Remains Identified as Missing Texas Teen Hailey Dunn
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Comstock/Thinkstock(SNYDER, Texas) — The remains of a teenage girl discovered near a Texas lake last month have been positively identified as missing teen Hailey Dunn, authorities confirmed Friday.
Investigators have confirmed the remains found near Lake J. B. Thomas in Snyder, Texas, in March belonged to the missing Colorado City, Texas, teen, Scurry County sheriff officials announced Friday at a news conference, according to ABC News affiliate KTXS-TV in Abilene, Texas.
Dunn disappeared from her home in Colorado City in 2010, and had been listed as a missing person with the Colorado City Police Department ever since.
The teen’s scattered remains were discovered on March 16, 2013. The Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Rangers and FBI investigators spent nearly four days gathering the remains and evidence that could lead to a conviction.
The remains were sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification for DNA analysis, according to a news release from the Scurry County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials said Friday the investigation into the 13-year-old’s death continues and they have not identified the case as a homicide, nor have they ruled it out.
After Hailey Dunn‘s mother, Billie Jean Dunn, 35, reported Hailey missing, the investigation looked at Dunn and her live-in boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, 25. Both Dunn and Adkins failed lie detector tests, admitted to taking drugs the night before Hailey’s disappearance and had refused to cooperate with police.
Law enforcement officials have named Adkins as a “person of interest” in the case, but have not charged him. Both Adkins and Billie Jean Dunn have denied any involvement in the teen’s disappearance.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio