Trial in kidnapping, killing of Tennessee woman to start

SAVANNAH, Tenn. (AP) - Lawyers are scheduled to make opening statements Monday in the trial of a man charged with killing Tennessee nursing student Holly Bobo.

Zachary Adams goes to trial in Savannah, Tennessee, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of Nashville. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, rape and murder.

Security was tight at the courthouse before proceedings began. A law enforcement officer walked a bomb-sniffing dog inside and outside the courthouse and everyone who came to see the trial had to walk through metal detectors before entering the courtroom.

Bobo was 20 when she disappeared from her home in the rural Tennessee town of Parsons in April 2011. Authorities say her remains were found in September 2014 by two men in woods not far from her home in Decatur County.

Judge C. Creed McGinley moved the trial to neighboring Hardin County because of widespread attention it received closer to Bobo's home.

The jury was selected Saturday. It is being sequestered.

Adams faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. Adams' brother, John Dylan Adams, and another man, Jason Autry, also are charged with kidnapping, rape and murder in the case.

Autry's attorney told the judge in February that there is no need to schedule a trial for him, raising the possibility that Autry could testify in return for a reduced charge. No trial date has been set for him or John Dylan Adams.

McGinley has ordered Bobo's friends and family to refrain from wearing T-shirts or other displays of support in court.

Bobo's brother told authorities he saw his sister walking away from their home with a man in hunting camouflage on April 13, 2011, the day she went missing.

Investigators and volunteers scoured the town and surrounding pastures, barns, flowery fields and dusty back roads. Residents adorned lamp posts and store fronts with pink bows, symbols of hope. Pink became the color associated with Bobo because she was wearing a pink shirt when she disappeared.

Adams' property in Decatur County was searched days before his arrest.

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