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

[Searching]

Florida (Jacksonville) Times-Union -- updated at 10:46 tonight:

By DANA TREEN
The Times-Union

SATSUMA —Misty Croslin said the accusation that she left Haleigh Cummings the night the 5-year-old disappeared is untrue.
Croslin, the 17-year-old girlfriend of Haleigh’s father, said she doesn’t know where the rumor started.

“I was there the whole night,” she told the Times-Union in an interview Wednesday where she shared several details about Haleigh’s disappearance.

It was the third time Croslin has been publicly questioned in the nine days since she called 911 on Feb. 10 to report Haleigh was missing.

As the national attention grows, she and Haleigh’s family have found themselves under more and more scrutiny. Their backgrounds show many of them have been under scrutiny before, including a custody dispute, drug use and brushes with the law, according to court records and interviews.

In the interview Wednesday, Croslin said Haleigh watched “Madagascar” and “AirBud” with her brother, then snuggled beneath a blanket in a pink Hannah Montana top. She reported Haleigh was wearing that top when she disappeared.

However, Croslin said she found the shirt on Monday, when she was allowed back inside the doublewide mobile home for the first time since the disappearance. She was there to discuss the layout of the mobile home with investigators and was looking for the clothes Haleigh wore her last day at school.

She then saw the Hannah Montana shirt in a laundry pile by the back door. “When I put her blanket on she had that shirt on,” Croslin told the Times-Union on Wednesday.

She said she has no idea how the shirt wound up there.

Investigators changed a statewide Amber Alert to remove the shirt as a clothing description.

Croslin said the children’s great-grandmother, her brother and an air-conditioning repairman were the only ones to visit the mobile home that day.

After eating, Croslin said the children watched movies before Haleigh went to bed about 8:15 p.m.

The children’s father, 25-year-old Ronald Cummings, was on an evening shift at PDM Bridge in Palatka and arrived home about the time Croslin was making the 911 call.

Since then, a team of investigators sifting through 1,200 calls and tips over nine days have sent boats into the St. Johns River and searchers into the scrub miles from where Haleigh went missing about 3 a.m. Feb. 10.

So far none has produced significant results, but some tips are being considered solid, authorities said Wednesday. They said they remain optimistic.

A vehicle was seized and processed, said Dominick Pape, chief of the Jacksonville office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Pape would not release other information about the vehicle other than to say it was taken early in the investigation.

Croslin also told the Times-Union that the day Haleigh disappeared, she told authorities a cousin who had been staying in Crescent City for about a month went back to Tennessee. She said the cousin had “messed with” her sexually when she was a child but not been deemed a sexual offender.

The cousin had visited the mobile home she shared with Cummings but was told not to come back when a gun in the house turned up missing around the same time, she said.

As the investigation stretched on, a look at the family’s background shows some of the instabilities and conflicts that add to an already murky case.

Court records and interviews details brushes with the law involving Cummings as well as clashes over child custody with Crystal Sheffield, the biological mother of Haleigh and Ronald Jr.

Sheffield and Cummings never married, but she said the two were together between the times she was 14 and 19.

“I was 17 when I got pregnant with Haleigh,” said Sheffield, now 23.

Now living in Baker County, Sheffield had visitation every two weeks while Cummings had custody. Since her daughter’s disappearance, she and family members have set up a tent and shelter down the road from Cummings’ Green Lane mobile home.

Cummings, Croslin and their families are camped closer to the mobile home that still has not been turned back over to them by the Sheriff’s Office.

Cummings has had custody since 2005 when a magistrate said the children should live with him. He was employed and better able to provide health insurance to the children, the court said.

Sheffield said in the court record she had used cocaine a year before, a reason Cummings cited for wanting custody. He also said Haleigh had missed a dozen doctor’s appointments in the year before coming to live with him.

Sheffield has said Cummings was violent with her and court records show she once sought a protective order but then later asked that it be dismissed.

Cummings has said the fact that he has primary custody of the children shows he is a good parent.

But Cummings has had brushes with the law, including minor drug arrests, though most charges were dropped. In 2001 he was arrested after a man said he was threatened with a beating, according to court records.

Croslin said she met Cummings about six months ago when she was baby-sitting for a woman who had a child with Cummings.

Croslin said she was concerned the baby boy was not being cared for properly.

“I told him you need to get your son before something bad happens to him,” she said. Croslin said the two started talking. She was 16 at the time.

Her father, Hank Croslin Sr., told the Times-Union that Cummings told him he was 19 and later that he was 21.

Though Hank Croslin said he was angry at first about the lie, he said it is no longer an issue.

It is against Florida law for a person 24 or older to have relations with anyone 17 or younger, but investigators said they are not looking into the issue during the search for Haleigh. Find the little girl is their priority, they said.

The policy of the state Department of Children and Families also is to look first to the welfare of the children.

“If the children are being properly cared for and are not being abused, neglected or abandoned, then no action will be taken,” said department spokesman John Harrell.

He said the department has had “involvement” with the family in the past but could not under state confidentiality laws describe that interaction. Court records do show a review of the case over the custody issue.

