Return to Transcripts main page

Nancy Grace

DNA Results in Holly Bobo Case

Aired April 20, 2011 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DEBORAH NORVILLE, GUEST HOST: Breaking news tonight as we go live to Tennessee and the continuing mystery of a beautiful nursing student, the cousin of a rising country music star, who has gone missing without a trace. Investigators have turned to roadblocks, stopping Holly Bobo`s neighbors to question them about suspicious activities they might have seen in the area, her last known sighting by her own brother, who says he saw her being led into the woods by a mystery man in camouflage. The brother reportedly found flecks of blood across the lawn, prompting him to call 911. Then Holly`s lunchbox is found discarded in the woods, and reportedly also found, duct tape with blond hair.

Tonight, investigators have confirmed they have DNA results. Detectives are now trying to build a profile of the kidnapper, perhaps a hunter, possibly a neighbor or someone familiar with the deep woods who is hiding in plain sight. And tonight, new information. Is the suspect linked to an attempted kidnapping of another young woman fitting Holly`s description? Tonight, what happened to Holly Bobo?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was abducted from her home, 7:40 and 8:00 AM, her 25-year-old brother recalls seeing her being led into a wooded area by a man in a camouflage outfit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A man in camouflage during hunting season is nothing unusual around here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just disappears in the woods right by her house. And the last person to see her is her brother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had reasons to believe that it was not an attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn`t recognize the guy, but he assumed it was her boyfriend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel like the person is right here in the community. And we`re asking for the community, that if you know of anybody that just has changed their routine, please let us know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to keep searching. We have to keep this -- the momentum of getting people to know her, see her face, so if they recognize somebody and maybe see her out there, we can get her back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NORVILLE: And good evening, everybody. Welcome to our program tonight. I`m Deborah Norville from "Inside Edition," sitting in this evening for Nancy Grace. The search continues for Holly Bobo, a beautiful nursing student kidnapped in broad daylight last Wednesday, last seen being forced into the woods with that mystery man.

For the latest on the case, we go to NANCY GRACE producer Rupa Mikkilineni. She`s at the scene of a candlelight vigil set to begin quite soon for Holly. Rupa, you`ve been down there all day. That is the latest tonight?

RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right, Deborah. It`s been raining all day, which has deterred some of the searching. However, volunteers still were out there today, searching high and low, looking through ponds and lakes, water searches, ground searches, out there with dogs.

Now, Deborah, what is interesting is the police, however, TBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, has been leading this search, and they today, rather than searching, have been focused more on the investigative process. They told me today that they focused more on interviewing people, talking to witnesses, re-interviewing people they`d already spoken to before and following up leads.

NORVILLE: And the reason for that, Rupa, would be that with the passage of time, people have had a chance to sort their thoughts and maybe something now occurs to them that hadn`t seemed important at the time they may have first spoken with investigators.

MIKKILINENI: Absolutely. That`s right, Deborah. And you know, in addition to that, we also know that there have been items found in these searches, but we`re not 100 percent confirmed as to whether these items are, in fact, related to Holly Bobo.

For example, we heard reportedly that there was a bundle of papers, perhaps school papers, wet school papers found inside the wooded area, the search area. Now, we don`t know if these are actually belonging to Holly Bobo. We also, of course, know about the blood. Today, new news, reports out there saying that, in fact, not only is it blood but flecks of blood. So we have a better description of the type blood spatter that was there, found on the lawn of the Bobo home. Now...

NORVILLE: One of the things that we have to be careful about...

MIKKILINENI: ... we`ve also...

NORVILLE: ... Rupa -- let me just stop you there, on the flecks of blood. That was reported by "OK!" magazine. It has not been confirmed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. How reliable is that? Have we been able to get this confirmed from any other source?

MIKKILINENI: Deborah, what we do know is the blood was found. The type of spatter, whether it`s flecks or not, not confirmed by police. But police today confirmed that blood was found. It has been tested. The DNA results are back, and they are not releasing those results to us, though. They`re keeping this investigation very close to the chest, Deborah.

NORVILLE: One of the things I know you did, despite the inclement weather, is you were actually out in the woods, as well, and you were able to go with your camera crew into the area where it`s believed Holly`s lunchbox was found -- her mother apparently confirming that it was her lunchbox because the contents was the lunch that she had packed that morning. What is that area like?

MIKKILINENI: Right. It`s a rural road, farm country, cows, horses, heavily wooded. This is a tough terrain, which is why, you know, one has a great deal of sympathy for the searchers and the police that are working around the clock, Deborah. I mean, this is a heavily thicketed area. You have to -- you know, in order to walk through, you really -- I mean, you get scratched, you get bruised. You know, it`s rough terrain.

