Now, it can be argued that Wolfe’s constant political aspirations may get in the way of the Hardy family’s best interests, but regardless of Buice’s and Dotson’s early outbursts, the cloud of suspicion surrounding this case began building immediately following the shooting and has now grown to almost laughable proportions more than a year later. There’s still a “feeling” around town that the “facts” surrounding the case are being manipulated for “political gain” and, despite two quick and under-the-radar arrests, many are wondering if the case is even solvable at this point.

How could investigators even do their jobs if key evidence was missing almost immediately after the shooting? And why was it missing? And who is responsible? There is more to this case than simply, as Dotson once argued, waiting for information that will stand up in court.

If suspicions prove correct—that a cover-up is in place to protect main suspect, Rheubin Taylor, Jr., simply because he’s the son of County Attorney, Rheubin Taylor, Sr.—the negative fallout could be catastrophic, leaving a permanent scar on the amazing momentum built by the city’s growth in recent years. The preliminary hearing for the case—complete with a new judge and attorneys—is scheduled to finally happen on September 29th. Hopefully, justice will finally be served in this case. The clock is ticking, though. It already seems like the fix is in.

Buice is gone. Jimmie Dotson is gone. The case’s original judges and prosecutors are gone. Internal organs likely containing bullet fragments are gone. Considering the near impossibility in obtaining them, 9-1-1 tapes from the night of the shooting are as good as gone. Surveillance video of the shooting area is gone. Mayor Corker will soon be gone. And as time passes, more and more questions arise as to why Tory Hardy is gone. And last week was no exception, as more information surfaced that further raised suspicions about the case.

Shaun Steven Kidd, an unlicensed funeral home worker who picked up Hardy’s body from the county medical examiner’s office and brought it to the Taylor Funeral Home, said in an affidavit that the condition of Hardy’s body made him “weak at the knees.”

Kidd said that when the bag containing Hardy’s body was unzipped at the funeral home, it had been cut from the upper shoulders to the groin area and Hardy’s “whole insides were gone.” There was no separate bag containing Hardy’s organs and the funeral home put cedar chips and cat litter where the internal organs had been. (The internal organs most likely would have contained bullet fragments that could have helped investigators identify the shooter in the case.) Kidd said Taylor lied when he said the organs were placed back into Hardy’s body, and that he knew they weren’t there when the body was exhumed for a second autopsy in December of last year. When the state medical examiner, Dr. Bruce Levy, confronted Taylor in Nashville, Taylor admitted the organs had been incinerated.

Was Taylor told to burn the organs or was he simply negligent? If he was told to do it, who gave him the orders? If he was simply negligent, did it ever occur to him that the organs might come in handy in the investigation? And, if he’s that careless, should he really be trusted to serve on the City Council?

These are just some of the many nagging questions surrounding the case that, despite many folks’ best efforts, refuse to go away. Time is supposed to heal all wounds. In this case, time just makes them bigger.