20/20 - What Happened to Holly Bobo?: Lion in a Cage

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

In episode three of What Happened to Holly Bobo, as law enforcement continues its search for Holly Bobo's kidnapper, four names rise to the top of the list. 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

Hi, I'm Deborah Roberts here with another weekly episode of what happened to Holly Bobo 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 Hey, it's Brad milky 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. Early on, just days into the search for Holly, police had looked into four men with a history

of drug use who were all friends. Zach Adams, his brother Dylan Adams, Shane Austin, and Jason Autry. Karen Bobo had heard about those men too, and ended up talking to all four of them. In 2017, she told ABC News why she did her own interviews as the search for Holly continued. Until your child is found or you know what happened to them, I don't think anyone could ever do enough in a parent's eyes.

I often said, I guess I would have fought Goliath. You know, I just had no fear. I was trying to find my daughter. All that fear leaves you when you're looking for your child. Karen Bobo had actually been Zach Adams' fourth grade teacher. And she told ABC News that her visit to him stood out to her. I mean, he was just rambling on different things. He was, I don't know, I kind of describe it as a line in a cage.

But the other thing he said was he could call someone and make it look like it was coming from my number. To her, that was a bizarre thing to say. So Zach Adams and those three other men would stay on her mind. At that point in time, everybody was still a suspect, but their names just kept on coming up over and over. As police searches and interviews continued for years, the public's attention on the case did not fade.

Decatur County kept holding vigils and events for Holly. Developments in the case were covered by news outlets across Tennessee. People even posted comments in response to articles like, this has all dragged out too long. The case would even become a major campaign issue in the local sheriff and district attorney races. Amidst all that attention, law enforcement began to put those four men they had looked into early on at the center

of their investigation. So the full power of a multi-agency investigation, an investigation watched closely by a grieving family and a community starving for answers, started to focus intensely on those four men, and one of them in particular. I'm ABC News senior national correspondent Eva Pilgrim. From ABC Audio in 2020, this is What Happened to Holly Bobo? Episode 3, Lion in a Cage. Since April 2011, Terry Dykes had been the lead TBI agent working on Holly's case.

He spoke with ABC News in 2017. It was a case where you have a nightmare every single night. And every day when you get up, you run as fast as you can and run into a brick wall. For the first couple of years of the investigation, Dicus continued to believe the strongest lead in Holly's disappearance was Terry Britt. Retired FBI agent Art Vivoros worked on the case as well. In 2024, he told ABC News that the FBI created a profile of Holly's kidnapper. White male, anywhere from early teens up to about mid-50s. Loner, somebody had been involved with sex crimes before, knew the area well because they traveled

out here themselves and they saw everything and they knew they could see how it was. And of course, they listened to us how to describe things and said, yes, you can get lost very easily. Had to be somebody who's local and knew all the back roads. That pretty much generally described Terry Britt. Dykes interviewed Britt a few times. Britt continued to deny any involvement in Holly's disappearance and had an alibi. But some of the things Britt said concerned Dykes. During an interview with Dykes while in jail for an unrelated charge,

Britt seemed to speculate about how someone might have committed this crime. Okay, and you got her. And you do whatever you want to do with her. To her, with her, whatever. But when he gets done, that's when reality sets in. See, right now it's just fantasy world. Right. But here comes reality.

Now I've got a body. What am I gonna do with it? But searching Terry Britt's home and car and even bugging his home hadn't led to any evidence connecting him to Holly's kidnapping. And I think a lot of people looked at that as exoneration. But Terry Dicus, who was still the lead agent on the case at the time, insisted on looking further into Britt. He says other TBI agents told him he didn't have evidence against Britt and shouldn't keep pursuing him.