Now, this is a creek area where her lunchpail was reportedly found, and this creek area is about 8 miles from the home where she vanished from.

NORVILLE: We`re going to bring into our discussion Brad Dennis. Brad knows a great deal about searching in these kinds of areas because he`s the director of search operations for the Klaas Kids Foundation, an organization that was founded after the disappearance of Polly Klaas many years ago.

Talk to us a little bit about the challenges now, Brad, with the rain as they search anything that might have been left -- in a few hours from now, it`ll be one week ago exactly -- is going to be significantly degraded, will it not?

BRAD DENNIS, DIR. OF SEARCH OPERATIONS, KLAAS KIDS FND.: Absolutely, Deborah. It is going to be degraded. Just the introduction (ph) to all of this weather and the rain that has taken place in there is going to wash away footprints, ATV tracks, those types of things. It`s going to make footing very difficult for the searchers out there. It is a really thick area in there, a very thick canopy. And just that whole process of all of that added weather into this is just going to make this a very daunting task.

NORVILLE: One of the things they`ve been doing is stopping cars on this roadblock. I want to bring Joe Gomez, who is a reporter from station KTRH radio, who`s been following this case closely, as well. Joe, why stop cars now, almost a week after the disappearance?

JOE GOMEZ, KTRH RADIO: Well, it`s a good question, Deborah. You know, they`re stopping cars because they think that some people may, you know, finally remember some things that they didn`t think about at the time last week when Holly went missing. They`re stopping cars kind of in the early morning hours, you know, when people are usually heading out at that time of day, the same time of day when Holly disappeared from her home, to see if they noticed anything out of the ordinary. You know, maybe they noticed a car on the side of the road or maybe they -- maybe they noticed some additional clue that they didn`t register last week.

So that`s why, right now, they`re making another attempt to kind of screen the area, knock on doors, check with people`s cars, find out if there`s anything that -- new information that can trigger back into these folks` memory, Deborah.

NORVILLE: Joe, on the subject of cars, was ever there any report of a car being seen at the time the 911 call was made by Clint Bobo, the brother of Holly?

GOMEZ: That`s -- that`s -- that`s an interesting point, Deborah, now. Wasn`t -- there were no reports at the time of the 911 call (INAUDIBLE) car was seen, but a few days afterwards, police scanner traffic -- there were reports that a car was found in the woods with camo in the car, gloves, a cell phone. Now, police have since said there is no direct link to that car that was found in the woods and the Holly case. I mean, you know, it`s not out of the ordinary for people to be out in the wilderness in camouflage in west Tennessee at this time of year, Deborah. After all, it is turkey hunting season.

NORVILLE: We`re going to go to the phones now. Julie is with us on the line. Julie, what`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Deborah. My question is about the brother. They said that he saw his sister being dragged into the woods. And you had a friend of the family`s on last night`s show.

NORVILLE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she had said that he would do anything to help his sister. But if he saw his sister being dragged into the woods by somebody, then why didn`t he help her?

NORVILLE: That`s a really good question, and I think the person to answer that is Paula Bloom, who is with us this evening. She`s a clinical psychologist and can maybe give us insights into what might have been going through Clint`s mind at the time he saw this person. Paula, how would you respond to Julie?

PAULA BLOOM, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST (on-camera): Oh, wow. I can`t imagine anything more stressful than seeing somebody you love going away. And I`m sure right now, you know, 20/20 hindsight, he must not be feeling so good about it. Listen, there`s a lot of ways that we can explain weird things. I mean, maybe she had a boyfriend he knew about. Maybe he was altered in some way. So it`s hard to know exactly what was going on. But I have to say, I can`t imagine what he must be feeling like right now.

NORVILLE: Is it not human nature, Paula, to default to the bright side, that, Oh, it`s no big deal?

BLOOM: That is such a good point. Listen, it depends who you are. Some people have a tendency to be more optimistic in general, and some people tend to be more negative. If you`re somebody who`s not that worried about the world, you`re not going to assume -- I think that`s a really good point. You`re not going to assume that there`s something nefarious going on. You may just think, OK, this is somebody she may know. But a lot times, again, we don`t realize something until it`s in retrospect, until there`s this bigger context of, Wow, my sister is missing.

NORVILLE: And certainly, that`s drawn the emotional support, as well as the physical participation of so many people there in Decatur County.

Rupa, give us a sense of what you`ve heard from the people that you`ve talked to today in terms of what they`re going through, knowing that somewhere in their midst is someone who took this very pretty young lady from the carport of her own home.

