DNA Of Four Men Was Found On Her Body
I’m just staying out of the way of law enforcement all this time. I thought I was doing the best thing by not coming down on law enforcement. And I’ve just had too many years of no action. Nothing’s been done. So, I’m tired of waiting. Um, I had my investigator over the case right now at Scurry County.
He told me one time, he said he doesn’t care if it takes 20 years. Let’s do this. And I do care if it takes 20 years. I don’t want the person that hurt my kid that doesn’t need to walk the street for 20 years. December 27th, 2010. Colorado City, Texas. 13-year-old Hailey Dunn wakes up in her mother’s house. At 5:30 in the morning, her mom’s boyfriend Shawn Adkins walks out of the house. He heads to work in Snyder.
By 6:00 in the morning, he arrives there. He buys a drink. Then he turns in his work uniform. And about 10 minutes later, he drives away. He says he had an argument with his boss and um quit the job. But later on, cell tower records would show something very different. At that same time, Hailey is home alone.
Her mom, Billie Jean Dunn, leaves for her 12-hour shift. Before heading out, she stops by her daughter’s room. Hailey is asleep in her bed. Everything looks completely normal. Then, around 2:00 in the afternoon, a short message is sent from the phone that was left at home for the kids. The text goes to one of Hailey’s friends.
What are you doing? Her friend never replies. Later that same day, Hailey’s father, Clint Dunn, is waiting for her at his house across the street. She always came by. Almost every day. Sometimes before school. Sometimes after. And sometimes just to say hi. But on December 27th, she never shows up. Around 3:00 in the afternoon, Shawn Adkins returns to Colorado City.
He says he saw Hailey at about 3:15. According to him, she walked over to her dad’s house. But cell phone data later shows that at that exact time, he was almost 40 miles away from the city. So, like he simply didn’t have enough time to get back home. Hailey’s brother, David, comes home around 4:00 in the afternoon.
The door is locked. He knocks for a long time. No one answers. So, he climbs into the house through a window. And in the hallway, he sees Shawn standing there. David would later say that Shawn looked confused. Like a deer caught in headlights. That evening, Shawn picks Billie up from work. When they get back home, Hailey is already gone.
Shawn tells Billie that Hailey walked to her father’s place and planned to spend the night at a friend’s house. But Clint Dunn says that’s not true. Hailey’s friend also says she never came over. The next day, Hailey’s room looks like she never planned to go anywhere. All of her things are still there. Nothing is missing.
The missing person report isn’t filed until December 28th. At first, police think it might just be a runaway case. But Hailey is only 13 years old. She was a cheerleader. She played the saxophone. She also played volleyball, basketball, and softball. She loved school. And every single day, she would stop by her dad’s house across the street.
When the search begins, the whole town comes out to help. Clint Dunn checks trash dumpsters. He walks the streets. Searches through alleys. But people start noticing something else. Hailey’s mom’s boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, isn’t helping with the search. He doesn’t hand out flyers. He doesn’t join the volunteers.
And he barely talks to investigators. 4 days after the girl disappears, a New Year’s party takes place at the house where Billie and Shawn live. At the very same time, her father is standing on his porch with binoculars trying to spot any sign of his daughter. Little by little, investigators start checking the phones.
Bank activity. Movement history. And with every new detail, Shawn Adkins’ story begins to fall apart. He lied about the job. His phone shows completely different routes. And when detectives ask him where Hailey might be, he gives a short answer. Scurry County. The very same place where, years later, human remains would be discovered.
And when investigators ask him who the police should maybe be looking at, Shawn gives an even shorter answer. Both of us. So, to really understand the details of this story, we need to start from the very beginning. 13-year-old Hailey Dunn was from a small town called Colorado City in Texas. The town has a population of just under 4,000 people.
It’s located in the western part of the state, about 370 km from Dallas. Colorado City is the administrative center of Mitchell County. In the middle of town, you’ll find the main government buildings, a few local stores, and small cafes where people like to gather. Because the population is so small, the atmosphere there is calm and slow-paced.
