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The remains of Holly Bobo, a nursing student who went missing in 2011, have been found in rural Tennessee not far from her home in the town of Parsons.

A skull the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) said was Bobo’s was found near property owned by the family of Zachary Adams, a man charged with her kidnapping and murder, the Associated Press reported.

Police have not said why Adams, who was arrested in March, and another man allegedly kidnapped and killed Bobo. Two other men have been charged as accessories after the fact and with evidence tampering.

All those arrested have said they are not guilty.

Bobo’s brother told authorities he saw his sister being led into the woods by a man in camoflauge. He assumed it was her boyfriend, he has said, so did not immediately alert police.

While the circumstances of Bobo’s disappearance and death remain unclear, the publicity surrounding the case is notorious.

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When Bobo disappeared three years ago, the media covered the story so extensively that investigators say their investigation was stymied.

“All the rumors, gossip, and false leads have complicated the search for Bobo,” Discovery News — itself the progenitor of many a Holly Bobo story — wrote a few months after the 20-year-old’s disappearance. “Police have complained that well-meaning individuals have been disseminating misinformation about the case, making their job much more difficult.”

Among the well-meaning: a volunteer group that bickered with police.

“So far the TBI has basically shot us down and called us liars,” said Tony Calabrese, one group’s founder. He added: “”I don’t see how anybody helping search could hinder an investigation when they’re providing leads.”

“We are not working in cooperation or conjunction with that investigation,” a TBI spokesman countered. “They do not have firsthand knowledge of the case.”

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Psychics didn’t do much better. Discovery summarized their findings:

Bobo’s abductor might have a scar on his forehead, or a rash on his elbow, or a bite mark on his hand. He might work from home as a graphic designer and long for the 1950s. His hair might be dark brown, or blonde, or salt and pepper. He might be clean shaven, or he might have a moustache. He might be a Scorpio. He is either scrawny, or of medium build, or stocky and muscular — possibly ex-military. He might own a black leather wallet, and his name might contain one or more of the following letters: B, A, J, R, W, or M; his last name might be Glenn. Bobo might be (or might have been at one point) in or near a place that has the number 7 associated with it, either an address or a highway number or possibly seven miles from some landmark.

Meanwhile, some argued, the Bobo case proved the truth behind a incendiary stereotype of news media — that the public cares more about crimes committed against comely Caucasian women.

“If you went solely by what you read in the media, you’d probably assume that most of these cases involve pretty white women,” Robin L. Barton wrote on the Crime Report. She added: “Besides sex, race is the biggest factor in determining how much interest journalists seem to show in a missing persons case.”

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