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 has been done. So, I’m tired of waiting. Um I had my investigator over the case right now in Coke 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 that doesn’t need to walk the street for 20 years. 13-year-old Hailey Dunn was from the small town of Colorado City, a place with fewer than 4,000 people where everyone seemed to know each other.
Her father, Clint Dunn, described her as a bit of a tomboy who still loved anything shiny and pretty. Her mother, Billie Jean Dunn, said she’ll always remember her laugh, that wide smile, and the way she could make people laugh without even trying. She was bright, energetic, full of life. Friends said Hailey loved to joke around and was never afraid to speak her mind.
She was a cheerleader, played the saxophone, and was a competitive, talented athlete. She loved school, her friends, her teachers, all of it. By 8th grade, she was already playing volleyball, basketball, and softball. When she was 10 years old, her parents separated. Hailey and her older brother, David Dunn, moved in with their mother and her boyfriend, Shawn Atkins, on Chestnut Street.
Even after that, Hailey stayed especially close to her dad. He lived just across the street and she would stop by every single day, sometimes just to say hi before school, sometimes to stay for dinner. She never missed a chance to spend time with him. On Christmas Day in 2010, Hailey’s grandmother, Connie Dunn, said she was in a great mood.
She was excited about her gifts, especially her new iPod, and spent most of Christmas and the following day with her dad. The evening after Christmas, her 16-year-old brother, David went to a friend’s house for a sleepover. Hailey stayed home playing video games late into the night. The next morning, December 27th, Shawn left for work at 5:30.
About an hour later, Billie Jean also left for her 12-hour shift. She said she checked on Hailey before leaving. She was asleep in her bed. Everything seemed normal. Billie assumed Hailey would stay home for the day since both she and Shawn were working. She figured that once Hailey woke up, she’d just walk over to her dad’s place like she usually did.
Billie also left her phone at home so the kids could use it if they needed. Shawn arrived at work in Snyder around 6:00 that morning. According to him, about 10 minutes after getting there, he got into a serious argument with his boss and quit on the spot. After that, he drove to his mother’s place in Big Spring, then returned to Colorado City just before 3:00 in the afternoon.
Hailey’s father, Clint, was used to seeing his daughter every day. But on December 27th, she never came by. He didn’t hear from her at all. Around 2:00 that afternoon, a message was sent from the phone left at home to one of Hailey’s friends, “Wide, what you doing?” The friend never replied. Later that evening, Shawn picked Billie up from work.
When she got home, she immediately realized something was wrong. Hailey wasn’t there. She asked Shawn if he had seen her. He told her that Hailey had walked to her dad’s house and then planned to spend the night at her friend, Mary Beth’s. But Clint confirmed one thing right away, that wasn’t true. All right, real quick, I’ll take just a minute.
I’m really curious where you’re watching from. So, let me know your city and what time it is for you right now. Thanks for being here, drop it in the comments and I’ll keep going. That was my day and 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 the 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 was 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 at? 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 to 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 Dunn still hadn’t come home.
Billie Jean Dunn decided to call the parents of Hailey’s friend, Mary Beth. They confirmed right away they hadn’t seen Hailey at all. She definitely hadn’t stayed the night there. Nothing was missing from Hailey’s room. The things she would have taken if she planned to stay over somewhere were all still there.
Billie started going door-to-door asking neighbors if they had seen her daughter. No one had. She later said she was afraid maybe someone had driven by and taken Hailey while she was walking to the store. She even considered that Hailey might have been upset about something and just ran out of the house.
The missing person report was filed in the afternoon of December 28th. At first, investigators classified her disappearance as a runaway case, but not long after it was reclassified as a missing child. That initial decision would later bring heavy criticism. The community quickly came together around the family and began searching for Hailey.
The media picked up the story just as fast. Clint Dunn was devastated. He spent nearly every waking moment searching, checking dumpsters, walking the streets, alleyways, anywhere he could think of. But people started to notice something. They didn’t see that same level of urgency from Billie and Shawn Atkins.
As search efforts expanded into large, open areas, reporters noted that Billie didn’t want to take part in those searches. She later explained that while she was willing to hand out flyers and speak to the media, she couldn’t bring herself to search in fields or wooded areas because it made her feel like they were looking for her daughter’s body.
