Photo courtesy of Clint Dunn
Hailey Dunn, left, is seen in a photo taken on Christmas Day 2010, two days before she was reported missing, with her mother Billie Jean Dunn, center, and her mother's boyfriend Shawn Adkins.
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Readers here know that this case has been covered extensively, with deception indicated in the statements of both mother and her boyfriend. To this, the polygraph results agree. Here is a well written article which requires only common sense to follow the logic presented as the author uses information available through both quotes and police affidavit. The author even uses a timeline in which she adds that Adkins reports...rather than stating as if fact.
Hailey Dunn: Vanished without a trace
Missing eight months, Dunn would be 14 today
It has been exactly eight months since she was reported missing by her mother, but still, there is no trace of Colorado City teen who would have been 14 years old today.
On Dec. 28, Hailey Darlene Dunn, 13, was reported missing by her mother, Billie Jean Dunn. Billie Jean’s live-in boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, was the last person to see Hailey alive. He has been named the prime suspect in the case, but, as yet, no arrests have been made.
Eight months after the teen vanished, there are still visible signs that of a concerned community. But the billboards that show her smiling face and sparkling eyes are fading. Across the street from where Hailey lived on Chestnut Street, two fences covered with stuffed animals surround a bench dedicated to Hailey’s memory and to commemorate the community’s hope for her return.
As the hot Texas sun parches the West Texas landscape, the searches for Hailey have wound down.
“We still have people calling us,” said Kristy Lloyd, a board member for Hailey’s Search. “We have discontinued regular searches due to the heat.”
But searchers had planned to continue searching Saturday and a prayer vigil and balloon release were scheduled for today to mark her 14th birthday.
Last week, would have been her first day in high school as she would have started her ninth grade year.
“We will never give up looking,” Lloyd said.
The case
Hailey was first listed as a runaway because at first, Colorado City officials were taking a wait-and-see approach. But on Jan. 3, Colorado City Police and the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office called in the FBI and Texas Rangers and formed a task force. The 60-member team worked relentlessly to come up with clues about Hailey’s disappearance.
And the agencies continue to work on the case, Sheriff Patrick Toombs insists.
“We get about one or two leads a week,” Toombs said. “And we follow up on every one of them.”
According to affidavits from Mitchell County Judge Ray Mayo’s office, Hailey was last seen by Adkins on Dec. 27, when he said she went to spend the night with a friend. But the friend’s family would tell police that Hailey never showed up there that night, affidavits state.
Affidavits indicate investigators were looking at family members early in the case. A few days after her disappearance, investigators interviewed Adkins, and asked him who they should be looking at for answers as to her whereabouts and he responded “both of us,” meaning himself and Hailey’s mother Billie Jean, the affidavits state.
The affidavits also state Billie Jean and Adkins had a fascination for true crime, serial killers and horror films, and, during a search of the home, investigators found a box inside filled with hundreds of pages on murders and true crime. Billie Jean told police that copying and reading the stories was “a hobby.”
Both Adkins and Billie Jean failed polygraph tests, the affidavits stated. Adkins walked out of the test after refusing to answer questions about where Hailey could be found, the affidavits stated.
Clint Dunn, Hailey Dunn's father, said Hailey's 16-year-old brother David Dunn told investigators he returned home at about 4 p.m. on Dec. 27 and pounded on the door for about five minutes. Later, Billie Dunn confirmed that David had "indeed pounded on the door and nobody would let him in." Upon entering the residence through the window, David Dunn observed Shawn Adkins "standing in the hallway with a deer in the headlights look," according to the affidavits.
Investigators enlisted the help of cadaver dogs from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and searched landfills in Abilene, Mitchell and Scurry counties. While the dogs hit on several items, no real evidence was ever found, investigators said.
Since then, investigators have searched locations in Mitchell, Howard and Scurry counties, concentrating many efforts in the small community of Dunn, 10 miles north of Colorado City in southern Scurry County, where they have searched this summer.
“We conducted three searches up there with the TDCJ officers on horseback and on foot and using a four wheeler,” Toombs said, but nothing was found.
The PlayersBillie Jean and Adkins have denied involvement in Hailey’s disappearance from the beginning. In early January, when investigators named Adkins as the only suspect, he moved out of the Dunn home to his grandmother’s home, located, oddly enough, in Dunn, Texas.
“I’m really scared,” Billie Jean said in an Abilene Reporter-News story about a month after Hailey disappeared. “Anything could have happened.”
Adkins has made very few comments during the past eight months. He did appear on “Nancy Grace” on HLN with Billie Jean. He later told the Associated Press that his life had “flipped upside down,” since Hailey vanished.
Hailey’s father Clint Dunn, was excluded as a suspect early on. In the weeks and months after his daughter’s disappearance, Clint Dunn would travel up and down the Interstate, all the way to El Paso, passing out fliers and looking for his daughter.