MIKKILINENI: Right. The community has really bonded together, Deborah. It`s amazing. You see signs when you`re driving up and down the roads here, through Parsons (ph), through neighboring communities, neighboring villages, neighboring towns. You see signs that say, "Praying for Holly," "Let`s find Holly." I mean, it`s amazing how they`ve come together. And everyone is involved. Everyone is trying to take time out to volunteer, to help in these searches. Even school children have requested that they get a few hours off from school in order to be able to volunteer. People want to get involved and they want to help.

NORVILLE: And Brad Dennis, when they do get involved and want to help, is it a help or a hindrance to have this many novices out there combing the woods?

DENNIS: Well, it really depends. I mean, you know, obviously, it`s a help on a lot of -- a lot of terms, especially for the community. But they really do have to have some form of training. You`re going into very thick woods. It`s a very difficult process to search that. Honestly, what you really need is trained searchers that can maintain their grid spacing while they`re sweeping through those really thick areas.

So you find other ways to include these community volunteers. You put them in less thick areas. You put them out on the streets. You do a huge flyer distribution with them. There`s still other opportunities for them to be able to go through this healing process of being able to help.

NORVILLE: And what about the search itself? As Rupa showed today -- she was at the spot where the lunchbox was believed to have been found. Is that a key point from which to radiate out the search as they look for clues?

DENNIS: Yes, absolutely. I mean, that lunchbox and knowing that that is definitely hers gives investigators and search teams a critical piece of evidence. Someone was in that area. Now we need to go and start spiraling out from there and expanding our search from that area.

NORVILLE: The wait is excruciating for the family of Holly Bobo. When we come back, we will talk with a family spokesperson and get an insight of what`s going on inside the Bobo home. Stay with us. We`ll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have one eyewitness, and that`s Holly`s brother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he thought it was just Holly`s boyfriend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are searching high and low.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s all about trying to find her and get her home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was actually on her way to school when it happened. He actually had an arm holding her. And so we feel that she knew that she was in fear of her life, so she was complying with his commands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NORVILLE: It is the most devastating thing that can happen to a family, the notion, the idea, the reality that a child has been kidnapped. Kevin Bromley is a spokesperson for the Bobo family. He joins us from the area there where the vigil will be beginning shortly. Sir, we thank you so much for being with us and first want to ask you to convey to the family the thoughts and prayers of us and so many are with them tonight. If you`ll do that, we`ll be very grateful.

KEVIN BROMLEY, FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: Yes. Thanks, Deborah.

NORVILLE: As you know, today the police indicated, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation indicated they do have the DNA results of that blood, but they`re not releasing it to the public. Is it frustrating to the family to know that there is so much information that has gone unreported or unpublicized?

BROMLEY: Well, obviously, in an investigation of this nature, you know, information, when it`s not passed on, it can be frustrating. But they also know that those who are investigating, the TBI, the FBI, are very competent. And they want to make sure that -- you know, they know that when information is released that it is very factual. There`s been a lot of -- as with any case, there`s always a lot of rumors that begin circling and surfacing in an investigation of this nature. But the family has full confidence that they are following up on leads and doing the best they can with the investigation.

NORVILLE: We`re sure that they`ve got great the faith in it. One of the things that I know has been so frustrating for the Bobos are all the rumors that have been speculating about what happened, when it happened, who saw what. And Clint, of course, is the last person that saw Holly. Can you tell us exactly what he did see?

BROMLEY: Well, Deborah, I don`t know anything else other than what has been reported by the TBI on the -- you know, the sightings of actually what Clint actually saw.

NORVILLE: Well, for instance, it`s being reported by one magazine that there were flecks of blood in the lawn. Would that be how he`s described it to you?

BROMLEY: He`s not described it to me.

NORVILLE: Has the family shared what he said?

BROMLEY: No. No. We`ve not talked at length about what Clint witnessed that day.

NORVILLE: As you know, we have spoken off-camera with other family members, and Natalie (ph) Bobo, who`s a cousin of Holly who`s gone missing, said to us that Clint had indicated that he had taken a polygraph test and passed it. Can you confirm that?

BROMLEY: I don`t know that to be sure. Has the investigators said anything about that?

NORVILLE: Well, this is a family member who has told us, and we`re trying to confirm that with you as the family spokesperson.

BROMLEY: Right. I don`t know that to be factual. That would be something you`d have to talk with the investigators about.

NORVILLE: Do you know if any other individuals have been given polygraphs?

BROMLEY: I don`t know.

NORVILLE: Would they have shared that with you if it had happened, or is it just something that you just don`t want to talk about because it hasn`t come from the TBI?

