Pam Dunn went missing from her Watertown apartment in December of 2001. Her ex-boyfriend was eventually sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and stalking her, but authorities have continued to search for her remains. Tonight, they are following a lead at an abandoned Deuel County farm.

“We want to find Pamela to give them closure,” Deuel County Sheriff Cory Borg said.

Wednesday morning the Deuel County Sheriff’s Office along with members of the Watertown Police Department and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation began digging out a well in rural Deuel County.

“This is an abandoned property. Back in the 1980s, it was abandoned, we obtained a search warrant through Deuel County to search the site today,” Borg said.

The well at this abandoned farm just north of Clear Lake has been an investigation sight for years.

“We’ve had some information over the past years of this well site and her possibly being here. We sent SD Task Force One, Watertown Fire Rescue doing some other stuff with the well in previous years, today is the final result of it. We’re excavating the well to find any remains if they’re down there,” Borg said.

Now authorities are making a thorough attempt to find any sign of Pam.

“Deuel County Highway Department is doing the digging of the well and all of the staff from the agencies are sifting through what they have dug up,” Borg said.

A painstaking process that shows law enforcement are not giving up on their search for Pam.

“It is a cold case what we’d call it, but we are still working it, we still want her family to have closure,” Borg said.

It’s what Dunn’s daughter, Stacy Thennis, has been waiting for for years.

“We’ve had thoughts of having a memorial for her and everything like that, but nothing would compare to having a real funeral with her there,” Thennis said.