In February, Billie Jean’s mother, Connie Ostrander, was arrested for possession of drugs. Also in February, Clint Dunn, turned himself in on a traffic warrant and spent several days in jail. Toombs said he was just released from the Mitchell County Jail after serving a 60-day sentence to “sit out some traffic warrants and a possession of marijuana charge.”
Later, in March, Billie Jean was arrested for reportedly lying to police when they came to her house looking for Adkins. She told him he was not there, and investigators found he was.
Billie Jean, who Toombs said moved to the Austin area to get away from the “negative comments,” did not return calls for comment. Toombs said Adkins has also moved to central Texas but could not say positively that the two are together.
Evidence confiscated
Toombs and other investigators are banking on evidence obtained from two computers and several electronic devices.
Investigators collected evidence from the Dunn home and from the homes of Shawn Adkins mother in Big Spring and his grandmother in Dunn, Texas.
In February, results of a search warrant revealed that almost 109,000 images and videos depicting “deviant acts and pornography” were found on a computer confiscated from Adkins mother’s home in Big Spring. Adkins told police he went there the day Hailey went missing.
Likewise, a memory stick, taken from the Billie Jean’s bedroom drawer, contained an additional 320 images and videos of a pornographic nature, according to an affidavit from 32nd District Judge Glen Harrison, of Sweetwater.
Toombs said the computer and memory stick contained images of bestiality and child porn.
Then other digital devices were confiscated from Adkins’ grandmother’s home. The FBI and a computer forensics expert in Garza County continue to look for more evidence. So far, no charges have been filed and no arrests have been made, regarding the pornographic items found on the computers.
“You only get one shot at some things and we are going to make sure we get things right and make sure it is done right,” Toombs said.
Toombs said in the last several months, there have been bogus rumors popping up on Facebook, that Hailey has been found.
While the possibility still exists she will be found alive, Toombs said it is remote.
“We would like nothing more than to find her alive, that would be our greatest joy,” Toombs said.
On Dec. 28, Hailey Darlene Dunn, 13, was reported missing by her mother, Billie Jean Dunn. Billie Jean’s live-in boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, was the last person to see Hailey alive. He has been named the prime suspect in the case, but, as yet, no arrests have been made.
Eight months after the teen vanished, there are still visible signs that of a concerned community. But the billboards that show her smiling face and sparkling eyes are fading. Across the street from where Hailey lived on Chestnut Street, two fences covered with stuffed animals surround a bench dedicated to Hailey’s memory and to commemorate the community’s hope for her return.
As the hot Texas sun parches the West Texas landscape, the searches for Hailey have wound down.
“We still have people calling us,” said Kristy Lloyd, a board member for Hailey’s Search. “We have discontinued regular searches due to the heat.”
But searchers had planned to continue searching Saturday and a prayer vigil and balloon release were scheduled for today to mark her 14th birthday.
Last week, would have been her first day in high school as she would have started her ninth grade year.
“We will never give up looking,” Lloyd said.
The case
Hailey was first listed as a runaway because at first, Colorado City officials were taking a wait-and-see approach. But on Jan. 3, Colorado City Police and the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office called in the FBI and Texas Rangers and formed a task force. The 60-member team worked relentlessly to come up with clues about Hailey’s disappearance.
And the agencies continue to work on the case, Sheriff Patrick Toombs insists.
“We get about one or two leads a week,” Toombs said. “And we follow up on every one of them.”
According to affidavits from Mitchell County Judge Ray Mayo’s office, Hailey was last seen by Adkins on Dec. 27, when he said she went to spend the night with a friend. But the friend’s family would tell police that Hailey never showed up there that night, affidavits state.
Affidavits indicate investigators were looking at family members early in the case. A few days after her disappearance, investigators interviewed Adkins, and asked him who they should be looking at for answers as to her whereabouts and he responded “both of us,” meaning himself and Hailey’s mother Billie Jean, the affidavits state.
The affidavits also state Billie Jean and Adkins had a fascination for true crime, serial killers and horror films, and, during a search of the home, investigators found a box inside filled with hundreds of pages on murders and true crime. Billie Jean told police that copying and reading the stories was “a hobby.”
Both Adkins and Billie Jean failed polygraph tests, the affidavits stated. Adkins walked out of the test after refusing to answer questions about where Hailey could be found, the affidavits stated.
Clint Dunn, Hailey Dunn's father, said Hailey's 16-year-old brother David Dunn told investigators he returned home at about 4 p.m. on Dec. 27 and pounded on the door for about five minutes. Later, Billie Dunn confirmed that David had "indeed pounded on the door and nobody would let him in." Upon entering the residence through the window, David Dunn observed Shawn Adkins "standing in the hallway with a deer in the headlights look," according to the affidavits.
Investigators enlisted the help of cadaver dogs from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and searched landfills in Abilene, Mitchell and Scurry counties. While the dogs hit on several items, no real evidence was ever found, investigators said.