NORVILLE: Well, Deborah, as a family spokesperson, you know, my main objective is to talk about Holly and talk about the family and how strong they are, and also the community, how involved they`ve been in the search.

NORVILLE: And I`m sure that`s been a great comfort to the Bobo family, as well. What about the 911 call? Traditionally, 911 calls are taped and they are released to the public. Is it frustrating to the Bobos that those calls have not been shared?

BROMLEY: I`ve not heard anything about -- I`ve not heard them talk about the 911 calls.

NORVILLE: Why do you think that they wouldn`t release it?

BROMLEY: I don`t know. Again, I`m kind of the family spokesperson, and the investigators are doing a great job with the evidence they have.

NORVILLE: Is there anything -- as you and the family have been sitting around and talking, is there anything that`s come up that now, six days after her disappearance, leads you to believe that, Whoa, there may have been something strange that happened and this could be significant in helping the investigators with this case?

BROMLEY: Hey, Deborah, could you repeat that question again? We`re having some weather here in our area.

NORVILLE: I heard that big thunderclap, and I trust that you are in a safe place where you`re not in danger because if you`re not, that`s not a good thing. We want you to stay safe.

No, in the discussions in the days since Holly`s disappearance, obviously, the family is wracking their brain, what might she have said? Might she have ever seemed ill at ease, perhaps someone was stalking. Is there anything that`s come up since that makes you think that this now, in 20/20 hindsight, could have been significant?

We have just lost our feed. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has taken its toll and disrupted our communications with Tennessee. So we thank Kevin Bromley, if he can hear us, for being with us and we appreciate his information.

With that, we`re going to take a short break. But when we come back, more of your calls. And guess what? Could there be another kidnapping attempt very close to where Holly Bobo disappeared? We`ll get into that shortly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Country music star Whitney Duncan is pleading for Holly`s safe return. They are cousins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a family out here that needs closure, and it`s up to us to try and give it to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This tight-knit community is reeling after this 20-year-old nursing student was kidnapped right out of her home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It might have been somebody close, somebody that knew kind of our routine and when I left and when she left and when my daughter left to go to school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NORVILLE: You just heard the father of Holly Bobo speculate about the kind of person who might have taken her. What do you think?

Let`s go to the phones now. Barbara is with us from Mississippi. Hi, Barbara.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, there. I was just wondering, prior to the time Holly went missing, has the law enforcement looked into checking the stores that sells camouflage outfits around there to see if someone has bought it?

NORVILLE: That`s an interesting question. Brad Dennis, is that the sort of thing that they would look into, or given the fact that this is hunting season, it`s a rural area and camo is no big deal, that would be an impossible lead to follow?

DENNIS: Well, it may be an impossible lead to follow, but I think that probably, at this point, they are leaving no stone unturned. We heard today that they brought in additional investigators to start up that roadside canvas, if you will, and I`m sure they`ve already been doing the door-to-door canvas. And I know that they`ve already been up and down the areas looking for anyone that may have home security cameras and videocameras out there.

NORVILLE: All right. Kevin Bromley is back with us, and we`re going to let you get back in out of the rain. But I wanted to ask one more question, sir, before we leave you tonight. Holly`s been described as a person with an angelic voice, a smile that would light up a room. Is she the trusting sort of person that would have gone innocently with someone who said, There`s someone in distress, you`re a nursing student, can you help? Could that possibly have happened?

BROMLEY: Well, I mean, we don`t know that to be certain. But you know, to just echo what you said about Holly, she is extremely kind and she`s extremely compassionate and a caring person. And yes, she is a nursing student, and you know, that`s why she was in the field because she is such a caring person. But to say that`s why she, you know, went with no resistance, I can`t say.

NORVILLE: Well, we hope that in very short order, Holly herself will be able to answer those questions. Kevin Bromley, thank you for being with us.

We`ll take a short break and be back with more on the NANCY GRACE show. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is a very planned crime, and she was the intended victim. This doesn`t look random at all.

MARK GWYN, DIRECTOR, TENNESSEE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: We feel like the person that`s responsible for Holly Bobo`s disappearance lives in this area just because of the terrain and where she was abducted from.

You would have to know where you were going, the entrances, the exits in order to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This man was in camouflage. He knew exactly what he was doing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No ransom or anything. It`s not about money. They have somebody who`s obsessed with her.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They`re stopping everybody who`s in and out of the area. They`re trying to find somebody with a local connection who maybe doesn`t realize that they did -- that they saw something, and they`re just hoping.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH NORVILLE, GUEST HOST: Who kidnapped 20-year-old Holly Bobo one week ago in just a few hours it will be tomorrow morning? And is that individual connected to another possible kidnapping attempt of a young woman just 45 minutes away last January?