Not far from the town is Lake Colorado City, a popular place where locals go to relax, fish, or just spend some time outdoors. The region’s economy is mostly connected to energy, agriculture, and small local businesses. Roads link the town with other communities across West Texas. The infrastructure is simple, but it’s enough for everyday life and short trips around the region.
Colorado City is the kind of place people visit when they want to see a small town with that classic West Texas feel. By the way, um I’m curious. From which city are you watching this video right now? And what time is it where you are? I’d really love to know where my audience is from. While you’re typing that in the comments, I’ll keep going.
The neighborhood where Hailey lived was a very tight-knit community. Her father, Clint, described Hailey as a real little rascal, kind of a tomboy in personality, but at the same time, she loved shiny and beautiful things. Her mother, Billie Jean Dunn, said she would always remember Hailey’s laughter, her big smile, and just how cheerful she was.
She was a bright and energetic teenager. Hailey’s friends said she loved joking around and was never afraid to speak her mind. She was a cheerleader. She played the saxophone. And she was also a talented and competitive athlete. She loved school, her friends, and her teachers. By the time Hailey reached the 8th grade, she was already playing on the volleyball, basketball, and softball teams.
Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old. After that, Hailey and her older brother, David, moved in with their mother and her boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, on Chestnut Street in Colorado City. Hailey and her dad, Clint, were especially close. Clint lived literally across the street from them, and Hailey stopped by his house every single day.
Sometimes she would just run over before school to say hi. Other times, she would stay for dinner. She never missed a chance to spend time with him. Hailey’s grandmother, Connie, later said that day the girl was in a really great mood. She was super excited about the gifts she had received that year, especially her brand new iPod.
She spent most of Christmas day and the day after Christmas with her dad. That evening, her brother, David, who was 16 years old, went to a friend’s house to stay overnight. Hailey stayed home and um played video games late into the night. The next morning, December 27th, Shawn left for work at 5:30 in the morning.
About an hour later, Billie Jean also left for work to start her 12-hour shift. Before leaving, she said she looked in on Hailey. The girl was fast asleep in her bed. Everything looked completely normal. Billie said Hailey was supposed to spend the day at home by herself since both she and Shawn were working.
She assumed that once Hailey woke up, she would probably just walk over to her father’s house like she usually did. Billie also left her cell phone at home so the kids could use it if they needed to. Shawn arrived at work in Snyder around 6:00 in the morning. According to him, about 10 minutes after he got there, he had a serious argument with his boss and like quit the job right on the spot.
After that, he drove to his mother’s house in Big Spring and later headed back toward Colorado City arriving a little before 3:00 in the afternoon. Hailey’s father, Clint, was used to seeing his daughter every single day. But on December 27th, Hailey never knocked on his door, and he didn’t hear from her the entire day.
Then, around 2:00 in the afternoon, a text message was sent from the phone that had been left at the house. The message was sent to one of Hailey’s friends. What are you doing? That friend never replied. Later that same evening, Shawn picked Billie up from work. Billie said that when she got home, she realized Hailey wasn’t in the house.
She asked Shawn if he had seen her. He said that Hailey had left the house on foot, walked over to her father’s place, and then supposedly planned to spend the night at her friend Mary Beth’s house. But Clint later confirmed that this simply wasn’t true. then I came home uh around I guess like 3:00 I got there.
And Hailey was there watching TV in the living room. And I went to me and Billie’s bedroom. And she came in there and told me that she was going to her father’s house and that she was staying the night with a friend. And then she left. And then I was there by myself for maybe an hour at the most.
And then David and a friend came over and they went to his room and they were playing video games and so forth. And Billie called me and told me that uh that her relief got there and that she’s going to get to leave a little early, so I was up there at the hospital in uh Snyder around 6:00 to pick her up, and then we came back.