Since then, investigators have searched locations in Mitchell, Howard and Scurry counties, concentrating many efforts in the small community of Dunn, 10 miles north of Colorado City in southern Scurry County, where they have searched this summer.
“We conducted three searches up there with the TDCJ officers on horseback and on foot and using a four wheeler,” Toombs said, but nothing was found.
The PlayersBillie Jean and Adkins have denied involvement in Hailey’s disappearance from the beginning. In early January, when investigators named Adkins as the only suspect, he moved out of the Dunn home to his grandmother’s home, located, oddly enough, in Dunn, Texas.
“I’m really scared,” Billie Jean said in an Abilene Reporter-News story about a month after Hailey disappeared. “Anything could have happened.”
Adkins has made very few comments during the past eight months. He did appear on “Nancy Grace” on HLN with Billie Jean. He later told the Associated Press that his life had “flipped upside down,” since Hailey vanished.
Hailey’s father Clint Dunn, was excluded as a suspect early on. In the weeks and months after his daughter’s disappearance, Clint Dunn would travel up and down the Interstate, all the way to El Paso, passing out fliers and looking for his daughter.
In February, Billie Jean’s mother, Connie Ostrander, was arrested for possession of drugs. Also in February, Clint Dunn, turned himself in on a traffic warrant and spent several days in jail. Toombs said he was just released from the Mitchell County Jail after serving a 60-day sentence to “sit out some traffic warrants and a possession of marijuana charge.”
Later, in March, Billie Jean was arrested for reportedly lying to police when they came to her house looking for Adkins. She told him he was not there, and investigators found he was.
Billie Jean, who Toombs said moved to the Austin area to get away from the “negative comments,” did not return calls for comment. Toombs said Adkins has also moved to central Texas but could not say positively that the two are together.
Evidence confiscated
Toombs and other investigators are banking on evidence obtained from two computers and several electronic devices.
Investigators collected evidence from the Dunn home and from the homes of Shawn Adkins mother in Big Spring and his grandmother in Dunn, Texas.
In February, results of a search warrant revealed that almost 109,000 images and videos depicting “deviant acts and pornography” were found on a computer confiscated from Adkins mother’s home in Big Spring. Adkins told police he went there the day Hailey went missing.
Likewise, a memory stick, taken from the Billie Jean’s bedroom drawer, contained an additional 320 images and videos of a pornographic nature, according to an affidavit from 32nd District Judge Glen Harrison, of Sweetwater.
Toombs said the computer and memory stick contained images of bestiality and child porn.
Then other digital devices were confiscated from Adkins’ grandmother’s home. The FBI and a computer forensics expert in Garza County continue to look for more evidence. So far, no charges have been filed and no arrests have been made, regarding the pornographic items found on the computers.
“You only get one shot at some things and we are going to make sure we get things right and make sure it is done right,” Toombs said.
Toombs said in the last several months, there have been bogus rumors popping up on Facebook, that Hailey has been found.
While the possibility still exists she will be found alive, Toombs said it is remote.
“We would like nothing more than to find her alive, that would be our greatest joy,” Toombs said.
TIMELINE
- Dec. 27: Shawn Adkins, the live-in boyfriend of Hailey Dunn's mother, reports that the teen told him she was walking to her father's house and then spending the night with a friend. That is the last time she reportedly was seen.
- Dec. 28: Billie Jean Dunn reports her daughter missing.
- Dec. 29: All registered sex offenders living in Colorado City are questioned and the homes of Billie Jean Dunn and her estranged husband, Clint Dunn, are searched by local law enforcement.
- Dec. 30: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children becomes involved with Hailey's disappearance.
- Dec. 31: Cadaver dogs pick up Hailey's scent, but that does not lead to new evidence of her whereabouts.
- Jan. 1: Search continues for the 13-year-old, who still is considered a runaway.
- Jan. 2: A candlelight vigil for the girl is attended by at least 750 people.
- Jan. 3: Colorado City police announce that the case of Hailey Dunn, previously treated as a runaway, now is being called a missing person case.
- Jan. 4: Media coverage of Hailey's disappearance goes national with Nancy Grace's television program focusing on the Texas case.
- Jan. 5: Billie Jean Dunn and Adkins take polygraph tests, then Adkins is asked by Dunn to leave her home.
- Feb. 24: Authorities announce that nearly 109,000 images of child pornography, bestiality and deviant acts were discovered on numerous electronic devices at the homes of Billie Jean Dunn and Adkins' mother
- March 17: Billie Jean Dunn is arrested in Colorado City and admits to lying to police who came to her house to execute a search warrant on Adkins.
- April 6: Clint Dunn, Hailey's father, is arrested in Colorado City on charges of failing to appear on a possession of marijuana charge and driving with an invalid license. These charges are unrelated to his daughter's disappearance.
Source: Abilene Reporter-News
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