Hailey Dunn: Search Called Off

Has Billie Dunn and Shawn Adkins gotten away with it?  Will there be no justice for Hailey Dunn?

Hailey Dunn Still Missing, But Search Called Off For Lack Of Evidence
By Merlin Mann, KTXS News


COLORADO CITY, Texas -- The search for a 13-year-old West Texas girl missing since December has been called off, nearly seven months after she was reported missing.
Volunteer searchers have told KTXS-TV News they will conduct no more organized searches for Hailey Dunn – at least not until specific evidence of her disappearance surfaces.
Since Dec. 27, there has been no trace found of Hailey – and little substantive evidence connected to her disappearance.
Soon after her disappearance, organized search parties attracted hundreds of volunteers – and many searched every day for weeks – in the cold January temperatures. One local group of searchers called themselves “Hailey’s Angels.”
Although not tied directly to the law enforcement investigation, the volunteers searched creek beds, abandoned buildings and vacant properties across hundreds of square miles in several counties surrounding Colorado City looking for any sign of Hailey. No evidence surfaced.
As time passed, the size of the search parties dwindled as weeks and months passed with no definitive word about Hailey’s whereabouts.
More recently, the number of searchers dwindled to single digits, and sometimes only the organizers showed up.
The eighth-grade middle school student has been missing since Dec. 27, when she was last seen by the live-in boyfriend of her mother, Billie Dunn.
There have been no arrests in the case, and Shawn Adkins, her mother’s boyfriend, remains the only named suspect.
According to law enforcement affidavits, Adkins told authorities that on Dec. 27 Hailey left about 3 p.m. to stop by her father’s house – about a block away – before spending the night with the friend.
However, she did not arrive at either place. The friend later told officials she and Hailey had made no plans for Hailey to spend the night.
Law enforcement authorities said Hailey left behind several personal items in her room: cash, a toothbrush, hairbrush, contact solution, a new MP3 player – and her favorite jacket, which friends told officials she would not have left behind.
Billie Dunn said both she and Adkins failed lie detector tests when interviewed about Hailey’s whereabouts by law enforcement authorities. According to affidavits, both of them walked out of the interrogations.
Early in the case, authorities followed possible leads of missing persons without finding any evidence.
By March, Colorado City Manager Pete Kampfer said that authorities believed Hailey Dunn was likely dead.
Nevertheless, Kampfer said law enforcement authorities say they don’t have enough evidence to make an arrest or prosecute the case.