Missing Tenn. woman may have been abducted

[April 14, 2011]  PARSONS, Tenn. (AP) -- Searchers in western Tennessee planned to keep looking Thursday for a nursing student who was last seen being dragged from her house by a man wearing camouflage in what authorities say may have been a home invasion and abduction.

About 250 volunteers came out to help Wednesday, but the search for Holly Bobo, 20, had to be called off until it was light again, Decatur County Mayor Michael Smith said.

Bobo's 25-year-old brother told investigators he saw a man dragging her across the carport at her family home and toward a wooded area, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. Bobo's brother was inside the house and the kidnapping was outside in the rural area of small, modest homes about 100 miles northeast of Memphis, the TBI said. A spokeswoman would not give more details on what the brother told them.

Since news of the case spread, neighbors and people in nearby communities have poured out to help search, bring food and support family members who are holding together reasonably well, Smith said.

A dispatcher for the Decatur County Sheriff's Office said authorities used dogs and a helicopter in the search Wednesday.

Bobo is 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds. She was last seen Wednesday morning wearing a pink shirt and light blue jeans.

Smith said the close-knit community has little crime, so word of this has come as a shock. Parsons has about 2,500 residents.

Bud Grimes, a spokesman for the University of Tennessee at Martin, said Bobo was studying to be a licensed practical nurse through the Tennessee Technology Center. She was taking classes at the university's extension campus in Parsons, but was not a UT-Martin student.

Family friend David Ivey, whose son went to high school with Bobo, said the young woman has an "angelic voice" and loved to show it off in talent contests at school. She also would sing solos at Corinth Baptist Church where she was a member, he said.

Bobo's pastor, Don Franks, said he has known her all her life and said she was "a fine young Christian girl." He said the community response has been exceptional.

"They're searching, bringing food and holding prayer vigils," Franks said. "The whole community is praying for her safety and well-being."

[Associated Press; By SHEILA BURKE]

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