NOLAN COUNTY, Texas —
Shawn Adkins was released from the Mitchell County Jail on Tuesday morning, according to the Mitchell County Sheriff's Office.
On June 26, it was announced that he was set to be released from jail between that day and July 7, according to Hailey Dunn's father Clint Dunn.
Dunn said he was told there wasn't enough evidence to take the case to trial.
Dunn's private investigator said the prosecutor dropped the charges at the request of the FBI. She said the case was dismissed without prejudice. This means that the state can re-file the charges against Adkins at a later date.
Adkins was accused of murdering Hailey Dunn when she was 13 years old.
Dunn vanished from Colorado City in 2010, just one day after Christmas.
Her remains were found three years later in Scurry County. She was laid to rest in 2017.
No arrests were made for about a decade. At the time, authorities believed Adkins, who was Dunn's mother's boyfriend, was the last person to see her.
In June of 2021, Adkins was arrested by Texas Rangers.
An arrest affidavit shows authorities believe Adkins hit Dunn in the head with a blunt object and intentionally tampered with her corpse.
He was later indicted for murder by a grand jury.
Adkins' arraignment was canceled when he waived his right to have charges read in the courtroom.
His trial was set to start around one year after his arrest, but the discovery of new data pushed the trial back to April 11, 2023.
That date was again pushed back in March of 2023 after the defense team was granted a continuance motion. At that time it was still unclear whether his trial would start on Aug. 7 or Sept. 11.
The trial was initially set in Mitchell County, then moved to Nolan County.
Adkins and his counsel also requested another relocation for the trial back in November, with similar concerns about a fair jury being raised.
Adkins denied a plea deal on May 20 that would have put him behind bars for 30 years, according to Hailey's father.
This is all the information we currently have. Stick with NewsWest 9 for the latest as more details are released.