And then we went to bed shortly after that. And this whole time you were thinking Hailey was at a friend’s house? Yes. About what time did she say she was leaving now? Uh what time Hailey was leaving? Mhm. Uh I guess it was sometime in between 3:00 and 3:30 when she said she was leaving. It was like shortly after I got there.
I’m not real sure about the time. Does she normally call and check in every so often, or is it normal to not hear from her for so long? Uh it’s pretty normal for her just uh not call cuz she usually does that though cuz she does stay the night at a friend’s house, she’ll be back the next morning. The next morning came and went, but Hailey still didn’t come home.
Billy decided to call Mary Beth’s parents. They confirmed they hadn’t seen Hailey at all, and she definitely had not spent the night at their house. Nothing was missing from Hailey’s room. In fact, the things someone would normally take if they planned to stay overnight somewhere were all still right where they belonged.
Billy started going door-to-door, asking people if they had seen her daughter, but nobody knew anything. She later said she was scared. Maybe someone had driven by and abducted the girl while she was walking to the store. She also wondered if Hailey might have been in a bad mood that day and just stormed out of the house like slamming the door behind her.
A missing person report was finally filed during the afternoon of December 28th. At first, investigators classified Hailey’s disappearance as a runaway case, but a little later, the case was reclassified as a missing child investigation. That decision would later bring serious criticism toward the police. The community quickly came together to support the family and started actively helping with the search for Hailey.
The media also picked up the story very fast. Clint was absolutely devastated by his daughter’s disappearance. He spent every waking moment searching for her. He checked dumpsters, walked the streets and alleys, and looked anywhere he could possibly imagine. People later said they didn’t see the same level of concern from Billy and Shawn.
When the search began expanding into wider and more remote areas, reporters noted that Billy didn’t want to participate in those searches. Billy herself explained that she was willing to hand out flyers and talk to the media, but she couldn’t search in woods or open fields because it made her think that people were looking for her daughter’s body.
Those searches in the more remote areas were also incredibly difficult for Clint. But Billy’s boyfriend, Shawn, didn’t even hand out flyers, let alone join the searches. He mostly stayed away from both the search efforts and the investigation itself. Many people were questioned during the investigation.
All registered sex offenders in the area were also checked, but each of them was quickly ruled out as a suspect. On Wednesday, December 29th, searches were carried out at the homes of Clint and Billy. And the very next day, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children joined the case. Search dogs were able to pick up Hailey’s scent near her home.
The trail led them to a nearby motel. However, motel staff said they didn’t remember seeing Hailey, and she also didn’t appear on any of the surveillance cameras. All 24 rooms in the building were carefully searched, but no evidence was found that Hailey had ever been there. Billy and Shawn held a New Year’s Eve party on December 31st, just 4 days after Hailey was reported missing.
A lot of people were confused by the timing of that celebration. Billy later said she didn’t even realize it was New Year’s Eve, and that friends and relatives had simply come over to support her. But Clint saw things very differently. He said that he was standing on his porch with binoculars, searching for his daughter, while at the same time watching Billy and Shawn celebrating and partying late into the night.
I just don’t understand how someone can celebrate New Year’s when their daughter is missing. That should be the last thing on your mind when your child is gone. When the New Year arrived, the close-knit community welcomed it with a heavy and somber mood. There was still no sign of Hailey Dunn.
No messages, no confirmed sightings, nothing. The long and exhausting search just kept going. Well, then and Victor, we’re going into day nine in the search for Hailey Dunn, and there’s still no sign of her. When I visited with the Dunn family this morning, I saw Texas Rangers scouring through Hailey’s room. If we take a look over here, this is the window to her bedroom.
Now, Texas Rangers, I’m told, have not found anything and no sign of foul play or any sign of her packing her bags and running away from home at this time. More than a week later, and still no sign of Hailey, her mother says it’s frustrating, but she remains hopeful. And I have to do nothing but hope that she left by herself and that she’s going to come back to me because if I don’t cling onto that hope, I don’t have anything.