You don't have enough proof for it. You don't have no, you can't prove that you did. Terry Dykes supervisor said Agent Dykes had tunnel vision and was not objective about all of the facts coming into the case. In June 2013, Dykes was removed from the Holly Bobo case. Soon after, he

left TBI entirely. Terry Britt was eventually cleared by investigators in the Holly Bobo case. At the time Dicus was taken off the case, there were no named suspects and everything about the case, where Holly was taken, who kidnapped her, how and why, remained unanswered. Investigators had determined that the blood in the carport found on the day of her disappearance was Holly's, but they were never able to find a match for the handprint or shoe print they

found. They didn't have any other physical evidence from the scene to analyze for clues. But investigators kept hearing from Decatur County residents about those same four young men from the area. The two brothers, Zach and Dylan Adams, and their redheaded friend Shane Austin, were all in their 20s when Holly was kidnapped. Their older friend, Jason Autry, was in their 20s when Holly was kidnapped. Their older friend, Jason Autry, was in his mid-30s. During the investigation into Holly's kidnapping, they came to be known as the A-Train because they all had last names starting with A. All four of them struggled with substance use and had criminal records. And they had been viewed

with suspicion by authorities since the very beginning of the investigation. Just weeks into the investigation, Agent Dicus and other investigators had looked into them. Dicus says they were seen in the community basically as bad guys. They were always into trouble, always getting arrested for, I believe, Zach stole a deer stand, always into meth. They were brought up by people that know that they're into drugs. Dykes says he interviewed all of them. They appeared believable to me. With the information they gave, they were always freely willing to talk anytime I wanted

to talk to them. Deicus says he ruled them out as leads for two reasons. First, he believed their alibis. They were supposedly asleep at a time when Holly's cell phone was moving through the county. At the time, Dykes says this was corroborated by Zach Adams' then-girlfriend. And second, Dykes says none of them fit the description Clint had given of Holly's kidnapper.

Clint said he was a man around 5'11", 200 pounds, long dark hair, gravely voice. Jason Autry is 6 foot five, 220 pounds. Zachary Adams at the time was six two, 170 pounds maybe. Shane Austin was reddish blonde hair, about five ten, 200 pounds. Dylan Adams, six one, 190 pounds, 170 pounds. Terry Dykes asked FBI agent Art Viveros to talk with Zach's brother, Dylan Adams,

to see if he heard anything that raised alarm bells. Viveros says he went to Dylan Adams' home and interviewed him in the front seat of his car. I talked to him for about an hour. He seemed very forthcoming. I didn't see him get nervous. He just seemed like a kind of a quiet kind of young man. He just says that, you know, they were riding around looking for drugs that morning and they heard that she was abducted. But he said that he was with his brother, Zach, and with Shane Austin, and they were

riding around together in his vehicle and they went to get gas in town in Parsons. And the grocery store bought a few things, got some cash and they're going to buy some drugs. But Dykes says Dylan's brother, Zack, kept saying things around town that made it sound like he had been involved in Holly's abduction. Zack would tell people, you're going to end up in a hole just like Holly. Someone reported to authorities that they were in a bar with Zach and when he got in an argument with the bartender he said you'll end up like Holly Bobo. Investigators followed up by interviewing those witnesses to see

whether they had any information tying Zach Adams to Holly Bobo's kidnapping. They also did several additional interviews with Zach Adams to Holly Bobo's kidnapping. They also did several additional interviews with Zach Adams himself. Investigators also heard another story, this one about Shane Austin. He was the one with the red hair. Investigators were told that Shane had crossed paths with Holly Bobo at the raccoon hunt

held days before Holly disappeared. They were told that Shane had been staring at Holly and her friend. There was also a rumor that he was trying to take a photo of them. Agent Dykes followed up with Shane about the raccoon hunt. Shane said he was there, but did not remember seeing Holly. He said he was out of his mind on drugs at the time, and that he didn't have anything to do with Holly's disappearance. Dicus also obtained a search warrant for Shane Austin's phone,

and investigators searched his trailer. But despite those interviews and the searches of Shane's phone and trailer, investigators did not find any evidence linking Zach Adams or Shane Austin to Holly's kidnapping. About two years into the case, as people were hungry for answers about what happened to Holly, a Nashville TV station aired a series of stories about a group of private investigators who were looking into Holly's kidnapping. The investigators identified someone

