Hailey Dunn..Isabel Celis...What good is the Amber Alert?

Hailey Dunn was a12 year old middle school pre-adolescent, when she went missing from her own home, in Colorado City, Texas in 2010.  No Amber Alert was issued.  No Amber Alert was issued for Isabel Celis either.  And that my friend is a shame…the law and how it is administered must change.

Hailey was a happy, popular, smart and athletic girl.  She was well liked by teachers and enjoyed being a cheerleader.  One thing she didn’t like, according to her father’s grandmother was her mother’s boyfriend, Shawn Adkins.

After her disappearance, the paternal grandmother reported that Hailey was afraid of Shawn.

Hailey stayed at her father’s house for a few days over the Christmas break.  Cliff Dunn and Hailey’s mother, Bobbie Dunn, had divorced.  Cliff had a girlfriend, a new baby, and another child in his home (his girlfriend’s child).   Cliff has a criminal history, mostly petty crimes involving marijuana.  Cliff desperately went searching for his daughter, after she disappeared.  The child wanted to live with him, but evidently, for reasons unknown, this wasn’t an option.

Hailey’s mother Bobbie worked at a hospital.  Supposedly she had trained to be a nurse, but was now a secretary.  She was 36 and her boyfriend Shawn was 26.  She called police on him in the past, to report he had threatened her life and Hailey’s and to disclose he was mentally unstable.

Hailey lived with her mother, at the home that Cliff bought when they married.  Also in the home was her older brother David, age 16.  He spent much of his time at friends, including overnight visits.

Bobbie and her boyfriend Shawn had a fascination for horror and gore, particularly stories about murders in the family.  After Hailey’s “visit to a friend’s house” from which she never returned, it was learned that Bobbie and Shawn had gone for a ride, removed cash from Bobbie’s ATM and bought drugs.  It was Shawn who last claimed to have seen Hailey and he said she left the home for an overnight at a girlfriend’s house.  That night her mother Bobbie came home from work, took Shawn’s word for that and never verified that with the friend or her mother.

The next afternoon, not hearing from or seeing Hailey since the previous morning when she said she looked in the child’s bedroom door and saw her sleeping -, she had David call the friend’s house to tell Hailey to come home.   David learned that Hailey had never been there and wasn’t expected.  After that, the mother called Police.

Bobbie’s mother was arrested a few months after the adolescent went missing, for drug violations.  David, at 16, was removed by CPS from his mother’s home and placed with a maternal uncle.  Father Clint lost his housing the same day Hailey went missing.

Bobbie went on Nancy Grace, with Mark Klaus, expressed with no discernible facial motions, her extreme sorrow about the missing girl.  Almost seven months later, after her own arrest for harboring Shawn, she left Colorado City and moved to another town in Texas.  She swore she would never see Shawn again, but that he was innocent of harming her daughter.

A couple of months later, Shawn moved in with Bobbie.  Hailey is still missing.  Where is Hailey?  There are suspects, including Shawn, and a sex offender who lives only a block away.

An Amber Alert was never issued in this sad case.  WHY?  Because, law enforcement wasn’t sure if it was a runaway…given her age. 

An Amber Alert was not issued in the Isabel Celis case.  Why?  Well, she was young and not likely a runaway.  Maybe, she just walked out of her house during the night.  Further, no one actually saw someone abduct her in a car….and could provide a make, model and license plate.  Her parents said they heard absolutely nothing.

What good is the Amber Alert?  I’m just asking.  If it isn’t issued in the case of a 6 year old…who disappears from her own bedroom in the middle of the night…when is it issued?  Usually when another relative/parent is suspected to take the child and someone knows their vehicle or someone actually saw the abduction.

I wonder how often that happens.  As I understand it, the Amber Alert isn’t automatically issued when a child is missing.  I mean…from what I read…about the justifications….there are just so many runaways and stuff that no one wants to overuse the Amber Alert, lest the public ignore it

Are you kidding?  We need changes to this legislation.  If a six year old goes missing, it is good enough for me…announce it to the world and have everybody on the lookout immediately…not days or weeks later.  Don’t you agree?  I pray this child is found alive.