Human Remains Found, Raising Questions Of Hailey Dunn Disappearance

Human remains have been discovered near the Big Spring airport that has raised questions concerning the disappearance 15 months ago of Colorado City teenager Hailey Dunn.

Authorities have not confirmed whether the remains are of Hailey Dunn ? despite inaccurate headlines reported Wednesday morning that implied the remains have been identified. The FBI is expected to begin examining the remains Wednesday.

Big Spring police on Tuesday confirmed that the remains were found by workers in a pasture near the 2500 block of Apron Drive about two blocks east of the McMahon-Wrinkle Airport.

Investigators believe the remains had been there for a long period of time before being discovered. They cannot tell at this time if the human remains are male or female.

The question arises: Could these be the remains of Hailey Dunn? The now 14-year-old Colorado City girl has been missing since December 2010 when she was 13.

Mitchell County Sheriff Patrick Toombs told KTXS that he was contacted by Big Spring police and summoned to the site, but authorities cannot say whether there is a connection to Hailey Dunn's disappearance.

Big Spring police said FBI agents from Dallas are expected to arrive Wednesday morning to process the scene, and it may take a week or more to identify the remains.

Hailey Dunn, then an eighth-grader at Colorado Middle School in Colorado City, has been missing since Dec. 27, 2010. Her disappearance sparked a massive search by law enforcement and by hundreds of volunteers searching through rugged areas in Mitchell and Scurry counties and surrounding areas.

She has never been found, and there have been no arrests in connection to her disappearance.

The last person who claimed to see her alive is also the only named suspect in the case: Shawn Adkins. Adkins was the live-in boyfriend of Hailey's mother, Billie Jean Dunn, and lived in the same house with Hailey.

Adkins left his job the morning that Hailey disappeared, and Adkins' story about where he went that morning has raised questions among law enforcement, but he admitted to authorities that he traveled to his mother's house in Big Spring on that day.

Billie Jean Dunn admitted that both she and Adkins have failed lie detector tests during the initial stages of the investigation in January 2011.

About five months after Hailey's disappearance, the couple moved to the Austin area.

Authorities have said they don't have enough evidence to arrest anyone in connection with the case.

KTXS is continuing to investigate this story and will bring you the latest as more information becomes available.

Archived KTXS News stories about the disappearance: Hailey Dunn stories