For Clint, those kinds of searches were just as painful, but Shawn didn’t even help pass out flyers, let alone join the searches. He stayed distant from the investigation. Investigators questioned many people including registered sex offenders in the area, but they were all quickly ruled out.
On Wednesday, December 29th, both Clint’s and Billie’s homes were searched. 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 in the area leading them to a nearby motel, but staff didn’t remember seeing her and she didn’t appear on any surveillance footage.
A full search of all 24 rooms turned up nothing. Then came something that raised even more questions. On December 31st, just 4 days after Hailey was reported missing, Billie and Shawn hosted a New Year’s Eve party. A lot of people were shocked by the timing. Billie later said she didn’t even realize it was New Year’s Eve and that friends and family had simply come over to support her.
But Clint saw it differently. He said he was standing on his porch with binoculars searching for his daughter while across the way, Billie and Shawn were partying late into the night. “I don’t understand how you can celebrate New Year’s when your daughter is missing,” he said. “That should be the last thing on your mind.
” When the new year arrived, the close-knit community stepped into it with a heavy, subdued mood. There was still no word on Hailey Dunn, no sign, no answers. The long, exhausting search continued. Well, Lena 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 Federal Bureau of Investigation joined the investigation. More than 100 billboards went up across Texas and beyond featuring Hailey Dunn’s photo and information. The case gained even more attention when Nancy Grace covered it and interviewed Billie Jean Dunn.
That’s when the story went national. 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 Billie like that? Uh I heard about it. [clears throat] I wasn’t there when Billie 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 this 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. Mhm. Describe to me the relationship between you and Hailey. Uh it’s really 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 nothing to that little girl.
I love her with all my heart and I just wish for her safe return. The very next day, January 5th, Billy Jean Dunn asked Shawn Adkins to leave the house. That by itself wasn’t unusual. They argued often and usually made up a few days later. But, as the investigation went deeper, new details about Hailey’s home life began to surface.
Reporters noted that while things may have looked simple, even normal on the outside, behind closed doors, it was much more complicated. And much harder for a 13-year-old girl and her brother. One reporter said, “We learned there was a lot of alcohol and partying going on at their home from the mother’s side and it gives the impression that their home life was more difficult than they were trying to make it seem.
” Billy Jean Dunn and Shawn Adkins had already been on police radar long before Hailey Dunn disappeared. About 10 months before she was last seen, officers had responded to calls about domestic disputes between them. They had both called the police accusing each other. And when officers arrived, the situation was tense, the two of them arguing, aggressive, and out of control.
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 still in me that he’s 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 me a whole bunch of anxiety pills without faith.
Well, I guess she got them from me and she says she like took a bunch of her pain pills, too. And she’s saying that she wants to die, so she filed a report on me, she knows her address and stuff like that. So, she’s upset about it, she’s just, you know, not being herself right now. That name there, killer. Damn it. That’s Billy Dunn. Oh god.
He’s been going all day. All right, I’ll go up there. Not long after that, just like it had happened before, Billy Jean Dunn and Shawn Adkins made up and Shawn moved back into the house. Things that Hailey used to tell me about the man. What kind of things? She She 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 told her grandmother, Connie Dunn, that at night she would often see Shawn’s shadow near her bedroom door and she was terrified he might come in while she was asleep. Detectives later asked Billy Jean Dunn and Shawn Adkins to take polygraph tests.
Both had to be retested because during the first attempt, they were under the influence of substances. Billy said they were just prescribed medications meant to calm her down. Shawn walked out of the test at least twice. On the third attempt, he only completed the first phase. He claimed the whole process had turned into a witch hunt and that investigators were trying to force a confession out of him for something he didn’t do.
But, he did say something that stood out. When asked where he believed Hailey Dunn might be, Shawn answered, “In Scurry County.” When asked who police should consider as suspects, he replied, “Both of us.” The results showed those two answers were truthful, but he refused to explain further and once again walked out, never completing the second phase of the test.
The results from Billy’s second polygraph and Shawn’s first phase showed signs of deception in several of their answers. 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 that 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.
In the months that followed, search efforts and memorial gatherings continued in Colorado City, but volunteers were often forced to pause for weeks at a time because of severe freezing weather. Eventually, local police held a press conference. They announced that the case was now being investigated under the assumption that Hailey Dunn may have been held against her will or was already dead.