Now, local authorities tell me they’re following several tips at this time. Several agencies have stepped in, and the reward once again is $25,000 for tips that lead to Hailey Dunn. On January 4th, 2011, the Texas Rangers and the FBI joined the investigation into Hailey’s disappearance. More than 100 billboards with Hailey’s photo and information about her were put up across Texas and even in other states.
The case gained even more attention after Nancy Grace talked about it on her show and interviewed Billie Jean Dunn. That moment pushed the story to a whole new national level. Hailey’s case was on national television, and Nancy Grace seemed to be a little hard on you. What was that like hearing her question Billy like that? Uh I heard about it.
I wasn’t there when Billy was getting interviewed by her. I was talking to the Texas Rangers, but I heard about it, and it’s frustrating, you know, what she said about me, and but it really doesn’t bother me cuz, you know, my main focus is just Hailey. Cuz we just want her to come home safe. Does it hurt to think people would point fingers at you, the person who cares about her? Yeah, it hurts.
It does. Describe to me the relationship between you and Hailey. Uh it’s it’s real really good relationship, and, you know, I love her with all my heart, and I believe she loves me with all her heart. And we get along just fine. See, is there anything else um you want people to know about you and your relationship with the family at all? Cuz it seems like a lot of people are buzzing on the internet about it.
Yeah, as far as me, Hailey, and Billy and David, you know, we all get along just fine. And I would never do anything to that little girl. I love her with all my heart. And I just wish for her safe return. The next day, on January 5th, Billy asked Shawn to leave the house. That actually wasn’t unusual because the two of them argued pretty often and then usually made up a few days later.
But now, as the investigation started going deeper, new details about Hailey’s home life began to surface. Reporters said that even though her life looked simple and carefree from the outside, behind closed doors it was much more complicated and difficult for a 13-year-old girl and her brother. One journalist later said, “We were getting reports about a lot of alcohol, a lot of parties involving her mother.
So, um it really gave the impression that life at home might have been a little more complicated than what they were trying to show.” Billie Jean Dunn and Shawn Adkins had actually been on the police radar long before Hailey disappeared. About 10 months before Hailey was last seen, police received calls about a domestic dispute between Billy and Shawn.
Both of them had called the police to complain about each other. When officers arrived at the house, the couple was acting aggressive and constantly arguing. I really need to file a report on somebody. What exactly happened? I broke up with this guy a couple of days ago, and then he’s telling me that this guy is going to kill me, and that it’s going to be remembered for a long time.
I got a situation on my hands. I have a ex-girlfriend, she’s taking a whole bunch of anxiety pills without faith. Well, I guess you got them from me, and she says he like took a bunch of her pain pills, too. And she’s saying that uh she wants to die, so she filed a report on me, she knows her address and stuff like that. And she was upset about it, and she’s just, you know, not being herself right now.
Okay. I’m trying to kill her. Damn it. I had Billy Dunn. Oh god. He’s been going all day. All right, I’ll go up there. Not long after that, like it happened many times before, Billy and Shawn made up, and Shawn moved back into the house. Billy herself said that Hailey never really saw Shawn as a stepfather or any kind of parental figure.
According to her, they were more like friends than anything else. But people who were close to Hailey told a very different story. They said the girl actually didn’t like Shawn at all and was afraid of him. She said Hailey used to tell me about the man. What kind of things? She didn’t didn’t like him. She didn’t trust him. She was afraid of him.
I don’t want to be here right now. I’m going to be here with you cuz I don’t feel right with my stepdad. She also told her grandmother, Connie, that many nights she would see Shawn’s shadow near the door of her bedroom. Sometimes it was in the middle of the night, and she was really scared that he might walk into her room while she was sleeping.
Detectives later asked both Billy and Shawn to take polygraph tests, but they both had to take the test again because during the first attempt they were under the influence of drugs. Billy said those were just anxiety medications that had been prescribed by her doctor. Shawn Adkins, meanwhile, walked out of the test at least two times.