In mid-January Heather Sullivan was going to her car at her home in a wooded area about 45 minutes from where Holly Bobo lives. When she went to her car to pick something out at 5:30 in the morning in the dark, a man came up and tried to grab her arm. She dropped the lantern she was holding, and it was the noise of that lantern that prompted her boyfriend who was in the home to say, is everything OK? The individual ran away.

We spoke earlier today with Heather Sullivan and she told us that the police have re-interviewed her. They have asked her about that night. And when we asked Heather, do you think your incident is connected to Holly Bobo`s abduction, she said yes, it could be. We don`t live that far apart.

Let`s go back out to Rupa who is at that very rainy vigil site in Tennessee where things are getting under way just now.

Rupa, tell us about the significance of this similar situation not that far away.

RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: You know, Deborah, it`s quite similar actually, and this is what Heather Sullivan says as well. Not only is it 45 miles from where Holly Bobo was abducted just last week, it happened timeframe wise just a couple of months ago, in mid-January.

It`s a tall, white male. That`s how Heather Sullivan described her perpetrator, her attacker. Also, she also lives in a home that`s surrounded by a wooded area. So there are some similarities here. Now she managed to escape, luckily for her.

NORVILLE: All right.

Pat Brown is a criminal profiler who has made it her life`s work to get into the heads of people who do these kinds of things.

Pat, how significant is this similar situation a couple of counties over from where Holly is located?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER, AUTHOR OF "THE PROFILER": Well, Deborah, you certainly can`t ignore something like that. I mean we see people repeat MOs, and if these MOs are similar, that`s going to go right up on the radar.

But what I think what everybody is having so much trouble with in these cases is all the evasiveness. The evasiveness from the family, the evasiveness from the brother, the evasiveness from the police. And we`re not getting answers. Things are just -- seem like we should be able to get answers to, like when was the 911 call made? Did the dogs find a trail into the woods?

I mean if her blood is out there spattered somewhere, and it`s her blood, which are not going to tell us either, why wouldn`t the dogs follow that trail to the woods?

Then we also have the lunchbox problem. I mean if you have somebody dragging a women into the woods, why does her lunchbox which should be in her hand show up eight miles away? I don`t think she`s going to be clutching it for eight miles of walking the woods. It doesn`t even make sense.

NORVILLE: Do you think that`s a red herring that the guy has planted?

BROWN: You know I think there`s a lot of things about this case that we don`t know. I don`t know if there`s a staged crime going on here. I don`t know -- we just don`t have the information so that we can put things together and make sense.

But I think it`s extremely important for the family to come forth and be very open and the police as well because I think there`s some people out there searching and searching, wanting to find Holly, and they`re getting frustrated because they`re thinking, wait a minute, maybe we`re searching for no reason.

And I don`t think they want to think that way. I think they want to find Holly. I think they want to bring her home. I think they want to know if there`s a true abductor. So they can go out there and do their best. I think they need to just be a little bit more open and help everybody out here.

NORVILLE: What does the prosecutorial point of view think?

Paul Henderson is a deputy district attorney in San Francisco. You come from a different perspective when it comes to making a case stick . Are the police doing the right thing? Is the TBI doing the right thing in withholding virtually all the information about this case?

PAUL HENDERSON, SAN FRANCISCO DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Well, it`s difficult to release all of the information because oftentimes the information that the police collect at a crime scene can be followed up by themselves that`s unavailable for the public to follow up on.

So for instance, if those actually were blood splatters on the ground and there`s DNA that`s been collected, releasing that information out to the public can only serve to tip off suspected people that are in the community. So as they`re collecting evidence and walking around in the woods and checking out maybe the license plate on the car that they found in the woods, that`s not the kind of information that you want the public to have because it doesn`t help, as you are following up on an investigation and trying to follow up with the prosecution subsequently.

NORVILLE: Defense attorney Kirby Clements, do you share that view?

KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: To some degree I do, but then at the same time I have to say no. I think that there are times that you have to let certain things -- blood splatter evidence, if it`s her DNA, it`s her DNA. Tell everybody. There`s nothing else that`s going to change.

So there`s some things they have to come forth with to help the public to go out and look. Like, what`s the physical description of the guy that was seen by the brother and the same guy or the other guy that was seen trying to kidnap the other young lady? I think that`s something the public should be -- should hear about so they can look.

NORVILLE: And speaking of the evidence, the volunteers have been told they have a day of rest tomorrow. The volunteer will kick -- the volunteer search will kick back up into high gear over the weekend.

But at this stage of the game with the outrageous rainstorm that`s going on as we`re speaking, how much can anyone find?

