UPDATE: Professional Searchers Returning to Colorado City

Two national missing child search organizations are returning to Colorado City next week for a two-day search next week in the hopes of finding Hailey Dunn, who has been missing since Dec. 27.

The Laura Recovery Center and KlaasKids came to help organize community searches last month and will do the same on Feb. 19 and 20.

Brad Dennis with KlaasKids said they are bringing K-9 teams and search teams in, and that they will spend Friday, Feb. 18 organizing the weekend search.  They will need time to figure out what areas have been searched since the two groups left and come up with a game plan for the weekend.

The volunteers who were trained by the two private groups have been conducting searches every Wednesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. until dark.


Volunteers, especially those who can provide their own ATVs or horses, are asked to join in any of the searches, but particularly the large-scale one coming up next weekend.  They will meet each morning at the Colorado City Civic Center.

A limited amount of free housing will be available for searchers who come in from out of town, Dawn Davis of the LRC said.

The Laura Recovery Center, based outside Houston in Friendswood, Texas, organizes community-based searches using very specific mapping and communication techniques.

The organization was founded in 1998, a year following the deadly abduction of 12-year-old Laura Smither.  Smither's body was recovered 17 days after her disappearance.  The organization was established to honor the volunteers, document and publish their effective search methods, and educate families, communities, and law enforcement in working together to prevent abductions.

The KlaasKids Foundation was established in 1994 in an effort to help protect children. The group's founder, Marc Klaas, is the father of murder victim Polly Hannah Klaas.

The groups have organized and conducted more than 90 missing child searches in the United States.