During a third attempt, he only completed the first stage. He claimed it felt like a witch hunt and said investigators were trying to force him to confess to something he didn’t do. But, he still gave detectives one answer. When they asked him where he believed Hailey might be, Shawn said, “In Scurry County.
” And when investigators asked him who the police should be paying attention to, who he personally considered a suspect, he simply answered, “Both of us.” The test showed that those two answers were truthful. But, he refused to explain anything further, and then, mhm, walked out again without completing the second stage of the test.
The results of Billie’s second polygraph and the first stage of Shawn’s test showed signs of deception on several questions. Um, I want to thank everyone for coming this afternoon and giving me an opportunity to make a statement. First, I want to speak directly to Hailey in case she’s listening. Um, wherever you are, Hailey, I’m looking for you.
Hundreds of people are looking for you. We all want you home safe. Um, I just want to see and touch your beautiful face. Um, I really love you. I desperately need you home. And, um, there’s not a minute goes by I’m not praying for you or crying wishing you were in my living room. Um, I can’t handle not knowing where you are or if you’re safe.
You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever laid my eyes on, and I’m very proud God chose me to be your mother. Next, I want to say, if someone out there has Hailey, please let her go. Just turn her loose. Drop her off at a church, a school, police station, anywhere that she can get to a phone and call police or call her family.
I’ve been flat-out called a liar by some people. Others speculate on my possible involvement in Hailey’s disappearance, or wonder if I’m covering up for somebody. Some people accuse me of withholding information and not cooperating with law enforcement. These things are not true, but I now feel that I have to defend myself from ridiculous accusations, slander, or defamation of character.
Over the next few months, memorial gatherings and search efforts continued in Colorado City. But, volunteers often had to pause the searches for several weeks because of extremely cold weather and freezing temperatures. After that, the Colorado City Police Department held a press conference. They announced that the investigation was now being treated as if Hailey might have been taken against her will, or possibly killed.
Early in the investigation, detectives analyzed the cell phone records and bank activity of Shawn Adkins and Billie Jean Dunn. They also looked into Shawn’s previous workplace. And that’s when something important came up. It turned out that Shawn had not actually been fired from his job. His supervisor told investigators that on December 27th at 6:00 in the morning, Shawn arrived at work, bought a drink, turned in his uniform, and immediately quit.
By 6:10, he had already left. Later, Shawn admitted that he lied about being fired because he didn’t want to get into an argument with Billie Jean. Shawn told detectives that after leaving Snyder, he drove straight to his mother’s house in Big Spring to use her computer and apply for unemployment benefits. But, cell phone records showed that this story simply didn’t add up.
Between 6:35 and 6:56 in the morning, Shawn’s phone connected to a cell tower in Colorado City, which is almost 50 miles away from Big Spring. The data did show that he was in Big Spring, but only between 9:38 in the morning and 2:40 in the afternoon. Additional cell tower signals also showed that Shawn was in the area of Scurry County that same day.
Shawn told police that after visiting his mother’s house, he returned to Colorado City around 3:00 in the afternoon, and last saw Hailey at about 3:15, right before she supposedly walked to her father’s house. But, other cell phone data confirmed that Shawn was still in Big Spring at 2:40 in the afternoon.
That meant he would have had only about 20 minutes to travel 40 miles, which is basically impossible. Hailey’s brother, David, later said that when he came home on December 27th around 4:00 in the afternoon, he found the door locked. After knocking for a long time and trying to get inside, he eventually climbed into the house through a window.
David saw Shawn standing in the hallway looking confused, like a deer caught in headlights. In an official statement, Hailey’s uncle later mentioned a conversation he had with Shawn after the girl disappeared. The uncle said he couldn’t believe that someone would actually want to hurt a child. And Shawn responded, “It’s like killing a deer.