Howard Oliver, you`re a forensic pathologist. You`ve been a medical examiner. At this stage of the game, is there anything left for the searchers to turn up?

HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: There would probably be very little to turn up. The rain is going to dilute the trace evidence. You know blood, even the spatter or any other spills of blood, will soak up water and will burst open. So you lose evidence there. Plus, evidence will be washed away by the rain.

NORVILLE: Let`s talk about the evidence that they have found. One of the things that has allegedly been found, reportedly been found, is duct tape that had blonde hair on it. Might that be some of the best evidence out there that we know about?

OLIVER: That should be excellent evidence. There should be evidence on there from not only the victim but possibly from the perpetrator.

NORVILLE: And what about the blood evidence? Why wouldn`t they be releasing the source of the blood?

OLIVER: The only reason I can think of is they`re not through with their discovery on different aspects on checking the blood. You know, some of it may have been the perpetrator`s blood. They may be following up on that. They have to compare the blood splatter with the evidence they get from the victim`s personal belongings.

NORVILLE: And we don`t know what --

OLIVER: So all the evidence is not in.

NORVILLE: And we don`t know what`s happened to Holly. One possible speculation is that she is being kept by a mountain man in this wooded area. There doesn`t seem to be any indication that we`re aware of them coming out of the woods.

With the kind of weather that`s going on and the kind of weather that`s forecast, what are her chances for being able to survive as a hostage in these adverse conditions?

OLIVER: Her chances are excellent, as long as she has water. The temperature and the rain and those conditions, she would still have an excellent chance.

NORVILLE: Stacy from California, you`ve been holding for a long time, and we thank you for your patience. What`s your comment?

STACY, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi, Deborah. My concerns are the search dogs. How many days can they pick up the scent and will the rain wash away the scent?

NORVILLE: At this point, Mr. Oliver, is it -- is it gone for the dogs?

OLIVER: It should be gone for the dogs.

NORVILLE: All right. One of the things, Pat Brown, that I think all of us wonder is, could there be a connection between the case in January and very similar circumstances and Holly`s situation, and might there be other women who were similarly approached that we haven`t heard about?

BROWN: Well, you always want to go to the public and ask, have they had an experience like this? Because we often find that we do have women that come out and say, you know, some guy did try to grab me, but I didn`t -- you know, I just yelled at him and walked away and I never thought of even reporting it to the police.

So yes, we do want to know about that. And we also want to know about this whole issue about she was taken into the woods, is there a way for a vehicle to even get her from in those woods and take her out of the woods.

Because when we look at stalkers, I mean it would be pretty weird for a stalker to come up the -- to come out of the woods and grab her and then take her to a vehicle. You more likely take her into the woods and do something terrible to her right there and we would have already found that out.

So there`s a very confusing thing about the fact that there`s no vehicle to take her to and her body is not in the woods.

NORVILLE: You know the family has been very vocal about the fact that the brother -- because there was some discrepancy in the story particularly early on and the fact that he saw her being led away, and there was a timeframe between that moment and the 911 call being made, some have cast speculation that the brother might have had something to do with it.

Would he have called the police if he in any possible way were involved?

BROWN: Well, yes. I mean, that is something that people will do. Let`s say for example some altercation occurred when she was leaving for school, and then there was a period of time before the 911 call that he could move her some place and then come back home and then say she was abducted.

I think that`s why people are suspicious, and I think the family needs to come out and really help the public out with that so they can look for Holly.

NORVILLE: Nearly seven days since Holly Bobo disappeared on her way to school. What are the chances that she will be found alive? We`ll get into that after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GWYN: The Tennessee Wildlife Resource agency has deployed their sight imaging technology on the area of waterways to see if we can develop some leads that way. Law enforcement is canvassing all the neighborhoods t, and the volunteers are searching.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXIS TERESZCUK, REPORTER, RADAROLINE.COM: Whitney, the cousin, the country music singer, she said adamantly the brother has been cleared.

GWYN: We have not developed any type of tunnel vision. No one has been cleared no matter what their relationship with Holly may be.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NORVILLE: And we`re back talking about the disappearance of Holly Bobo. It will be one week tomorrow morning that she went missing. A candlelight vigil has been moved inside. It continues in her hometown in Tennessee as townspeople have come together to pray for her safe return and learn the latest that they can on the investigation.

At this point what are the chances that Holly will be found alive? It`s a difficult question to ask, but a prudent one and frankly a correct one to ask one week into this.

Pat Brown, seven days after someone disappears, what are the chances?

BROWN: Very, very minimal. I mean we all want to believe that the Elizabeth Smarts of the world are going to be the child that we lose out there, has gone missing. But it rarely is. And of course we`ll keep our fingers crossed.

