In the days after Christmas of 2010, thirteen-year-old Hailey Darlene Dunn vanished from the small West Texas town of Colorado City. What began as a frantic missing-child search has since become one of the region’s most haunting cold cases: a disappearance now widely treated by investigators as a homicide.
Hailey was last seen on Monday, December 27th, 2010, in Colorado City in Mitchell County, Texas. According to investigators, she was reported missing the next day, December 28th, after she failed to show up where she was expected and never came home.
Early accounts of her plans that evening quickly became a focal point for investigators: what Hailey told people she was doing, who she was supposed to see, and who actually saw her last. As search efforts expanded, the case drew widespread attention, putting pressure on law enforcement to determine whether this was a runaway scenario, an abduction, or something far worse.
Over time, authorities’ posture shifted from hoping to find a living child to treating the case as a death investigation. The Texas Department of Public Safety later described the case as a cold case involving the slaying of the teen, underscoring that investigators believed Hailey did not simply disappear on her own.
A major obstacle was the lack of a confirmed crime scene. Without a body, and without the kind of forensic starting point that can anchor a timeline, investigators were left to assemble the case from statements, phone records, movements, and contradictions.
More than two years passed with no sign of Hailey. Then, on March 16th, 2013, human remains were discovered near Lake J.B. Thomas in Scurry County, more than twenty miles from Colorado City.
Authorities later confirmed the remains were Hailey’s, following DNA work performed through the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification. Forensic examination suggested she had died from blunt force trauma to the head.
In June 2021, DPS publicly announced that Shawn Adkins, the boyfriend of Hailey’s mother, had been charged with murder in connection with Hailey’s death. Adkins was reportedly the last person to see Hailey alive, and had allegedly threatened both Hailey and her mother. A search of Adkins’ possessions uncovered child pornography.
In January 2022, news reports indicated Adkins was indicted on murder and tampering with evidence charges. But the prosecution hit serious evidentiary hurdles. In June 2023, prosecutors moved to dismiss the case, citing the need for additional investigation and forensic testing. Court reporting on that dismissal noted that, even with charges dropped, prosecutors still described Adkins as their primary suspect.
Despite their suspicions, Hailey Dunn’s disappearance and probable murder remains officially unsolved. The Texas Rangers continue to list the case as an unsolved cold case and still seek public tips.
Crime Immemorial 