” Bank records later showed that after Shawn picked Billie up from work at around 6:00 in the evening, the two of them stopped at two different ATMs. There, Billie withdrew a total of $140. At first, Billie told police the money was for groceries and gas. But later, investigators discovered that the couple actually used that money to buy drugs.
Because there were suspicions that Billie and Shawn might have been using drugs inside the house where the children were living, detectives decided to take a much closer look at the home. During the search, investigators found something unusual. Billie and Shawn had printed out hundreds of articles from the internet.
All of those materials were about serial killers, sexual sadism, and murders involving family members. Billie later said that this was just their personal interest, and that, um, a lot of people are fascinated by true crime. On January 12th, 2011, it became known that Shawn was officially being considered a person of interest in the case.
He denied having anything to do with Hailey’s disappearance. After that, David was removed from the home by Child Protective Services. Then, on February 24th, authorities made a shocking discovery. On a USB flash drive found in Billie’s house, and also on a computer at Shawn’s mother’s home, investigators discovered more than 100,000 images of child pornography.
A laptop that had been stored at the police station was also taken into evidence. Hailey’s father, Clint, later said that Shawn’s stepfather came to the police station demanding that Shawn’s laptop be returned. And, like, unbelievably, it actually was returned to him. Despite these discoveries, no arrests were made.
However, the materials were sent to a grand jury for review. Sheriff Tom later said, “In each of these situations, there was more than one person living in the house. So, um, we have to determine and confirm exactly who is responsible.” On March 17th, 2011, law enforcement officers went to the house where Billie and Shawn were living to speak with Shawn.
Billie told them he wasn’t there. But, when officers entered the house with a warrant, they discovered that he was actually hiding inside. After that, Billie was arrested and charged with lying to the police. In June of 2011, Billie Jean Dunn received a suspended sentence, 90 days in jail with the sentence postponed, along with 1 year of probation for giving false information about Shawn’s location.
Billie served her probation more than 250 miles away in Travis County, where she had moved together with Shawn. Eventually, the couple separated in 2012 and went their own ways. Billie Jean later said that over time she began to believe Shawn might actually be involved in her daughter’s disappearance, especially after it became known that not only local police, but also the FBI considered him a person of interest in the case.
As time went on, the searches for Hailey slowly began to fade. After each memorial gathering, new tips and theories would come in, but sooner or later the investigation would hit another dead end. Another year passed, and there was still no progress in Hailey’s case. But on March 16th, 2013, a hiker discovered human remains about 20 miles from Colorado City near Lake J.B.
Thomas in Scurry County. 2013, local authorities were notified of human remains located near Lake J.B. Thomas in Southwest Scurry County. The remains were sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification for DNA analysis. On April 26th, 2013, the Scurry County District Attorney’s Office received written confirmation that the remains have been positively identified as tho- as those of Hailey Dunn.
Authorities never officially confirmed the exact cause of death. However, Clint later said that investigators told him the most likely cause was blunt force trauma to the head. A reward of $15,000 was announced for any information that would directly lead to the arrest of the person or people responsible for Hailey Dunn’s murder.
Sadly, the family had to wait a painful 4 years before they were finally able to bury Hailey in January 2017. Texas mother desperate to find her daughter’s killer is speaking out. It was 6 years ago when 13-year-old Hailey Dunn went missing after leaving her father’s home in Colorado City, that’s west of Abilene.
Her remains were found 3 years later, but her killer remains at large. Her mother, who is from Austin, says she has hope justice will be served. I still want to believe every time they tell me that there’s going to be an arrest soon, I keep that faith. In 2018, Clint Dunn told reporters that he believed either Shawn attacked his daughter himself, or his ex-wife, Billie Jean Dunn, did it while Shawn helped.
“They’re both involved,” he said. At this point, that’s not even up for debate. Clint stayed in constant contact with the police, again and again trying to get answers. He called, sent messages, and asked investigators not to stop working on his daughter’s case. For him, this wasn’t just some old file sitting in an archive.
