HAWKINS: Taking Hailey Dunn's steps a year after her disappearance
It has been a year since 13-year-old Hailey Dunn went missing from Colorado City and Tuesday the dedicated volunteers who have been diligently searching for her did something a little different to commemorate the anniversary of her disappearance.
They walked what is believed to be the same path she walked before she vanished.
Hailey Darlene Dunn, the sparkly-eyed cheerleader who should have been enjoying her ninth-grade year at Colorado High School, was last seen walking the blocks around her home on Chestnut Street. The last reported sighting of the teen was at 3:15 p.m. by Shawn Adkins, boyfriend of Hailey’s mother Billie Jean. Adkins is the sole person of interest identified by police.
Hailey was to have walked to a friend’s house to spend the night Dec. 27, 2010, but she never arrived. The next day, her mother reported her daughter missing. For about the first week, law enforcement assumed Hailey was a runaway, and evidence wasn’t collected during the critical first 48 hours.
So Tuesday, a handful of searchers led by Kristy Lloyd, met at her former home on Chestnut and walked the trail established by the search dogs early last year.
“We wanted to do something a little bit more personal to help all the searchers cope with the fact that she has been gone for so long,” Lloyd told me Wednesday.
Throughout their walk, the searchers sprinkled yellow rose petals. There were 13 roses to mark her age when she disappeared, and they dropped petals from 12 of the roses to mark the 12 months that have passed since she vanished.
“We dropped them along the path that she last took,” Lloyd explained.
They left a candle on the front porch along with the 13th rose.
“It was really hard walking that path knowing that was the last time she was ever seen,” Lloyd said. “It was very emotional for all of us.”
After all of the searches, in area landfills and throughout the rural areas in Mitchell, Scurry and Howard counties, very little if any physical evidence has been discovered.
Mitchell County Sheriff Patrick Toombs said the case is largely circumstantial at this point and when all of the forensic computer evidence is retrieved, the district attorneys may begin to build their cases.
But investigators are combing through a mountain of circumstantial evidence which includes computers confiscated from Atkins’ mother’s house in Big Spring, his grandmother’s house in the community of Dunn in Scurry County and a memory stick from Billie Jean’s bedroom drawer in Colorado City.
Toombs said the task for forensic computer experts is to determine whether the pornographic items found on the computers was spam or whether someone intentionally accessed it. The next question they must answer is who was accessing the child porn sites.
Investigators continue to follow up on leads. During the past year, sightings have been reported in other states and even in Mexico City, Toombs said.
“But so far nothing has turned up,” Toombs said.
While the billboards, banners and fliers fade, those searching for Hailey say they will not give up.
A week ago, a vigil was held in the small park across the street from her former home, and Billie Dunn and Adkins traveled from their new home in Travis County to attend. The pain was evident in Billie Dunn’s face, in pictures published in the Colorado City Record.
A somber crowd hung Christmas ornaments on a lighted tree and Billie Dunn placed an angel on top of the tree.
“This month has been hard,” Dunn told the Record. “This is the first Thanksgiving and Christmas without Hailey.” She described the past year as “a nightmare.”
“I hurt for her, for my son and for myself, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” Dunn told the newspaper.
Lloyd said it was good that Billie Dunn attended the vigil, but wondered about Adkins’ motives for attending.
“I have pretty mixed feelings — we’re glad her mother is coming and being attentive,” Lloyd said. “(But) it is hard knowing the only person of interest is showing up. It makes us wonder: is he the one who did this?”
Toombs said he and investigators from the Colorado City Police Department hope to have some closure in 2012.
“There is not a week that goes by that her name doesn’t come up,” Toombs said. “Yes we would love to find her alive – that would be the greatest thing.
“Unfortunately I don’t believe she is alive,” Toombs said. “But I hope I’m wrong.”
