Haleigh Cummings 5, Satsuma, Florida last seen 2/9/09 #1 2/10/09-2/20/09

[islandmonkey]

Probably won't state this well, but:

All that convaluted info with the blankets is flashing images of George Anthony and his endless stories of what Caylee was wearing the last time he saw her .... just on and on and you're thinking, what on earth are you talking about....exhausting.  too much info. 

EXACTLY............sometimes I think people do this to try and confuse everyone on purpose, looks like they took note from KC, or sometimes you'd do this to explain away info like where IS the blanket 

Or maybe she has guilty conscious about something else on that blanket.  Maybe that blanket had evidence - and she has to explain why it is the only clean one in a house of filth?  Now they might be clean freaks, but from what I have seen - not counting on it!

Good point!

[islandmonkey]

I dont know  - 26 minutes isnt too bad, you have to look under the beds, in the closets, behind the curtains, little kids can hide in the darndest places.

I think it is especially for the size trailer they were in.....I know you wouldn't wait that long if you knew one of the kids was missing AND the back door was open. Also, couldn't you search while on the phone-we all have cell or cordless phones. Count not for 26 minutes and think how long that is when your child is missing.

[klaasend]

What really is bothering me is they are planning on suspending the ground search after tomorrow.    

Same here, klaas!  Wonder if this means the total search or just on the ground?  There's the water.. There's across the water... Sigh.

At any rate, hope this means that LE has an idea of what may have happened and charges against someone may be pending.  They sure seem to be holding things to the vest in this case!! 

  I'm beginning to think you are reading my mind

I sure hope so.  At least in the case of Caylee they had the car with the smell of decomposition. 

[Wyks]

I just keep thinking that Misty only turned 17 the middle of December. 
She just seems to project to be even younger by observing her interview, her demeanor, voice inflection or lack of, just the whole persona. 
I do realize the strain she was and is, under.  JMO.

I see more than that....how odd is it that she notices Haleigh is missing at the very time RC is supposed to be getting off work? Why does she go into such strange details about the blanket in the van they took (still have no clue WHAT van or who THEY are), why does she wait to call 911 only when RC is home as opposed to 30 minutes earlier when she realizes she is missing? Way too many questions about her action or lack thereof during this, even a 4yr old can call 911 as we have seen in the news. Also, one more thing, why on earth would you stay in the trailer and let the younger son stay if you really belived an intruder had been there-I'd have snatched junior out of that bed so fast and run to the nearest residence screaming my head off, yet she seemed amazingly calm.

Oh, yeah ~ completely agree with ALL you've said ~ I'm wondering if she simply cannot think quickly in a typical situation, much less in an emergency such as this. 

You bring up a great point......should dad have let someone be the fulltime caregiver to his two vunerable children to someone who can't even think in a typical situation

I'm wondering, since Misty was referred to as the "babysitter" in at least one early media report, if she was his babysitter before they got together as bf/gf...

I agree that one would think Ronald would have gotten a more mature sitter.  And yet, let's remember that Misty IS 17, and many folks think that would be a mature enough age for a couple of older children.  I had a temp live-in girl to care for my 2 and 4 yr old just as my youngest was due, so that they would have care while I was at the hosp. and afterward I'd have the help when I got home.  Of course, she had every phone number of each grandparent, 911 at the top, the hospital number, and two neighbors, with direct instructions to start calling everyone the minute she needed help. 

I think the problem here is that Ronald *may have* done this with Misty and we're just not hearing about it... OR... he could have benefitted greatly with hindsight, perhaps he thought Misty more capable of dealing with a crisis than she appears to actually have been.... OR... they both could be lying their asses off about what was done and that's why it all sounds so whacked. 

Personally JMO~I think he's using her for more than a gf (cook, housekeeper, babysitter, etc)......he seems abusive and controlling and I'd bet she is afraid of him

Oh yeah, I sooooo agree!  Seems her reactions have been more in fear of him than from any fear/sadness about Haleigh.  Even in the 911 tapes I can hear her reacting in fear of him and his outbursts, more so than in what she was saying to the dispatcher.  In the interviews she reacts to him and what he says to/about her as well.  She's soooo very young and vulnerable.  Wish her family would have or could have gotten her away from him longgggg before this happened. 

He's seems so very controlling and abusive, as you've said.  I'm actually surprised she even had a phone seperate from his.  Doesn't seem that she had a car tho. 

I was surprised when she said that she went to bed at 10 pm, cuz what typical 17 yr old does that?  And yet... then realized if she's doing all that it seems she is, she may not be getting much sleep on a regular basis. 