NORVILLE: The statistics are pretty frightening that when it comes to missing children 74 percent of abducted children are killed within the first three hours.

Pat Brown, how does that translate to abducted women?

BROWN: Well, abducted women don`t do very well at all. I mean, mostly they`re abducted by sexual predators, and sexual predators has -- it`s a lot of work to keep those women alive. So unless they`re in a bunker some place or they have -- or they`re torturing them, a sexual sadist, usually they`re just going to take care of it very quickly, get what they want, that thrill of power and control and they`re done. And you know it`s a very sad situation. But I -- you know, let`s hope it`s different.

NORVILLE: Yes. We all hope it`s different.

Paula Bloom, as a psychologist, you have a sense of what this individual who is behind this kidnapping might be thinking. What`s your best guess?

PAULA BLOOM, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, BLOGGER, PAULABLOOM.COM: Wow, it`s really -- it`s really hard to know. I mean, it`s just so hard for me. You know I`m not a criminal profiler, but to get inside that head, it must be a very intense experience.

I`m also just really thinking about the family and their struggle to balance hope. Sort of what Pat was talking about, is hoping for the best with the reality and the statistics and despair.

NORVILLE: And we`re looking at the statistics on the screen right now and they`re pretty grim. Eighty percent of kidnap victims actually know their abductor and 1 in 4 are abducted in a park or wooded area usually about a quarter of a mile from their home. So in that regard at least this was Polly`s -- Holly`s home where this took place.

Joe Gomez, you`ve been following this case very closely. What are the people who are -- who are directly involved saying in terms of at this point how much hope they have that there will be a successful resolution?

JOE GOMEZ, REPORTER, KTRH RADIO: You know investigators are very hopeful that they`ll have a successful resolution hopefully within a matter of days. You know they`re saying that they`re going to come out there with a renewed spirit over the weekend, a thousand strong search team to try to -- you know, fully canvass the wilderness of west Tennessee. Go from door to door knocking on houses. I mean they`re going to have an unprecedented search force go out there.

I mean to talk about this search force, Deborah, there are people out there with broken limbs. There was a man with a cast out searching for Holly. A woman suffering from lupus -- lupus, my goodness -- in this weather lupus, going up there in the wilderness to try to find her.

So there is a passion that people want to find this beautiful, beautiful 20-year-old nursing school student. They want to find her, and they want to get her back alive, Deborah.

NORVILLE: And they want justice for whoever is behind this.

Paul Henderson, the boyfriend is someone that I suspect is of interest to police whether or not he`s involved at all. Isn`t it second nature that he should be questioned? Who else should police be looking at?

HENDERSON: Well, automatically the police are going to talk to the people that are around her to see if her family, her friends, her social relationships have had anything to do with the disappearance so they`ll want to know, and be asking questions, did anyone have any beef with her?

Has she been fighting with her boyfriend? What was the relationship like with all of the people that are around her? And remember it`s just as important to eliminate suspects as it is to narrow down and figure out who to start concentrating on as the search continues and the events unfold and the evidence gets analyzed internally within the police department.

NORVILLE: Should those people submit to polygraph tests?

HENDERSON: You know, it`s kind of hit or miss. In some courts polygraph tests are not even admitted. You have to go through a whole Kelly/Frye analysis. And there`s this --

NORVILLE: But as an investigative tool?

HENDERSON: As an investigative tool, it`s not necessarily helpful because someone can tell you the truth but a narrow version of the truth. Or not the entirety of the truth. So, say for instance, a suspect says yes, I went over there and I talked to her and that`s the end of the story. But they don`t tell you after they talk to her what they did that may have contributed either to their disappearance or to their death.

It`s kind of hard to gauge whether or not having information from a polygraph is going to move the investigation along or reveal an actual truth about the missing person.

NORVILLE: Let`s go to the phones. Joanne is on the line with us from North Carolina. Joanne just -- we lost you.

Shannon from New York, though, is with us. Hi, Shannon. What`s your question?

SHANNON, CALLER FROM NEW YORK: I was wondering if there was a getaway car a few miles away from where he abducted her?

NORVILLE: We`ve had no report of that.

But Pat Brown, I know you`ve got an interesting theory about what might be going on during these roadblocks today.

BROWN: Well, I mean, they could be looking for tire -- if they had tire marks, they could be looking at the tires. That would be something that would be very useful in the investigation.

But one of the things we haven`t really had is a good map, at least I haven`t seen one, showing whether you can bring somebody into the woods and then there`s an exit out to a car, because the brother has not said he ever heard a car.