Early in the investigation, detectives reviewed phone and bank records belonging to Shawn Adkins and Billy Jean Dunn. They also looked into Shawn’s previous workplace. What they found didn’t match his story. Shawn hadn’t been fired. His supervisor told investigators that on December 27th at 6:00 in the morning, Shawn came into work, bought a drink, turned in his uniform, and quit.
By 6:10, he was gone. Later, Shawn admitted he had lied about being fired, claiming he didn’t want to argue with Billy. He 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, phone records told a different story.
Between 6:35 and 6:56 that morning, his phone was pinging in Colorado City, nearly 50 miles away from Big Spring. The data did confirm he was in Big Spring, but only between 9:38 in the morning and 2:40 in the afternoon. Additional cell tower data showed that later that day, Shawn was in the Scurry County area.
Shawn told police that after visiting his mother, he returned to Colorado City around 3:00 in the afternoon and claimed he saw Hailey at 3:15 just before she walked to her father’s house. But, more phone data contradicted that timeline. At 2:40, Shawn was still in Big Spring, leaving him only about 20 minutes to travel 40 miles.
Hailey’s brother, David Dunn, later said that when he came home around 4:00 that afternoon, the door was locked. After trying to get in, he eventually climbed through a window. Inside, he saw Shawn standing in the hallway looking stunned like a deer caught in headlights. In an official statement, Hailey’s uncle recalled a conversation he had with Shawn after she disappeared.
He told him he couldn’t understand how anyone could harm a child. Shawn’s response was chilling. “It’s like killing a deer.” Bank records showed that after Shawn picked Billy up from work around 6:00 that evening, the two stopped at two ATMs where Billy withdrew a total of $140. At first, she told police the money was for groceries and gas.
But, investigators later determined it had actually been spent on drugs. Concerned that drugs may have been used inside the home while children were present, detectives decided to take a closer look at the house. During the search, they found that Billy and Shawn had printed out hundreds of articles from the internet all focused on serial killers, sexual sadism, and family murders.
Billy claimed it was just an interest, saying that many people are fascinated by true crime. By 2011, Shawn had officially been named a person of interest in the case. He denied any involvement. Not long after, David was removed from the home by Child Protective Services. Then, on February 24th, investigators made a shocking discovery.
More than 100,000 images of child pornography were found on a flash drive inside Billy’s home and on a computer at Shawn’s mother’s house. A laptop that had been stored at the police department was also seized. Hailey’s father, Clint Dunn, later said that Shawn’s stepfather had gone to the police station demanding the return of Shawn’s laptop and it was actually given back.
Despite those findings, no arrests were made at the time. The evidence was forwarded to a grand jury. Sheriff Toom later said, “In each of these cases, there was more than one person living in the home. So, we have to determine exactly who is responsible. On March 17th, 2011, law enforcement returned to the house to speak with Shawn.
Billy told them he wasn’t there. But, when officers entered with a warrant, they found him hiding inside. After that, Billy was arrested and charged with providing false information to police. In June 2011, Billie Jean Dunn received a suspended 90-day jail sentence and 1 year of probation for lying about Shawn’s whereabouts.
She served her probation more than 250 miles away, in Travis County, where she had moved with Shawn. By 2012, the couple had finally separated. Billy later said she had begun to suspect Shawn’s involvement in her daughter’s disappearance, especially after learning that not only local police, but also the Federal Bureau of Investigation, considered him a person of interest.
As time went on, the search for Hailey began to fade. After each memorial gathering, new tips would come in, but the case would always stall again. Another year passed with no progress. Then, on March 16th, 2013, a hiker made a discovery. Human remains were found 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 as those of Hailey Dunn.
The official cause of death was never publicly released, but Clint Dunn said investigators believed Hailey Dunn likely died from blunt force trauma. A $15,000 reward was offered for any information that would directly lead to the arrest of the person or people responsible for her death. But, for Hailey’s family, the waiting wasn’t over.
They had to endure four more painful years before they were finally able to lay her to rest. That moment came in January of 2017. A 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 tell me that there’s going to be an arrest soon, I In 2018, Clint Dunn told the media he believed his daughter had been attacked either by Shawn Adkins or by his ex-wife, Billie Jean Dunn, with Shawn helping.
