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Will We Find Out the Fate of Hailey Dunn, 'LIVE' On High Definition Television?

By John Kays

(Verse 2) "If you marry the wrong kind of woman and you get where you can't agree, Well, you just as well could get your hat and let that woman be. But a man oughta make a good husband and quit tryin' to lead a fast life. Goin' about dressin' up other women won't put clothes on his own wife. (chorus) Mmmm, oh, no, It's not hard for you to understand, True love can be such a sweet harmony, if you do the best that you can." Tattler-Ry Cooder

I pulled out my handy Rand McNally map of Texas this morning and attempted to find Colorado City. I'm a native Texan, but don't recall ever passing through those parts. Once obscure, the media now swarms down on this small West Texas town, snooping for scoop on the missing teenager, Hailey Dunn. I glanced over at my Whole Planet calendar, and noticed it's been twenty days now since the 13-year-old cheerleader went missing.

At first I didn't take much of an interest in these developments, "another missing persons' case," I thought to myself. But after viewing an obvious talk show, which I had taped, these events took on a magnified significance (in my own mind, of course), as I listened to Billie Dunn give carefully considered testimony, her side of this labyrinthine tale. Billie was made for TV, the way we conceptualize media today, in 2011.

What happened to this pretty, little teenage cheerleader, Hailey Dunn?

Either Miss Dunn is the greatest actress that ever waltzed across the Lone Star State Stage of Life, or else her telling of events surrounding the disappearance of her daughter, holds a modicum of credibility and authenticity. That is, Billie's actually telling the truth. Or is she? Miss Dunn has a protective shield about her that vindicates her magically, almost! (An observation of how she projects herself on TV).

But since this case is playing out in real time, is developing live on TV and the internet (as I type), we still don't know if up is down, or if day is night. My fascination for these pertinent narratives, timelines, and investigative fragments suddenly awake from a slumberous trance.

Accelerated inspiration is derived from a desire to probe what Billie says and doesn't say. She's swerving 'round potholes, dodging obstacles in the road, reassessing Shawn's identity, and right before your eyes on Live TV.

Billie Dunn is talented when in front of a television camera. But what is she including and what is she omitting in her accounts of late December?

One gets the sneaking suspicion we'll see the case solved even as we blankly stare out at our HD tubes! That's exciting! When I was young, only ten years old, I watched our family's black and white with bewilderment as the Dallas Police arrested Lee Oswald at a quaint Oak Cliff movie house.

I thought to myself, "they're solving the President's assassination, that's a miracle!" Later on I came to the astute realization that what you see on TV may not represent what has occurred in the 'Real World.'

I've spent my entire life trying to unravel this Sibylline Oracle of History. Age old paradox of appearance versus reality. So as I watch Billie, I have critical eyes and ears. I'm not a detective, nor have I ever worked in law enforcement. My specialty lies in historical analysis. At first all we hear is that Hailey was a straight A student, a cheerleader, active in sports, simply an ordinary, all-American teenager, nearly perfect in every way. Over the past week that's changed slightly.

Now there is the suggestion Hailey may have experimented with drugs a little. So, a more authentic picture of her life emerges. I was immediately skeptical of a portrait of her as a perfect teenage cheerleader, as first lineated by the media. No such teenager exists like this, unless you mention Sally Fields as Gidget back in the 1960s sitcom. Nor should we think of Hailey as particularly bad.

The media tends to exaggerates things. Don't know Hailey, but from what I've heard reported, she seems normal. But when we begin to examine the boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, it gets even harder to make character assessments.

Once again, I would lump him in with Billie, he's made for prime time, and is able to project himself out as convincing and forthright. Maybe even honest, if you dare to flesh this out to its fullest extension. It's a stretch, that's for sure. Gaping holes in his account told to police.

Most suspicious, is the way Shawn suddenly leaves work on December 27th. He claims he went to his mother's house in Big Spring. Phone pings of his cell put him back in Colorado City between 6:35 AM and 6:56 AM. Why did Adkins quickly depart work and make a beeline straight to Billie's house?

Billie Dunn's house in Colorado City, Texas, once secluded, is now smarming with a hive of bee-media-types hungry for answers!

Never returned to work either, I heard. Please study your map of Texas-check out Dunn or Snyder, okay there's Big Spring or Colorado City, Lubbock to the northwest, Abilene northeast from our bulls-eye.

Texas is BIG! And you can get lost in West Texas if you don't watch your peas and cues. Yet 100s of billboards promulgate Hailey's photo presently on these lonely interstates. Moreover, multiple lie detector tests were failed. Were Billie and Shawn attempting to buy drugs on the night of December 26th? Lots of unanswered questions.

Billie breaks off with Shawn on January 5th. "You know me. You know I love you and David. You know I would never hurt you." Words of Shawn. Altruistic, hollow, or unfeigned and heartfelt?

A few weeks ago lived a simple life in a small West Texas town. Had a nice girlfriend too. Now in his own words, his life is "flipped upside down. I struggle so hard just to make it through the day. I can't begin to imagine what Hailey's family, especially her parents and brother are going through."

Is it spin or is he actually innocent of any wrongdoing? Shawn doesn't give the appearance of lying through his teeth, at least, not to a news camera's eye.

Billie and Shawn are gifted at projecting themselves to the news media. They appear as innocent as lambs when talking into a news microphone. Did they take acting lessons?

And Billie is very good with a camera. Okay, she's excellent! I don't get the impression she's really lying. Perhaps, a better way of saying it is she colors her accounts with the veracity of what occurred, in terms of leaving out any unsavory details.

One might label this as diplomacy or discretionary disclosures. That is, there are some things she tells you, some things she doesn't. It's not lying to hide some matters; this might explain why she failed her polygraph, though.

An example would be the claim that she and Shawn were very into crime stories and would cut out articles and what not, that they found on the internet. On the surface, this doesn't look so bad, but just how far did they take this? And is the media merely throwing this into the arena to color their news features and sensationalize an otherwise prosaic story of a missing teenage cheerleader? This sells copy, but is it the truth?

Furthermore, how far into drugs were Billie and Shawn? This would have some bearing on their behavior in the final month of 2010, leading up to Hailey's disappearance. Drugs, and especially narcotics, alter behavior, we all know that. And how did Hailey get any drugs, if she ever did? Did the mother and boyfriend play any role in this regard? And does the touchy issue of sex figure in here in any way?

The media is beginning to explore this as well. Rocky Roads for me, won't go there. But Hailey's paternal grandmother, Connie Jones, claims that her granddaughter told her Shawn would linger by her bedroom door in the wee hours. This is odd, though; the daughter never told her mother of her boyfriend's deviant behavior. Billie denies knowing of it, in her public testament, naturally enough.

Very strange contrivances going on in a small Texas town? One assumes that in the past, this town is asleep. No more. Evolution of investigation Live On National Television. What will the next installment reveal? Talk shows as a substitute - public lie detector test. "I'm just a patsy!" Dichotomy of truth and deception is clear as mud. Trans-lucid mud. Can ya dig it? Ya with me?

John Kays identifies timeless remnants from our past that will endure, or be admired by future generations.