For now, animosities have mostly been buried. At a prayer service for Haleigh on Tuesday, Misty Croslin, Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield sat closely together at Dunns Creek Baptist Church, alternately holding Ronald Jr. as they hoped for the safe return of a brown-eyed, strawberry-blonde little girl.

dana.treen@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4091
 

Seems to me someone needs to keep his zipper in the upright position...  just sayin

[kitkat53]

Florida (Jacksonville) Times-Union -- updated at 10:46 tonight:

By DANA TREEN
The Times-Union

SATSUMA —Misty Croslin said the accusation that she left Haleigh Cummings the night the 5-year-old disappeared is untrue.
Croslin, the 17-year-old girlfriend of Haleigh’s father, said she doesn’t know where the rumor started.

“I was there the whole night,” she told the Times-Union in an interview Wednesday where she shared several details about Haleigh’s disappearance.

It was the third time Croslin has been publicly questioned in the nine days since she called 911 on Feb. 10 to report Haleigh was missing.

As the national attention grows, she and Haleigh’s family have found themselves under more and more scrutiny. Their backgrounds show many of them have been under scrutiny before, including a custody dispute, drug use and brushes with the law, according to court records and interviews.

In the interview Wednesday, Croslin said Haleigh watched “Madagascar” and “AirBud” with her brother, then snuggled beneath a blanket in a pink Hannah Montana top. She reported Haleigh was wearing that top when she disappeared.

However, Croslin said she found the shirt on Monday, when she was allowed back inside the doublewide mobile home for the first time since the disappearance. She was there to discuss the layout of the mobile home with investigators and was looking for the clothes Haleigh wore her last day at school.

She then saw the Hannah Montana shirt in a laundry pile by the back door. “When I put her blanket on she had that shirt on,” Croslin told the Times-Union on Wednesday.

She said she has no idea how the shirt wound up there.

Investigators changed a statewide Amber Alert to remove the shirt as a clothing description.

Croslin said the children’s great-grandmother, her brother and an air-conditioning repairman were the only ones to visit the mobile home that day.

After eating, Croslin said the children watched movies before Haleigh went to bed about 8:15 p.m.

The children’s father, 25-year-old Ronald Cummings, was on an evening shift at PDM Bridge in Palatka and arrived home about the time Croslin was making the 911 call.

Since then, a team of investigators sifting through 1,200 calls and tips over nine days have sent boats into the St. Johns River and searchers into the scrub miles from where Haleigh went missing about 3 a.m. Feb. 10.

So far none has produced significant results, but some tips are being considered solid, authorities said Wednesday. They said they remain optimistic.

A vehicle was seized and processed, said Dominick Pape, chief of the Jacksonville office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Pape would not release other information about the vehicle other than to say it was taken early in the investigation.

Croslin also told the Times-Union that the day Haleigh disappeared, she told authorities a cousin who had been staying in Crescent City for about a month went back to Tennessee. She said the cousin had “messed with” her sexually when she was a child but not been deemed a sexual offender.

The cousin had visited the mobile home she shared with Cummings but was told not to come back when a gun in the house turned up missing around the same time, she said.

As the investigation stretched on, a look at the family’s background shows some of the instabilities and conflicts that add to an already murky case.

Court records and interviews details brushes with the law involving Cummings as well as clashes over child custody with Crystal Sheffield, the biological mother of Haleigh and Ronald Jr.

Sheffield and Cummings never married, but she said the two were together between the times she was 14 and 19.

“I was 17 when I got pregnant with Haleigh,” said Sheffield, now 23.

Now living in Baker County, Sheffield had visitation every two weeks while Cummings had custody. Since her daughter’s disappearance, she and family members have set up a tent and shelter down the road from Cummings’ Green Lane mobile home.

Cummings, Croslin and their families are camped closer to the mobile home that still has not been turned back over to them by the Sheriff’s Office.

Cummings has had custody since 2005 when a magistrate said the children should live with him. He was employed and better able to provide health insurance to the children, the court said.

Sheffield said in the court record she had used cocaine a year before, a reason Cummings cited for wanting custody. He also said Haleigh had missed a dozen doctor’s appointments in the year before coming to live with him.

Sheffield has said Cummings was violent with her and court records show she once sought a protective order but then later asked that it be dismissed.

Cummings has said the fact that he has primary custody of the children shows he is a good parent.

But Cummings has had brushes with the law, including minor drug arrests, though most charges were dropped. In 2001 he was arrested after a man said he was threatened with a beating, according to court records.

Croslin said she met Cummings about six months ago when she was baby-sitting for a woman who had a child with Cummings.

Croslin said she was concerned the baby boy was not being cared for properly.

“I told him you need to get your son before something bad happens to him,” she said. Croslin said the two started talking. She was 16 at the time.

Her father, Hank Croslin Sr., told the Times-Union that Cummings told him he was 19 and later that he was 21.

Though Hank Croslin said he was angry at first about the lie, he said it is no longer an issue.