“They’re both involved,” he said. “There’s no question about it.” Clint stayed in constant contact with police, begging them to make an arrest in his daughter’s case. But, investigators still didn’t have enough evidence. I’m just I’ve been 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 has 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 to 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 Adkins. Shawn You think it’s Shawn Adkins, the only named suspect? Yep. 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. Numerous posts from Clint Dunn on social media eventually caught the attention of an anonymous person. Someone who claimed they had found several items belonging to Hailey Dunn back in late spring or early summer of 2000 11.
At the time, that person was still in middle school. They had never heard of Hailey and knew nothing about her disappearance. So, they never reported what they found. Years later, in 2019, they came across one of Clint’s posts online. That’s when it clicked. They remembered the items and reached out to him. What exactly was found and where has never been made public, but Clint said those items were discovered in an area that had already been searched multiple times early in the investigation.
Private investigator Erica Morse had been working alongside Clint since the day his daughter disappeared. She said she had uncovered evidence and spoken with officials, but after Hailey’s remains were found, communication stopped. Calls weren’t returned. Updates never came. Then, in October of 2019, Erica started receiving messages from women in West Texas.
They said they were being harassed online by a man named Casey. Knowing that Casey was a known alias used by Shawn Adkins, Erica asked the women to send over the photos and videos he had shared. It confirmed her suspicion. It was him. On October 28th, 2019, Erica accompanied one of the women to the police station to file a report.
But, the officer refused to take it, accusing the woman of making the story up. That moment pushed Erica to take things further. She wrote an open letter warning that if Shawn wasn’t arrested soon, there would be more victims. Two more years passed. And then, in 2021, the case finally took a major turn. In May of that year, Erica received a response from the Mitchell County Prosecutor’s Office.
She and Clint were invited to a meeting. Erica later said, “During that meeting, we were told that by June, Hailey’s killer would be arrested.” And then, more than 10 years after Hailey Dunn disappeared, and 7 years after her remains were found, an arrest was finally made. Reaction from Colorado City tonight is emotional and also getting straight to the point.
Shawn Adkins 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 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 Adkins is what the community of Colorado City has been waiting on for a long time. Prosecutor Ricky Thompson consulted with the Texas Rangers Cold Case Unit on the investigation. The Texas Rangers obtained a search warrant to collect a DNA sample from Shawn Adkins. On June 13th, 2021, the warrant was issued.
Shawn Casey Adkins was arrested and charged with the murder of Hailey Dunn. Billie Jean Dunn said, “I can’t say I’m shocked that it was Shawn. Of course, I would have hoped it wasn’t him, especially since I stayed with him after Hailey went missing, but I’m not surprised. And I thank God that this person has been apprehended and will answer for what he’s done here on Earth.
” At this point, Shawn Adkins was being held on a $2 million bond, and as of July 2021, he had not entered a guilty plea. The KCBD Investigates team, the Mitchell County District Attorney’s Office, has released a single page from Shawn Adkins’ arrest warrant. He is the man police hold responsible for killing Hailey Dunn in Colorado City.
Big Spring police arrested him last month, but we don’t know why. When KCBD requested the arrest warrant, we were sent to Mitchell County, and the DA there refused, citing Texas law, claiming it blocked us from access to this public record since it involves the So, now, while we’re waiting on the Attorney General to rule on this decision, in the meantime, it has been 10 days since our request for the entire arrest warrant and affidavit, we have only this part of the warrant so far, ordering any law enforcement agent to
arrest Shawn Adkins for the charge of murder out of Colorado City. But, that does not shed any light on what led Mitchell County to that conclusion. So, our Investigates team will keep pursuing your right to know about what police say led to the death of Hailey Dunn. After Shawn’s arrest, private investigator Erica Morse called Clint Dunn the driving force behind the case, saying he set an example for every parent fighting for justice for their child.
Clint said, “There are no words right now to describe how I feel. We will let the child speak the truth. Thank you to everyone who searched for Hailey and to those who fought tirelessly for an arrest. I hope true justice will be served in the courtroom. The case is still ongoing, but the family hopes that this means justice for Hailey Dunn will finally be achieved.”
