Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Man Indicted For 2010 Murder Of Former Girlfriend's 13-Year-Old Daughter
A grand jury has indicted Shawn C. Adkins for the murder of Hailey Dunn, whom prosecutors say he fatally struck in the head.
A Texas man has been indicted for the 2010 murder of his former live-in girlfriend’s daughter as prosecutors reveal for the first time how she was killed.
A grand jury in Mitchell County indicted Shawn C. Adkins, 35, last week on one count of murder and one count of tampering with evidence in the death of Colorado City girl Hailey Dunn, 13, local outlet KTAB-TV reports.
In court documents obtained by KTAB, prosecutors allege that Adkins killed the eighth-grader by striking her in the head with an unknown object just one day after Christmas. They accuse him of then disposing of her body near Lake J.B. Thomas in neighboring Scurry County, where the teen’s body was found in March of 2013 by a man searching for fossils.
Adkins was arrested and charged with murder in connection with Dunn’s death last summer. But he was eyed as a possible culprit long before; investigators described him as a person of interest for more than 11 years. He was the last person to see the popular cheerleader alive in 2010 and following her disappearance, Adkins told law enforcement that he last saw her when she left to walk to her father’s house. He also was adamant that he was innocent, proclaiming in a 2011 KTAB interview that he had nothing to do with Dunn’s disappearance or death.
Billie Jean Dunn, Hailey’s mother, told local outlet EverythingLubbock.com last summer that she was “not surprised” about her ex-boyfriend’s arrest in June.
“I thank God that person has been apprehended and is going to pay for what he did here on earth,” she said.
Adkins remains jailed on a $1,250,000 bond.
Dunn’s biological dad, Clint Dunn, has previously expressed frustration with the seeming lack of progress in his daughter’s case. In 2019, he told the Abilene Reporter News that “law enforcement is not communicating” and that he felt left in “darkness.” The father has long advocated for justice for his daughter and has hired his own private investigator to assist in the investigation.
That private investigator, Erica Morse, told the Reporter News that “everyone will learn this moving forward: Clint’s intuition … was the driving force in this case. And he is a template for every parent who wants to find justice for their child."
In a statement following Adkins' indictment, Clint said "It’s been a long six months of waiting after a decade of injustice," KATB reports.
In February 2011, months after the teen’s disappearance, police allegedly discovered more than 190,000 images of child pornography, bestiality, and other acts on several devices in the home Adkins had shared with Billie Jean Dunn, the Amarillo Globe-News reported in 2019. Dunn was arrested and received one year of probation for lying to police about Adkins’ whereabouts.
It is unclear if Adkins has an attorney to speak on his behalf.