Someone gets up with those kids in the morning, and I doubt that it's him, since he works from 3pm to 3am.  And then the lil dude likely keeps her hopping during the day, with Haleigh getting home around 3:30 I guess.  With them in bed for night around 8, she likely then gets to clean the place up.  I read in one interview with her that she was "cleaning" until about 10, then laid down.  When shift workers get off work, they rarely go straight to bed, it's their early evening, usually ready for a meal and a movie etc.  Am betting Ronald wanted her to get up and keep him company until he got tired enough to go to sleep.  And if so, she didn't get much sleep before she must have had to get up with the kids.  Sure doesn't sound like a schedule I'd like to keep, not even (maybe especially, lol) at my old age. 

[joesamas mama]

What really is bothering me is they are planning on suspending the ground search after tomorrow.    

I know, and even tomorrow it's only two areas........however they are keeping everyone still out of the house. Makes me wonder if LE doesn't already have a good handle on the key players and what's happened and are just waiting for someone to break or find a body. I pray I am wrong, but I have a bad feeling inside

I am so behind here, but if they are suspending the search, they have some kind of reason to do it tomorrow. Something in the house is telling LE there was no abduction. IDK, maybe I am wrong. Maybe LE learned from Caylee's investigation. Don't let them stay in the house because evidence will end up in garbage bags on the curb. This is truly sad. Sorry for the rambling, JSM is tired!

[Leroy]

What really is bothering me is they are planning on suspending the ground search after tomorrow.    

Same here, klaas!  Wonder if this means the total search or just on the ground?  There's the water.. There's across the water... Sigh.

At any rate, hope this means that LE has an idea of what may have happened and charges against someone may be pending.  They sure seem to be holding things to the vest in this case!! 

  I'm beginning to think you are reading my mind

I sure hope so.  At least in the case of Caylee they had the car with the smell of decomposition. 

Exactly. What bothers me about this is they said all of the items of interest that they found last week came back as insignificant    

[klaasend]

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-02-15/story/sheriff_scales_back_search_for_haleigh

Sheriff scales back search for Haleigh
With 500 leads in six days, main operations move back to Sheriff's Office.
By Dana Treen Story updated at 8:04 PM on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009

SATSUMA ­— On Sunday as investigators were deciding to close the intense ground searches for missing Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings, her father worked the woods on horseback to find his little girl.

“I tried to discourage him from going out,” said Tim Miller, founder of EquuSearch, a Texas-based group specializing in horseback and all-terrain searches that was called by investigators to look for Haleigh. “He said, 'If I get on a horse I can clear my head and feel as if I’m really out there searching for my daughter.’ ”
In a break between rides into the woods, Miller said the benefit of including Ronald Cummings in the search was weighed against concern about what he might find.

 But it turned out okay.

“He literally looks like a different person,” Miller said. “I think this has done him a lot of good.”

But on the sixth day of searching there were no breakthroughs and no significant finds, said Chief Rick Ryan of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. By the end of the day, work by Miller’s volunteer group was suspended and main investigative operations were moved back to Palatka, where detectives will be closer to the Sheriff’s Office for interviews and communications facilities are better.

A temporary command post in the South Putnam neighborhood where Haleigh disappeared was dismantled. Investigators have fielded more than 500 leads since she was reported missing at 3:27 a.m. Tuesday, Ryan said.

“They are continuing to follow up those leads,” he said. “We had some interviews today and we will have some interviews tomorrow.”

Detectives will also continue to build a 30-day timeline of who Haleigh was in contact with and follow leads. Ryan said the value of the ground searches was diminishing, although search groups will be held on standby for new developments.

“We’re not sending people out there to make a show,” he said. “At some point we knew we were going to have to scale back if we didn’t find anything.”

Ryan said Sheriff Jeff Hardy spoke to both of Haleigh’s parents, who supported the decision. Families of Ronald Cunningham and Haleigh’s mother, Crystal Sheffield, who lives in Baker County, are camped separately down the road from each other.

Ryan said the doublewide mobile home where Cummings and girlfriend Misty Croslin lived with Haleigh and Ronald Cummings Jr. would not yet be released in case new information leads back to the home.

A troubling report of a sexual predator with an arrest warrant who had vanished from Marion County and who has relatives in next-door Putnam led detectives to interview his  family in Putnam.

Ryan said the interviews convinced detectives he did not have any connection to the case.

Woods within a 5-mile radius of where the 39-pound girl disappeared have been combed by volunteers including more than 170 Sunday who were joined by more than 130 law enforcement officers. Forty marine officers and divers were on the river Sunday, Ryan said.

On a cool Sunday morning as congregants of Hope Lutheran Church pulled sweaters close as they left the small Satsuma church, the Rev. Jake Brey said he had told them not to give up hope for the kindergartener’s safe return.

As an ex-cop from South Florida, the 62-year-old pastor has a perspective from his former career.

