Missing Texas cheerleader mystery revived by unidentified remains

A day after human remains were found in a West Texas pasture, investigators had yet to identify them, but people couldn’t help wondering whether they belonged to a missing cheerleader.

Hailey Dunn, 13, disappeared more than a year ago from her Colorado City home about 100 miles southeast of Lubbock. It was still unclear late Wednesday whether the remains found Tuesday near a city-owned airport in Big Spring, about 40 miles west of Colorado City, could be Hailey’s. The mother of a person of interest in the case lives in Big Spring.

At a Wednesday news conference broadcast from an airport hangar by KOSA, Big Spring Police Sgt. Tony Everett described the remains as “partially mummified and skeletal,” saying it was impossible to speculate about the person’s identity or sex.

“An anthropologist is going to have to make that determination,” he said. “We have no idea.”

The remains were found in an industrial area that was fenced and gated but “not impossible to get into,” he said.

An FBI evidence recovery team was assisting police, Everett said, as well as the Texas Rangers and the Howard County Sheriff’s Office.

Everett did not return calls late Wednesday.

Lydia Maese, a spokeswoman with the FBI’s Dallas division, told the Los Angeles Times that the bureau was assisting with the case but that the scene had been cleared late Wednesday and she had no information about the identity of the remains.

The location of the remains renewed interest in the case, including a Facebook page about the latest developments, and in the leading people of interest: Hailey’s mother, Billie Jean Dunn, and her mother’s live-in boyfriend, Shawn Adkins.

During the initial investigation, Adkins, 25, failed to complete three lie detector tests and apparently gave contradictory statements to police about Hailey’s disappearance.

At first, Adkins told police that on the day Hailey disappeared, two days after Christmas 2010, he came directly home from work to his mother’s house in Big Spring after being fired, according to KWES. He later told investigators he had quit his job. His employer denied both claims.

Phone records showed Adkins traveled from work to Colorado City that morning, then to his mother’s house, where he placed nearly a dozen calls.

Adkins later told a witness that killing a young girl was like “killing a deer,” KWES reported.

About a year before, in February 2010, Adkins allegedly threatened to kill Billie Jean Dunn and Hailey Dunn during a domestic dispute, according to court records cited by KWES.

After Hailey disappeared, her mother failed two polygraph exams, one for narcotics use, KWES reported.

Some witnesses said she and Adkins behaved suspiciously after Hailey’s disappearance, throwing a New Year’s party just days afterward.

Dunn denied the accusations, telling investigators that she had nothing to do with her daughter’s disappearance, that she only had a few friends over for drinks on New Year’s, and that by Jan. 5, she and Adkins had split, according to KWES.

On Wednesday, CNN’s Nancy Grace noted that the remains were found “in the general area” where pings from Adkins’ cellphone were detected on Dec. 27, according to search warrant affidavits.

Grace also reported that Dunn and Adkins were back in Colorado City on Wednesday. Adkins’ attorney, Alex Eyssen, told Grace that the pair had returned after hearing about the discovery of the remains in Big Spring.

Eyssen told CNN that investigators had not contacted Dunn or Adkins.

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