05-29-2011, 04:05 PM
LUBBOCK,TX (KCBD)
After 5 months and no sign of Hailey Dunn, investigators insist they're not giving up.
Hailey's grandmother, Connie Jones, says the family is torn apart as each day passes by without answers.
"It seems like 5 years, it's just dragging on," she said.
Authorities say leads have been less frequent in the past few weeks. "We made some good progress at the beginning, but leads have slowed down," said Mitchell County Sheriff Patrick Toombs.
Recently the reward money was bumped from $10,000 to $15,000. Colorado City City Manager Pete Kampfer says they received more calls when the reward changed. "There was a good pick up on tips. They've diminished quite a bit over the past couple of weeks," he said.
Previously busy volunteer search groups now post the date of their next effort in a window downtown. The next search is June 4th at 9:00 a.m.
"A lot of people say it's a cold case and it's no longer investigated," Toombs continued. "That's not true."
We asked Toombs about Hailey's mother's former boyfriend Shawn Adkins. "He's been described as a person of interest. That's what we'd call him as the primary person of interest in this case and that hasn't changed."
Neither Kampfer nor Toombs would use the word "suspect" in reference to Adkins.
Files containing child pornography and bestiality were found on a computer at Adkins' mother's home in Big Spring. Toombs explains why no one's been arrested.
"A lot of it has to do with the known people who use the computers and who used it at what time," he said.
Kampfer says it's in the hands of prosecution.
"That's strictly in prosecutors bailey wicks if they want to, based on the evidence, if they want to pursue prosecution," said Kampfer.
Toombs says Colorado City Police and the Mitchell County Sheriff's Department are still assisted by the FBI and Texas Rangers. He added that the criminal district attorney's office for Howard County, Mitchell County, and Scurry County were also assisting in the ongoing investigation.
"I feel like we're getting closer, it's just taking longer on some of these items," Toombs said.
Jones says the frustration from not having answers is breaking up her family. "Everybody is hurting. Nobody knows what to say to people," she said.
Jones is scared to leave her house. According to her, she's the only family member who hasn't changed her phone number since Hailey's disappearance.
For Toombs, not a day goes by that he doesn't think about the case. He asks for patience and insists that authorities haven't forgotten Hailey. "We're going to make sure we have a good case with a lot of evidence that we'll have at our disposal to convict someone," he said.
If you know anything that could help authorities call the Colorado City Police Department at (325) 728-5294.