He said he has watched as investigators have interviewed and re-interviewed family and friends of the missing kindergartener.

 “Don’t pre-judge,” he said. Family and friends are the first to be scrutinized. “It’s hardship enough without deciding already who’s guilty and who isn’t.”

Throughout the week, vigils have been held and one is planned for Tuesday evening at Dunns Creek Baptist Church on U.S. 17 in San Mateo north of Satsuma.

Normalcy is hard to come by in the community now. Standing outside Cummings’ canopy and tarp shelter, family friend Autumn Marchand said even her 3-year-old daughter wants to reach out.

“’Mommy I want to help Haleigh come home,” the little girl declared, Marchand said.

But Haleigh is not home, and remained gone on what would have been a special day in her family’s year. Little Ronald Jr. turned 4. Cake was bought and presents wrapped and a party was planned, Marchand said. Just when Sunday wasn’t set.

Not far away and not long after, where the horse searches were staging, searcher Tim Miller said his group is also involved in a search for a 3-year-old in Arkansas and a 14-year-old in Mississippi.

“Unfortunately, we’re losing too many children,” he said.

[islandmonkey]

What really is bothering me is they are planning on suspending the ground search after tomorrow.    

Same here, klaas!  Wonder if this means the total search or just on the ground?  There's the water.. There's across the water... Sigh.

At any rate, hope this means that LE has an idea of what may have happened and charges against someone may be pending.  They sure seem to be holding things to the vest in this case!! 

  I'm beginning to think you are reading my mind

I sure hope so.  At least in the case of Caylee they had the car with the smell of decomposition. 

Klaas~what's your take on LE's positions and how tight lipped they've been?

[Wyks]

What really is bothering me is they are planning on suspending the ground search after tomorrow.    

Same here, klaas!  Wonder if this means the total search or just on the ground?  There's the water.. There's across the water... Sigh.

At any rate, hope this means that LE has an idea of what may have happened and charges against someone may be pending.  They sure seem to be holding things to the vest in this case!! 

  I'm beginning to think you are reading my mind

   Okies, I'll quit.   mwahahaha 

[Today]

Probably won't state this well, but:

All that convaluted info with the blankets is flashing images of George Anthony and his endless stories of what Caylee was wearing the last time he saw her .... just on and on and you're thinking, what on earth are you talking about....exhausting.  too much info. 

EXACTLY............sometimes I think people do this to try and confuse everyone on purpose, looks like they took note from KC, or sometimes you'd do this to explain away info like where IS the blanket 

Or maybe she has guilty conscious about something else on that blanket.  Maybe that blanket had evidence - and she has to explain why it is the only clean one in a house of filth?  Now they might be clean freaks, but from what I have seen - not counting on it!

I did think about something else on blanket and it would probably take at least an hour to wash and dry.  The yard of trailer seems to be well maintained, a couple of toy is to be expected.  We haven't seen a picture of the inside have we?  My bet is the 17 yr old slave keeps it neat as a pin.  Just a guess.

[COgal]

Leroy,

I like your white GSD.  I have one also.  She is 3 years old.  Sweet dogs:)

[Anna]

Once again Tim Miller's heart of gold is shining through.

I hope the family is not reading here.   

I just have a hard time trashing victims or their families after what was done
in the Natalee Holloway case until there is proof of their involvement.  Don't think being dumb and young counts because if it did, there are far too many who qualify.  Remember LE in that case accused the family of being behind her disappearance to collect insurance money.  There wasn't even a policy.

And the reporting in this is terrible both from the media and LE.  Maybe they will ALL settle on one version of events soon.

Not enough info yet IMMHO.  Perhaps the search is being called off because there are not enough volunteers during the week when most are at work.  Also could be the LE expects to have some information back on forensics by then and could be thinking an arrest imminent.  I do think this will be solved in pretty short order because seems LE involved much more quickly than the 30 days for Caylee.

Just my thoughts. . . .

[klaasend]

IslandMonkey - I don't know what to think.  I really wonder about the GF, not so much the dad.  I just don't have a good feeling about the GF and the possibility she could have friends coming in and out when dad is at work. 

[islandmonkey]

IslandMonkey - I don't know what to think.  I really wonder about the GF, not so much the dad.  I just don't have a good feeling about the GF and the possibility she could have friends coming in and out when dad is at work. 

I think that is a strong possibility, after all she just turned 17 and surely she still has the desire to be carefree sometimes, and after dad goes to work would be the perfect opportunity........just curious as to who these friends could be and am hoping that she's being honest with LE regarding them. There are so many SO's there and if you haven't checked the registry you'd never know, not to mention the unregistered one.

