place around the time of some of those TBI interviews.

Speaker 11 The phone calls demonstrate how Dylan's story to his mother changed over time and ultimately came to match the story he told TBI.

Speaker 11 In the early calls, Cindy Adams, his mother, begs him to not speak to TBI any further without a lawyer.

Speaker 25 You know what? I told you, don't sign nothing, and I told you not to talk without a lawyer.

Speaker 25 I mean, mean, you will have to get some backbone in me. You know, your brother's in a lot of trouble now because they're saying, you know, you said Holly was at that house.

Speaker 25 I mean, did you say Holly was at that house?

Speaker 9 Come?

Speaker 8 He's gone.

Speaker 11 In a later call, Dylan's story to his mother changes.

Speaker 26 Hey, but

Speaker 26 I want to tell you this.

Speaker 26 I did see Holly at Zach's house.

Speaker 27 I mean, I'm not lying about that.

Speaker 28 I mean... He seemed to know where?

Speaker 27 At Zach's house.

Speaker 26 I said I've seen Holly at Zachary's house. I'm not lying about that.

Speaker 26 I wasn't involved in it.

Speaker 26 I mean.

Speaker 27 Who was?

Speaker 27 Huh?

Speaker 11 Who was?

Speaker 26 Zachary and Train and Shane.

Speaker 6 You there?

Speaker 27 I mean, I'm not, I'm not, they come and ask me about that, and I'm not going to lie to them about that.

Speaker 27 Because

Speaker 26 I'm not going to get in trouble. He's my brother.

Speaker 27 I love him, but I just can't lie about that.

Speaker 26 Say that.

Speaker 26 What?

Speaker 28 Say that. Who's making you say that?

Speaker 27 Nobody's making me say it, Mother.

Speaker 26 I'm telling you from my own heart.

Speaker 28 What'll they do with this?

Speaker 26 I don't know, Mother.

Speaker 26 I do not know. I wish I did.

Speaker 25 Why did you wait so long?

Speaker 25 She's been missing for three years.

Speaker 27 I know, mother.

Speaker 9 And I didn't know what to say. I'm scared.

Speaker 11 Over the course of the call, Cindy, his mother, starts crying.

Speaker 25 Baby, this is don't worry about me.

Speaker 25 Did the right thing, okay?

Speaker 25 It just breaks my heart. I mean,

Speaker 27 I don't know.

Speaker 25 Can't wait to that family who suffered so bad.

Speaker 26 I know, mother.

Speaker 26 I mean, I'm doing the right thing.

Speaker 25 Yeah,

Speaker 28 you did the right thing, son. You did the right thing.

Speaker 11 After the prosecutor played the calls, the defense asked Dylan whether he had been telling TBI and his mom the truth.

Speaker 10 Did the things you tell TBI then, were they true?

Speaker 17 No, they were not true.

Speaker 10 You listened to recordings of talking to your mom.

Speaker 10 Were the the things you were telling your mom true?

Speaker 11 The defense asked Dylan about his relationship with his mom. Dylan said, she's always treated me good.
As Dylan was giving this testimony, Zach appeared to be wiping tears from his eyes.

Speaker 11 Afterwards, the prosecutor jumped back in to finish cross-examining Dylan.

Speaker 11 Let me make sure I understand this. Everything you told law enforcement since February 23rd of 2011, everything you've told law enforcement has been a lie.

Speaker 17 Yes, ma'am. Okay.

Speaker 11 And everything you said to your mother in those calls was a lie.

Speaker 9 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 12 Why were you crying?

Speaker 11 Why were you crying if that was a lie?

Speaker 17 I mean, if you if your mother talked to you that way, would you not cry?

Speaker 9 She told you she loved you.

Speaker 12 Why were you crying?

Speaker 9 I'm asked for that.

Speaker 11 Over the course of the four-day-long hearing, the judge heard from multiple TBI agents, Dylan Adams, some of Zach's former lawyers, cell phone analysts.

