COLORADO CITY, Texas — There are signs of anguish all across this West Texas town: Orange ribbons are tied around trees, stop signs and car antennas.
Posters and fliers with photos of missing 13-year-old Hailey Darlene Dunn are plastered on store doors and public offices. In front of her school, a sign reads: “Have hope.”
Since late December, law enforcement officers and dozens of volunteers have been searching for the teen. Police have said they are not sure whether the middle school cheerleader ran away or was abducted. Details about the case have been scarce until this week, when a town official named her mother’s former live-in boyfriend as one of several people of interest in the case.
Despite hundreds of leads; searches by horseback, cadaver dogs and helicopter; and a $15,000 reward for her return, there is still no answer about what happened to Hailey.
“It’s real hard,” said Denise Coates, a mother of three from nearby Howard County who has helped search for Hailey. “It’s in your backyard, and she’s the same age as your kids. I’m very concerned about her well-being.”
Hailey was reported missing Dec. 28 by her mother, Billie Dunn. Shawn Adkins, Dunn’s boyfriend, said Hailey told him a day earlier that she was going to her father’s nearby home and would stay overnight with a friend. She did neither.
Candlelight vigils have been held, and fliers with Hailey’s photo have been taped across the town of 4,500 people about 240 miles west of Dallas. More than 100 billboards with her picture and information appear along interstates in West Texas and other places.
Police affidavits released last 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 denied involvement in Hailey’s disappearance and claimed they were misquoted by police.
Dunn, who said she asked Adkins to move out Jan. 5, said she is frustrated.
