Limestone County Chief Investigator Stanley McNatt said Wednesday that the FBI has informed county investigators the FBI lab in Virginia is now processing evidence it hopes will soon lead to the arrests of two men who robbed the Elkmont branch of Community Bank in August of last year.

“They tell us the FBI lab is processing our evidence,” McNatt said. “But we really don’t know when to expect that to come to us. They are backed up just like all the other crime labs we have to deal with.”

It has been nearly six months since the pair of masked bandits robbed the bank of $6,000, and local authorities say the FBI continues to withhold the identity of one.

Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely has said that if he had his way, he would publicize the alleged robber’s photo. However, Blakely said his department is cooperating with the FBI in keeping the robber’s identity a secret while the investigation into the other person’s identity continues.

McNatt said once the FBI releases evidence in the case, “we believe an arrest will be made.”

McNatt said investigators believe one of the robbers lives in eastern Tennessee and is suspected as of having been involved in previous bank robberies that the FBI is investigating.

The pair of robbers walked into the bank on that Friday, Aug. 12, at 9:30 a.m., wearing gas masks and straw hats. They carried “assault type weapons.” They escaped in a tan Chrysler with $6,000. The robbers later changed cars and got into a dark colored Camry on Morris Road and ditched that car on Turkey Creek Road near the Elk River.

From there, the suspects fled on foot. The sheriff called in tracking dogs from Limestone Correctional Facility. The dogs led lawmen to one person in the underbrush, who authorities later determined was not connected with the robbery.

A day later, searchers found a trail of bills stolen in the robbery, but the two robbers remained at large.