[Today]

Quote by Tim Miller
“Unfortunately, we’re losing too many children”

My heart breaks for Tim, I think Caylee took a very big toll on him.  I pray that he continues to receive strength so that he can continue his very important work.


It does strike me odd that the father is out searching now, but when he got home the night of Haleigh's disappearance he didn't immediately leave his home and look around.  With his temper I don't think Misty could have stopped him, if that's what he put his mind to.  The anger in the 911 call and threats still makes me wonder if he didn't have a culprit in mind.

[Wyks]

Probably won't state this well, but:

All that convaluted info with the blankets is flashing images of George Anthony and his endless stories of what Caylee was wearing the last time he saw her .... just on and on and you're thinking, what on earth are you talking about....exhausting.  too much info. 

I think that's stated well, and I agree.  Bet each was done with the similiar intentions, to get the focus off whatever they didn't want talked about. 

[ospainter]

http://www.staugustine.com/stories/021509/news_0215009_043.shtml

Missing Girl

SATSUMA -- A couple crawled alongside a road on an all-terrain vehicle, their heads pointed toward the wood line as they apparently watched for something -- anything -- that might have been overlooked.

But like the hundreds of volunteers and police officers who searched this rural part of Putnam County on Saturday, looking for any sign of Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings, they found nothing.

The fifth day of the search for the 5-year-old who was reported missing early Tuesday was as fruitless as the first four.

At a news conference, Putnam County Sheriff's Chief Rick Ryan said the "items of interest" that were discovered Friday weren't related to the case.

"Our crime lab folks have taken a look at those, and they've determined that they're of no significance to the investigation," Ryan said. "Basically, the philosophy is, if it didn't grow there we want to look at it."

He would not say what those items were but said investigators were "glad" they had no bearing on the case.

At about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, Haleigh's father, Ronald Cummings, 25, reportedly returned home from his job at a Palatka plant that manufactures steel girders for bridges. At about the same time, Cummings' 17-year-old girlfriend, Misty Croslin, woke up to go to the bathroom and saw that Haleigh was not in bed.

Croslin called 911 and said the rear door to Cummings' manufactured home had been propped open. She said she locked it before putting Haleigh and her little brother, Ronald Cummings Jr., to bed.

During the call, Cummings is heard telling the dispatcher, "I'm telling you, if I find whoever has my daughter before you all do I'm killing him. I don't care. I'll spend the rest of my life in prison."

In an interview Saturday, Sheriff's Lt. Johnny Greenwood said the case was being treated as an abduction because investigators had found nothing to indicate the girl had been harmed.

That leaves them with the scenarios that she was taken from bed or she walked out of the house. In the latter case she likely would have been abducted as well, Greenwood said.

"After five days, if she did wander off, most likely she would have been picked up," he said.

On Saturday, as they had since Tuesday, about 250 volunteers searched on land for Haleigh, divers combed the nearby St. Johns River, and helicopters were sent up to look down on the heavily wooded surroundings.

The river search would be suspended today because the dives had yielded only a few logs and a refrigerator lying on the riverbed. But Ryan said the change was not a signal that the overall search would be scaled back.

"We're as optimistic right now as we were on Day One that we're going to find Haleigh," he said, "and we will remain optimistic and, as we've said all along, we're not going to stop looking for her."

A reporter asked, "Optimistic you're going to find her alive?"

"That's our goal," Ryan replied.

By Day Five, many of the television-satellite trucks had left the area as there was little to indicate the search would end soon.

But more stuffed animals and notes had been left for Haleigh on a fence near where her mother, Crystal Sheffield, 23, of Glen St. Mary, is keeping vigil during daylight with her family.

Written on a red, heart-shaped card were the crayon-colored words, "Haleigh happy Valentines day friend."

[Wyks]

This case feels like it's going the same road as the A's.  How weird.  That gf just doesn't sit right with me.  Too many different stories she's telling.

Yeppers!!   

[islandmonkey]

Quote by Tim Miller
“Unfortunately, we’re losing too many children”

My heart breaks for Tim, I think Caylee took a very big toll on him.  I pray that he continues to receive strength so that he can continue his very important work.


It does strike me odd that the father is out searching now, but when he got home the night of Haleigh's disappearance he didn't immediately leave his home and look around.  With his temper I don't think Misty could have stopped him, if that's what he put his mind to.  The anger in the 911 call and threats still makes me wonder if he didn't have a culprit in mind.

Tim IS a one in a billion~too bad there aren't more TM's out there.........I'd don't know how he even has the strength he does as I can't imagine all the sorrow and gried he deals with daily, but I expect he will keep on honoring Laura's memory and her life by doing what he promised her, finding the lost.

[tcumom]

Geraldo on now with bio Mom and her mother.  Fox.