And if, you know, he`s in the house, unless he`s in the shower and can`t hear anything, a loud music on, and he looks and he sees that supposed boyfriend out there, you would think he would say, whoa, I don`t remember hearing him drive up. That`s kind of odd.

You know so where is -- where would the car be? I think we need to know where the exits are, where a car could hide out, or whether you can go through the woods to a car location.

NORVILLE: Brad Dennis, what would you say on that regard?

BRAD DENNIS, DIRECTOR OF SEARCH OPERATIONS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: That should be the very first place that the investigators and search managers looked at from the beginning days, was what was the egress routes away from that home through those woods? Where was the vehicle accessibility points and check those areas out for tire impressions.

It`s definitely one of the things that they would be looking at during these roadblocks.

NORVILLE: I`ve got to tell you, it`s really frustrating. I can`t imagine what the family is going through. We`re sitting here basically talking about everything we don`t know, and on an act of faith assuming that the investigators know these things.

What do you think the likelihood of that is, Kirby? That they do know these things and they`re just not sharing it?

CLEMENTS: You know, I have to say I don`t think that they know. I think what happened is they probably took the brother`s story at face value and then went out looking for an investigation, and trying to search the woods. But then ultimately decided we`ve got to go back here and start looking at people with suspicious eyes.

That will be my guess. And it may be this -- you know, I may -- I don`t want to just disparage them, but it just seems to me that they went out, taking the story as true, and they are going back now.

NORVILLE: Pat, in just the couple of seconds we`ve got left, would you agree with that before we go to break?

BROWN: It`s a possibility. I`ll tell you, when I go work with a police department, sometimes I find they`ve done everything wonderfully, and sometimes I say, oh, my god, what are you doing? So you really don`t know unless you`re inside the department to know how it`s going.

NORVILLE: We are inside but we have a lot of questions about what`s going on and we are not along in that regard. Our discussion continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GWYN: We`re still analyzing all the evidence. We know there was a lunch pail. We know there was blood. Some of the evidence for investigative purposes we just can`t put out right now. What we`re trying to do is figure out exactly what may be linked to Holly and what what`s not.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NORVILLE: Officials involved with the investigation into the disappearance of Holly Bobo.

What is it like to work with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation? Susie is on the line with us from Tennessee. She has personal experience.

Hi, Susie. What`s your story?

SUSIE, CALLER FROM TENNESSEE: Yes, I just wanted to say that I am from Tennessee. I`m about 60 miles from where Holly was abducted, and I did attend the same university that she did last year. And approximately 13 years ago, we were victims of a crime. My mother was a murder victim.

And I`ve noticed that several of the commentators and the people that are calling in are wondering why they aren`t releasing any more information than they are. And I must say that in our own case that we were told by the TBI not to tell any more than we had to, release any more information, to keep a tight lid on it. So it`s not like they`re trying to hide anything personally in this incident.

NORVILLE: And what do you think happened to Holly?

SUSIE: My -- I wouldn`t venture to say on that. But I do hope that it all does turn out for the best. That`s all I can say. And I have been following it very closely, because my -- my family`s incident with the crime.

NORVILLE: Yes, well, we hope for the best for Holly, and we`re so sorry for your loss, Susie. Thank you so much for calling in and being with us tonight. We do appreciate it.

And of course hopes continue that Holly will be found. But as of today, there are a number of Americans who won`t be coming home. In fact, 5,984 have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And tonight, we again remember one of them. Army Specialist Thomas Byrd, 21 years old from Cochise, Arizona. Thomas was killed in Iraq. He was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the Combat Infantry Badge.

Thomas comes from a family of military veterans. An adrenaline junkie, he loved to jump out of airplanes, loved all kinds of sports and enjoyed giving candy and toys to children in Iraq.

His family says they remember him for his heart of gold and the smile you could see a mile away. He leaves behind his parents, Michael Sr. and his mom Julia, his brother Michael Jr., and his widow Michael.

Thomas Byrd, a true American hero.

That`s our program for tonight. If you have any information about Holly Bobo and her disappearance, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation wants to hear from you. Their number, 1-800-TBI-FIND.

I thank you all for being with us. I thank so much our guests for being a part of our discussion. And I thank you for participating.

And before we say a final goodbye, we have to say a very special happy birthday. This one of the best lawyers, I am told, in the state of Mississippi, Mr. Frank Hadden.

And so happy birthday, Frank. We wish you many more.

And we wish all of you many more nights with us here on THE NANCY GRACE SHOW. Nancy will be back tomorrow night 8:00 Eastern Time. I thank her for the opportunity to keep her seat warm for her, and I thank you for being with us.

We`ll see you again soon, everybody. Good night.

END