http://m.jacksonsun.com/news/article?a=2011110130314&f=645
Holly Bobo's family questions early handling of investigation
Here are some snippets-
"A lot of people stuck their nose in law enforcement business that day, and too many people showed up there at one time," Wyatt said. "We were trying to keep people away as best as we could, but when you have a few hundred people showing up, it is hard to do."
Wyatt said the deputies had a hard time keeping people from going into the backyard, but that no one walked around the area where Holly was last seen.
But Clint said people walked all around the area where he last saw his sister and that this was one of his largest concerns.
"As I was writing my statement, I guess I kind of had a feeling that we might not get Holly back right away," Clint said. "So I was trying to preserve the crime scene and keep it from being disrupted because I knew the only thing we might have would be footprints, and I knew if someone stepped on them, then that's ruined.
Wyatt said deputies did not want to enter the area or allow others to do so for fear that they would impair some evidence that might be found and because they were waiting on a search dog and trying to gather information leading them to go a certain direction.
There are two types of search dogs. A hot-trail dog is good for a trail that is about 15 minutes old. A cold-trail dog can pick up a scent over a longer period of time.
"It was so disorganized I got disgusted," Middleton(local resident) said. "I've hunted all my life, and I can tell if someone has been in my deer stand two weeks before, but what happened in those woods was a mess. Volunteers were trying to help, but at the same time some of them didn't know what they were doing.
"My wife has lived in Darden all her life, and she still gets turned around on those back roads," Middleton said. "To drive in and drive out, you would to know those back roads."
The family mostly has remained quiet up about the investigation at the advice of the TBI and have been told very little, they said. Mehr said it is the policy of the TBI not to release information about an investigation until it has been solved. He also said no one is cleared as a suspect until the case is solved.
Investigators have said that whoever abducted Holly was in the area dressed in camouflage before 7:40 a.m. and left the woods after 7:55. Anyone driving on those roads early that morning around those times could be a suspect, authorities have said. Also, anyone known to have been turkey hunting in the area that morning could also be a suspect.
"You had people giving out water bottles and sandwiches in plastic bags to the volunteers, and the volunteers were throwing down the bags and bottles and other volunteers were asking if it was evidence," Middleton said. "With the people ripping through the woods on four-wheelers in the rain, you wouldn't be able to track anybody."
"We encourage people not to buy in to what they see on these blogs that are circulating the Internet," Mehr said. "Many of these sites say they are sending information to the TBI, but we may never receive that information. Also, they print rumors that are misleading to people.
