10 years later: Sheriff looks back on the years since Holly Bobo’s abduction
DECATUR COUNTY, Tenn. — On April 13, 2011, Decatur County nursing student Holly Bobo was abducted from her family’s home in Darden.
The investigation, discoveries, trials and convictions would rock West Tennessee for years following her disappearance.
Decatur County Sheriff Keith Byrd sat down with WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News to talk about his recollection of the past 10 years.
“These kind of things happen to somebody somewhere else. Well this time, we are those people somewhere else. It happened here and nobody ever saw it coming,” Sheriff Byrd said.
Byrd was with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency when Bobo was abducted, and helped with the ground searches in the following days and weeks.
Byrd says he’ll never forget how the community came together to help with the search.
“Everybody dropped what they were doing and came to help. At the peak, we had like 2,500 volunteers show up. It makes you proud to see good people doing good,” the sheriff recounted.
Byrd was elected sheriff in 2014. He says the community has changed in the 10 years since Bobo’s abduction, and people are more cautious.
“We lost a lot of innocence then. We had to realize, in this society, you know we’ve got to be a little bit more careful than we’ve been before,” Sheriff Byrd said.
The Bobo family released a statement about the anniversary, describing their loss and their experience as a family over the past 10 years.
They thanked law enforcement for their work, and how they want her to be remembered as a loving individual with a big heart.
“I would still be tore up about it if it was my child. They’re very strong people, they’re survivors. They got past this thing,” Sheriff Byrd said.
Eventually, three men were sentenced in connection with Bobo’s death.
Dylan Adams will spend 35 years behind bars, while his brother, Zach Adams, was sentenced to life in prison.
Jason Autry was given a plea deal and released from prison in 2020, but less than three months after he was released, he was arrested in Benton County on gun and drug charges.
WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News Reporter Clint Eiland asked Sheriff Byrd if he believed the men who harmed Bobo received justice. He had this to say:
“Personally, no I don’t. I believe in capital punishment. I don’t think they ought to be able to breathe like the rest of us,” Sheriff Byrd said.
Ten years after Bobo’s death, the community will never forget what a family experienced. But they will also work to ensure it never happens again.
“Out of a tragedy, a lot of good has been able to take hold, and come forward. I think that’s a very fitting tribute to Holly,” Sheriff Byrd said.
To read the Bobo family’s full statement on the anniversary of her abduction, click here.
