Lord of the Flies

I passed through Colorado City not long ago.  As a person enters the town from the east side, a billboard still carries the image of Hailey Dunn with contact information if you have seen her.  Travesty, sham, and farce are three words that come to mind whenever I see that sign.  The sign has been there for a year and a half.  Of course, no one has called the number on the sign in recent history because no one has seen Hailey.

The local police decided early on not to press the disappearance because they knew not to delve too far.  It wasn't for ineptitude.  They have investigated other crimes with some forensic skill.  The FBI decided it was a minor case and let local authorities handle it.  Given limited resources, no leads, and the location and size of Colorado City ( a really small town in remote West Texas), one could have predicted their quick exit.  The Texas Rangers stayed somewhat longer.  But they did so only to make the community think they were doing something.  They are understaffed with more to police in a  large state than a missing girl in her early teens.  So, other than entertaining cold tips, they were never really a factor.

Hailey's mother was on the fringe of society, popping a few pills, having a good time in life, subsisting on very little money (which is why she was selected in the first place by a third party), so the police found it very easy to ignore the real issues.  They knew that Hailey's mother didn't have the background or the means to resolve this crime.  Instead of focusing on finding Hailey, they arrested the mother a couple of times for her drug use.  Her interrogations yielded little because the police deliberately questioned her about murdering Hailey or being an accomplice to her murder.  Of course, they fully realized that murder wasn't involved.  But, they had to deflect attention from themselves since their every intention was to look good in the beginning and let the case fade with time.

It's beyond comprehension that the one who knows what happened to Hailey and has been laughing in the background every time he goes to the bank was never pursued.  The lies this person has told to satisfy the smoke and mirrors put up by the detective in the case only show the depth of corruption involved in not finding Hailey.  The legal system wasn't ever allowed to kick in because of Hailey's mother's status in the town.  The townspeople eventually ran her out of the town.

What a travesty.  A young teen was whisked away from her roots and replanted in an evil environment far away from everything she knew and loved.  What a sham.  Local authorities from law enforcement to school officials, from the mayor to the mother's attorney have turned their backs on someone down a few rungs on the prestige ladder in the community.  What a farce.  All the searches that were encouraged, but that were of no use even from the beginning, and the total lack of reliance on any true forensic techniques that could have been brought to bear on finding Hailey shout to the heavens that a miscarriage of justice has happened.

But, as the sun sets tonight in Colorado City, someone knows about Hailey Dunn.  It's hard to imagine a human being so calloused and emotionally detached that he reeks from the smell of his singed soul still smoking from the sulfurous flames of the Great Inferno!