they described as a suspect, and they alleged that the TBI had tried to stop them from pursuing the case further. The stories created so much controversy that the TBI had to put out a statement. The statement said the private investigator's information seemed to mostly come from social media and posts on websites and alleged that many of the private investigators' claims were inaccurate and misleading. The TBI went on to emphasize just how big of an effort the agency was making to find Holly and her abductor,

and that their efforts were built on solid investigative work, not gossip and rumors. The statement said the Holly Bobo case file is currently 27 volumes and contains more than 1,500 investigative reports. The TV station that aired the stories responded to the TBI's criticism. They said they simply reported on the findings

of the private investigators and claimed that until their statement, TBI had been unwilling to comment on the record about the private investigators' findings. Through subpoenas, TBI obtained the information collected by those investigators as well as footage from the station and claimed they didn't have any new evidence in the case. Around this time, Agent Dicus was taken off the case because of what his supervisor called his tunnel vision. Now, a new lead agent was in charge. As the tension between TBI,

the local TV station, and the private investigators looking into Holly's disappearance indicates, there was pressure for the TBI to come up with answers. And investigators were about to get another chance to see if one of the four men they dubbed the A-Train had something to do with what happened to Holly Bobo. Hello, it's Robin Roberts here. had something to do with what happened to Holly Bobo. show. The morning's first breaking news exclusive interviews what everyone will be talking about that day. It's a good in your morning and start your day with gma good morning America put the good in your morning gma 7 a on ABC. The cultural phenomenon, the secret lives of Mormon wives is

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FBI agent Art Viveros had retired, and Zach Adams was on law enforcement's radar for something new. He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault for allegedly holding a gun to the head of his girlfriend's sister and threatening to kill her. TBI agents saw Zach's arrest as a chance to question him again about Holly Bobo.

While being questioned, Zach said he knew nothing about Holly and was innocent. Zach went through what he did the day Holly was kidnapped, which matched what his brother Dylan had told the FBI agent years before. He said that when Holly was abducted, he and his brother were sleeping. Then they spent the morning trying to buy drugs with their friend Shane Austin. He said they heard about what happened to Holly when they stopped at a gas station and then spent the next few hours just driving around. But TBI agents pushed him.

They said if he was hiding anything, they would know very soon. They were going to search his home and send what they found to a crime lab. If Holly Bobo was ever within 10 feet of your house or in your house, we are going to know it. Over the course of more than two hours, all the suspicions about Zach that had built up for years were laid out. Investigators pointed to Zach's history of drug use and suggested that maybe while he was high, he did something he didn't mean to do. What intended to happen one way may end up going crazy and happen another way.

Just totally out of your control. People that use drugs, there's a problem when you get high. It lowers your inhibition. It does. It makes you not as in control of yourself. You can't control your actions with your own more thing. Yeah, you can. I'm in control at all times, whether I'm on the road or not. I'm in control. Investigators also told Zach that people were telling them about things he'd said around town about Holly's disappearance.

And you have time and time and time again, you bragged about exactly what you know. Over and over and over. And what you have done by doing that is you have set this entire thing to where it makes perfect sense to me. But I do know from what I've been told, cooperated by all kinds of people that don't even know each other, you do too know where she's at. And I know each other, you do too know where she's at. And I know you know, you know right now where she's at. Yes, you do. The investigators also told him they were going to question people in his life again, including his brother Dylan and his friend Jason Autry.

If you've done nothing wrong, he got no one to worry about. I tell you that right now. But listen, you get a rare chance to change the course of your life. It's very few times any of us can tell somebody like that. But I'm telling you, buddy, you're sitting in a chair right now in this room and you have that chance to change the course of your life. Zach had a consistent response. He knew nothing about Holly's disappearance and was innocent. By the end of the interview, he asked for a lawyer.

Next person I'm talking to is my lawyer, and I'm serious. Who is it? Who is it? I don't have one, so I'll point my one. You can f*** with me if you got it. Zack was transferred to a jail in a nearby county on that pending, unrelated charge of assault, which was eventually dismissed.