This was the story of his child, and it deserved justice. With every call, he kept asking law enforcement to make an arrest and hold whoever was responsible accountable. His determination never faded even after years of waiting. But despite all those efforts, investigators still didn’t have enough evidence. And um that lack of solid proof remained the main obstacle, preventing them from moving forward with an arrest and formal charges.
I’m just staying out of the way of law enforcement all this time. I thought I was doing the best thing by and not coming down on law enforcement. And I’ve just It’s been too many years of no action. Nothing’s been done. So, I’m tired of waiting. Um I had my the investigator over the case right now at Scurry County, he told me one time he said he doesn’t care if it takes 20 years to do this.
And I do care if it takes 20 years. I don’t want the person that hurt my kid doesn’t need to walk the street for 20 years. You think that person is still out there somewhere? Yeah. I think he’s here in this town. Big Spring, Texas. You think he’s in Big Spring? Mhm. I know he was 2 months ago. You have somebody in mind? Shawn Atkins.
Shawn You think it’s Shawn Atkins, the only named suspect? Yeah. And I think that Billie Jean knows something. She said too many lies. She’s avoided too much. And she knows more than what she said. For years, Clint Dunn kept posting on social media about his daughter’s case, refusing to let it be forgotten.
He wrote about Hailey again and again, reminding people of her story and asking for help. Eventually, those posts caught the attention of an anonymous person. According to reports, that person remembered finding several items back in late spring or early summer of 2011. Later, it turned out those items had belonged to Hailey Dunn.
At the time, that person was just a regular high school student. They didn’t know anything about Hailey, had never heard about her disappearance, and didn’t connect the items to any tragedy. To them, it simply looked like a random find that didn’t seem important. Because of that, they never contacted the authorities or reported the items to the police.
At that moment, they had no reason to believe those things could be connected to a serious crime. Years went by. Then, in 2019, that person happened to see one of Clint’s posts online about Hailey. And um that’s when the memory of that old discovery suddenly came back. Only at that moment did they realize that what once seemed like something small might actually matter to the investigation.
After that, the person reached out to Clint and told him about what they had found many years earlier. Exactly what those items were and where they were discovered has never been publicly revealed. Those details remain confidential. However, Clint later said the items had been found in an area that investigators had searched countless times during the early stages of the case.
That made the information even more disturbing and, honestly, more mysterious. A private investigator named Erica Morse has been working closely with Clint ever since the day his daughter disappeared. Over the years, she became one of the people who refused to let the case fade away. Erica said that during that time, she managed to uncover certain pieces of evidence and had conversations with officials connected to the investigation.
According to her, after Hailey’s remains were found, authorities mostly stayed silent. She claimed that law enforcement stopped returning her calls and wouldn’t say whether there had been any progress in the case. Information was extremely limited, which only made the uncertainty feel even heavier.
Then, in October of 2019, Erica said she started receiving messages from women in West Texas and nearby areas. These women claimed they had been harassed online by a man who introduced himself as Casey. Erica knew that Casey was actually the middle name of Shawn Atkins, so like that immediately caught her attention.
She asked the women to send her the videos and photos the man had been sending them online. After reviewing the material, it became clear that the person in those images really was Shawn. On October 28th, 2019, Erica accompanied one of the women he had allegedly been harassing to a police station. They went there to file an official report, but the officer who took the complaint refused to accept the report.
Even worse, he accused the woman of making the story up. That decision caused serious outrage. After that, Erica wrote an open letter. In it, she warned that if Shawn wasn’t arrested soon, there would almost certainly be more victims. Her words sounded like a warning, but at the time, they didn’t lead to any immediate action.
More time passed. For another 2 years, the case showed no real movement. And then, finally, in 2021, the investigation took a serious turn. In May of 2021, Erica finally received a response from the district attorney of Mitchell County. She and Clint were invited to a private meeting. Erica later said that during that meeting, they were told We were assured that sometime in June, Hailey’s killer would be arrested.
