Holly Bobo’s missing person case is the most expensive and exhaustive in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s history.
Bobo disappeared from her home in Darden, Tennessee, April 13, 2011, and officials made a second arrest in the case yesterday.
TBI Spokesperson Josh Devine said every case is different, but that it is rare for one to continue for three years.
“We’re not going to stop until we get to the bottom of what happened,” he said. “It’s just taken that long for us to piece together the set of events and piece together who we believe to be responsible.”
Devine said the FBI’s involvement in the case can also extend the investigation.
“We have evidence at the FBI, and when you do that it can take additional time to get samples back,” he said. “So our case will stay open as long as we have evidence at the FBI and that sort of thing. So it’s more than just what we do here internally, it’s sort of a web if you will that requires a lot of time to kind of work its way out.”
False leads generated from a 2013 investigative news special by WSMV complicated the investigation. At that time, TBI Criminal Investigation Division Deputy Director Jeff Puckett said the cost of this case was too large to estimate.
TBI along with federal and local agencies have been part of hundreds of ground and warrant searches in Bobo’s case.