Speaker 11 the people who were at the center of the exhaustive investigation into Holly Bobo's murder. But the hearing's resolution is still up in the air.

Speaker 11 Remember, the defense has appealed the judge's decision to bar the video it recorded with Jason Autry.

Speaker 11 The judge placed the hearing on an extended recess until the appeal is decided, which means even after this days-long hearing and after all these years,

Speaker 11 we still don't have an answer. We still don't know what exactly happened to Holly Bobo.

Speaker 11 The hearing is expected to pick up in a few months time.

Speaker 11 Still, on the defense's witness list, Zach Adams himself and Jennifer Nichols, the former prosecutor in the Zach Adams trial, now a sitting judge.

Speaker 11 After the 2017 trial, the pastor for the Bobo family said they knew this would be a long road. We also spoke to the Bobo family in 2017.

Speaker 11 Holly's mother Karen told us she couldn't bring herself to even look at her daughter's remains. She said she wanted to remember Holly for who she was when she was alive.

Speaker 11 I'm hoping she'll also be remembered for not just the beautiful person on the outside she was, but the beautiful person on the inside.

Speaker 11 That's how I want to remember. I want her remembered that way, and that's how I'm going, that's how I choose to remember her.

Speaker 11 At the end of 2020, lawmakers in Tennessee passed the Holly Bobo Act, which allows TBI to send out endangered persons alerts, not just for children, but also for those up to age 21.

Speaker 11 It's intended to make sure authorities can move even faster and alert the public when young adults go missing.

Speaker 11 The Holly Bobo case is one of the most convoluted, complicated crimes I've ever covered. At every turn, I found myself asking more questions.

Speaker 11 And as you've heard, even some of the former investigators who worked to this case still have questions themselves, including whether the wrong guys went to prison for this murder.

Speaker 11 No matter what you think, It's clear there are a lot of people whose lives were forever changed after Holly was murdered. As for Zach,

Speaker 11 he is still fighting to clear his name and overturn his conviction. He says there's not a day that goes by that he doesn't think about this case.

Speaker 3 Over 10 years, there's not one day that hadn't went by

Speaker 3 that you don't think.

Speaker 3 Every time I say this fence,

Speaker 3 Every time I

Speaker 3 Every time I wake up

Speaker 3 in prison for something I didn't do,

Speaker 3 until you've been in prison for something you didn't do, you don't even know how to relate.

Speaker 11 I can't even explain it. What do you think about?

Speaker 3 Why am I in there? Who really did this?

Speaker 3 Is this person going to do it again?

Speaker 3 Are you ever going to get out of here?

Speaker 3 You know, is this

Speaker 3 the rest of my life looks like? Surely not. You pray to God.
I pray to God all the time. Surely God just didn't know what the rest of my life looks like.

Speaker 11 What happened to Holly Bobo is a production of ABC Audio in 2020.

Speaker 11 Hosted by me, Eva Pilgrim, the series was produced by Camille Peterson, Julia Nutter, Kiara Powell, Nora Hanna, and Meg Fiero with help from Audrey Most Tech and Amira Williams.

Speaker 11 Our supervising producer is Susie Liu. Music and Mixing by Evan Viola.

Speaker 11 Special thanks to Liz Alessi, Janice Johnston, Michelle Margules, Sean Dooley, Christina Corbin, Kieran McGirl, Andrew Paparella, and Emma Pisha. Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming.

Speaker 11 Laura Mayer is our executive producer.

Speaker 20 It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the killing of a wealthy family at Whitehouse Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong.

Speaker 16 I know there's going to be a twist, won't they? A massive twist.

Speaker 6 At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case.

Speaker 20 I'm Heidi Blake. Blood Relatives is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker.
Find it now in the In the Dark podcast feed.

Speaker 20 Two rings, surrounded by a steel cage.

Speaker 20 You wanna play games?

Speaker 20 We're gonna play games. Oh my god, are you kidding me? This is gonna be a war.

Speaker 10 Stream Survivor Series War Games, November 29th at 7 Eastern on the ESPNA.