And then, more than 10 years after Hailey Dunn was first reported missing, the case finally took an important step forward. Over those years, there’d been so much painful waiting, so much uncertainty, and so many questions that seemed to have no answers. By that point, it had also been 7 years since her remains were found, a heartbreaking confirmation that any hope for a different outcome was gone.
But even after that, justice still remained out of reach for a long time. And only now, after all those years, after a long investigation and new developments in the case, an arrest finally happened. Reaction from Colorado City tonight is emotional and also getting straight to the point.
Shawn Atkins is sitting in the Mitchell County Jail tonight charged for the murder of 13-year-old Hailey Dunn. She first went missing over 10 years ago. You [snorts] know, this community, they have spent more than a decade searching, searching for a young girl, searching for answers, searching really for justice. We are a step closer to that tonight.
The arrest of Shawn Atkins is what the community of Colorado City has been waiting on for a long time. District Attorney Ricky Thompson decided to reach out for help from the Texas Rangers Cold Case Unit. That’s a special division that works on investigations that have remained unsolved for many years.
And Hailey Dunn’s disappearance and death had sadly become one of those cases. After reviewing the case and consulting with investigators, the Texas Rangers continued working through the evidence. As part of that process, they went to court to request a warrant to collect a DNA sample from Shawn. That step became a major development in a case that had gone so long without clear answers.
On June 13th, 2021, the warrant was officially issued. And that same day, Shawn Casey Atkins was arrested. He was formally charged with the murder of Hailey Dunn. That moment became a turning point in the case, which had been a painful wound for the family and the community for years. The news of the arrest spread quickly and brought strong emotions from people who had been following the story from the very beginning.
Billie Dunn said, I can’t say I’m really surprised by this news that it was Shawn. Of course, I wish I could believe it wasn’t him because um I stayed with him after she disappeared, after Hailey went missing. But I’m not surprised. And I thank God that this person has been arrested and that he’ll answer for what he did here on this earth.
At the moment, Shawn Atkins is being held on a bond set at $2 million. That’s the amount the court determined, and it remains one of the key conditions for his detention while the case continues to move through the legal process. The decision reflects just how serious the charges against him are. As of July 2021, the case was still in the early stages of court proceedings.
Despite the intense public attention and the high-profile nature of the case, Shawn Atkins had not yet entered a plea neither guilty nor not guilty to the charges filed against him. So, um his official position had not yet been stated, and the case continued moving through what can be a long and complicated legal process that will ultimately determine his fate.
After Shawn was arrested, private investigator Erica Morse publicly spoke about the role Hailey’s father, Clint, played in the case. According to her, he was the driving force that kept the investigation from fading away. Throughout all those years, Clint never stopped looking for answers. He kept reminding people about his daughter’s case, pushing for the investigation to continue, and insisting that the truth eventually had to come out.
Erica Morse said that his determination and persistence helped keep attention on the story even when the years slowly pushed it out of the headlines. She added that Clint became an example for parents everywhere who are fighting for justice for their children. An example of how a parent’s love and dedication can turn into the kind of force that keeps an investigation moving forward.
Clint said, “Right now, there just aren’t words to describe how I feel. We’re going to let the evidence and the truth speak for themselves. Thank you to everyone who searched for Hailey and to those who fought tirelessly to see an arrest made. I just hope that real justice will finally be served in the courtroom.
This case still remains open and continues to move through the courts. The investigation and legal proceedings are ongoing, and there are still many important decisions ahead.” For Hailey Dunn’s family, it has been a long and exhausting journey filled with waiting, pain, and uncertainty. But even after all these years, they haven’t lost hope.
Her loved ones believe that one day the truth will finally be spoken in a courtroom, and the people responsible will face the consequences they deserve. The family hopes that someday this story will end with a fair and just verdict. And that Hailey Dunn’s name will finally receive what it deserves, justice.
