Hailey Dunn Update: Landfill Search Yields Evidence in Case of Missing Texas Girl
LUBBOCK, Texas (CBS/KTAB/AP) Dogs searching a landfill have turned up evidence in the case of Hailey Dunn, the 13-year-old West Texas girl reported missing in late December, a spokesman for the investigation told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Colorado City Manager Pete Kampfer declined to elaborate about what had been found during a recent search of the landfill in Abilene, about 70 miles east of Colorado City, where Hailey Dunn was reported missing.
"It's a sensitive part of the investigation," Kampfer said. "The cadaver dogs did hit on items at the landfill."
He said landfills in Colorado City and nearby Snyder also have been searched.
"We have not given up on the idea she is a runaway or something along those lines of a missing person," Kampfer said. "We don't want to do that. If there's a small chance that she's still out there alive we want to keep up our effort to find her."
Details about the case have been scarce until last week, when a town official named her mother's former live-in boyfriend as one of several people of interest in the case.
Hailey was reported missing Dec. 28 by her mother, Billie Dunn, whose boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, said he last saw Hailey a day earlier when she told him she was going to her father's nearby home and would stay overnight with a friend. She did neither.
Police affidavits released this week offer a few details, but suggest the teen's mother and her live-in boyfriend lied and gave contradictory statements to investigators. Both have strongly denied involvement in Hailey's disappearance and claimed they were misquoted by police.
Officials have said Adkins is among several people of interest, but they declined to offer details about any others. Adkins told AP on Friday that he had nothing to do with the girl's disappearance and said he prays daily for her safe return.