But about a week after that long interview, the same TBI agents showed up again to tell him that a grand jury had indicted him on aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the Holly Bobo case. That second charge was significant. It meant that investigators believed Holly had been killed during the kidnapping, even though

her body had not been found. That's a big choice. Now you know we weren't bluffing you the other day. In the TBI press conference about Zach's arrest, law enforcement agents said they would not give details on what led to Zach's indictment. They added that the investigation was still active and ongoing and more suspects could be indicted. But Zach's indictment was a breakthrough in and of itself. At last, nearly three years after Holly's disappearance,

the case had momentum. Cindy Adams, Zach's mom, watched her son become the center of a national story. She spoke to Elizabeth Vargas in 2017 about what Zach was like as a kid. Zach was a very strong-willed child. How old was Zach when he started to get into some trouble? Zach was probably around 16 years old. What happened? His father and I divorced and I think that was just a catalyst that kind of set it off. He was playing basketball at the time and he just came home one day and said,

Mom, you know, I'm just not gonna play anymore. It's like everybody's talking about me and just, you know, it's just not what I wanna do. And I just found that to be quite odd because he had just loved basketball and baseball. And then, you know, I just started noticing erratic behavior and him hanging with a different group of kids. And from there, it just escalated to something

that was just beyond me. He was very deeply into drugs. She says Zach ended up dropping out of high school just a few months before his graduation. We did the senior picture thing. We did, you know, the class ring, had already ordered his tux. Cindy says he went through drug treatment programs several times, but kept using. Each time he'd get out, he'd promise, you know, he was going to do better. Each time he'd get out, he'd promise, you know, he was going to do better. And it just didn't happen that way.

It just, it was just the drug that just had him just wrapped. His drug use seemed to lead him to erratic and even criminal behavior. Cindy says one time he demanded money from her, and when she refused, he pulled a gun on her. The next thing I see is just fire coming out of the gun. The minute it fired, you know, he obviously dropped the gun and ran to me and was like, oh my God, you know, I've just shot you, I've just shot you.

I don't know, what have I done? He was charged, but I didn't press charges against him. You did, though, later take out a protection, an order of protection against him. I did. I did. Cindy points out that most of the crimes Zach committed were related to his drug use, like drug possession and theft, so that he could have money to buy drugs. Everything he's ever done, he's been caught. And he's never once stood up in court and said, not guilty.

He's always told me, mom, I'll take my punishment, and then I'll be free. This time, with the kidnapping and murder charges Zach faced, it looked like he might never be free again. Prosecutors were talking about pursuing the death penalty against him if he was found guilty. When his mom visited him in jail, she says Zach insisted he was innocent. Mom, I'm going to tell you right up front, if you think that I did this,

you need to get up and turn around and walk out because I didn't do this. I can sit here and tell you that Zach is a drug addict, a thief, but I can also say he's not a murderer. That would take too much thought and too much time. I was worried about where he was going to get his next high. But the case against Zach was about to get stronger.

TBI agents had been talking with his younger brother, Dylan. And this time, the story Dylan shared was very different from what he told an FBI agent years earlier. It was a shocking shift in his account of the day Holly was kidnapped and it marked another major moment in this investigation. I'm not mad at you. I'm not gonna raise my voice or anything like that. I'm not mad at you. I'm very glad that you're doing the right thing coming forward. That's next time on What Happened to Holly Bobo. I'm very glad that you're doing the right thing coming forward.

That's next time on What Happened to Holly Bobo? What Happened to Holly Bobo is a production of ABC Audio in 2020. Hosted by me, Eva Pilgrim, the series was produced by Camille Peterson, Julia Nutter, Kiara Powell, Nora Hannah, and Meg Fiero, with help from Audrey Mostek and Amira Williams. Our supervising producer is Suzy Lu, music and mixing by Evan Viola. Special thanks to Liz Alessi, Janice Johnston, Michelle Margulies, Sean Dooley, Christina Corbin, Karen McGurl, Andrew Papparella, and Emma Pescia.

Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming. Laura Mayer is our executive producer. Wake up with Good Morning America. Robin, George, Michael, GMA. America's favorite number one morning show. The morning's first breaking news. Exclusive interviews. What everyone will be talking about that day. Put some good in your morning and start your day with GMA. Good morning America. Put the good in your morning.

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