Remains of missing student Holly Bobo found in Tennessee

[September 09, 2014]  (Reuters) - The partial remains of Holly Bobo, a Tennessee nursing student and cousin of country music singer Whitney Duncan, has been found in Tennessee more than three years after her disappearance from the driveway of her rural home, officials said on Monday.

Media reported a human skull found by two men Sunday in a wooded area of Decatur County, a matter of miles from property owned by one of the men charged in her kidnapping and murder, had been sent for identification.

"The remains are of Holly Bobo," Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn told a late evening press conference. "This is not over by any means. The investigation is still ongoing to get to the truth."

Bobo was last seen in April 2011 by her brother, who told investigators he saw a man he mistook for her boyfriend lead the then 20-year-old woman away from the family home in Darden, Tennessee, about 90 miles (145 km) southwest of Nashville.
 

Bobo had been preparing to go to class at nursing school on the morning of her disappearance.

Two men, Jason Wayne Autry and Zachary Rye Adams, have been charged with murder and aggravated kidnapping in the case. Tennessee brothers Mark and Jeffrey Pearcy were charged with evidence tampering and as accessories after the fact.

District Attorney Matt Stowe told reporters on Monday evening his office was "ready, willing, and able" to seek the death penalty in the case and would decide whether to do so in the coming weeks.

Bobo's family would make a statement early on Tuesday afternoon, Stowe said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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