It is against Florida law for a person 24 or older to have relations with anyone 17 or younger, but investigators said they are not looking into the issue during the search for Haleigh. Find the little girl is their priority, they said.

The policy of the state Department of Children and Families also is to look first to the welfare of the children.

“If the children are being properly cared for and are not being abused, neglected or abandoned, then no action will be taken,” said department spokesman John Harrell.

He said the department has had “involvement” with the family in the past but could not under state confidentiality laws describe that interaction. Court records do show a review of the case over the custody issue.

For now, animosities have mostly been buried. At a prayer service for Haleigh on Tuesday, Misty Croslin, Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield sat closely together at Dunns Creek Baptist Church, alternately holding Ronald Jr. as they hoped for the safe return of a brown-eyed, strawberry-blonde little girl.

dana.treen@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4091
 

Seems to me someone needs to keep his zipper in the upright position...  just sayin

ummm yeah really. How many children does this guy have?

[Wyks]

Taken from the above news report:

"Croslin said she met Cummings about six months ago when she was baby-sitting for a woman who had a child with Cummings.

Croslin said she was concerned the baby boy was not being cared for properly.

“I told him you need to get your son before something bad happens to him,” she said. Croslin said the two started talking. She was 16 at the time."

 

I've read earlier rumors that Ron had another child with someone else, this confirms that as being true.  Wondering if we'll hear from that woman anytime soon, and if there are anymore little Ronald's running around... 

[kitkat53]

I really don't know what to think of Misty's story. Her not being at home makes sense too. But I wonder if she really wasn't at home how will the dad react to this? He doesn't seem to hold back on his name calling. I think he is gonna be really po'd if it turn's out she wasn't there.

[Searching]

Taken from the above news report:

"Croslin said she met Cummings about six months ago when she was baby-sitting for a woman who had a child with Cummings.

Croslin said she was concerned the baby boy was not being cared for properly.

“I told him you need to get your son before something bad happens to him,” she said. Croslin said the two started talking. She was 16 at the time."

 

I've read earlier rumors that Ron had another child with someone else, this confirms that as being true.  Wondering if we'll hear from that woman anytime soon, and if there are anymore little Ronald's running around... 

and notice her statement.. kinda makes you go hmmm since she was the LAST ONE known to have been with/seen this missing little girl...

[Searching]

I really don't know what to think of Misty's story. Her not being at home makes sense too. But I wonder if she really wasn't at home how will the dad react to this? He doesn't seem to hold back on his name calling. I think he is gonna be really po'd if it turn's out she wasn't there.

He does seem like a very mean person how ever, being a mom myself, I think she needs to worry about bio mom. I am still waiting for bio mom to stomp the truth out of misty..

[kitkat53]

I really don't know what to think of Misty's story. Her not being at home makes sense too. But I wonder if she really wasn't at home how will the dad react to this? He doesn't seem to hold back on his name calling. I think he is gonna be really po'd if it turn's out she wasn't there.

He does seem like a very mean person how ever, being a mom myself, I think she needs to worry about bio mom. I am still waiting for bio mom to stomp the truth out of misty..

I agree with that too. Oh man if I was bio mom all heck would have broken loose already.

[Searching]

I really don't know what to think of Misty's story. Her not being at home makes sense too. But I wonder if she really wasn't at home how will the dad react to this? He doesn't seem to hold back on his name calling. I think he is gonna be really po'd if it turn's out she wasn't there.

He does seem like a very mean person how ever, being a mom myself, I think she needs to worry about bio mom. I am still waiting for bio mom to stomp the truth out of misty..

I agree with that too. Oh man if I was bio mom all heck would have broken loose already.

I have said I expect it to happen,but me, I would have done it within the first 24 hours... I would have gotten the truth out of her so my child could be located and I am surprised bio mom has not done it thus far,she is a stronger person then I because I would NOT have held out from beating the truth out of misty this long.

[Searching]

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/local/021809Tipsters_say_girlfriends_story_not_true

Tipster: Girlfriend's
story not true

Last Edited: Wednesday, 18 Feb 2009, 4:28 PM EST
Created On: Wednesday, 18 Feb 2009, 7:41 AM EST

    * Stephanie Gibson | FOX 35 News

SATSUMA, Fla. - Putnam County Sheriff's investigators said they have received a tip that the 17-year-old girlfriend in the case of a missing Satsuma girl was not actually home at the time of the girl's disappearance, which is contrary to what she told detectives.

The girlfriend, Misty Croslin, said she had been sleeping next to 5-year-old Haleigh but when she awoke, the girl was gone. "She was sleeping right next to me," Croslin told the Palatka Daily News. "I can't believe I didn't hear anything," she added.

Haleigh's father, Ronald Cummings, told investigators his daughter was missing when he returned home from work around 3 a.m. Tuesday. Ronald said his girlfriend was awake and frantic that Haleigh was missing from her bed.

Croslin has responded to the allegations by the tipsters and said they are lying. Croslin is adamant that she was there at the home with Haleigh and says no one can say she wasn't there.

Investigators also said Wednesday that $16,000 in rewards have been offered for information leading the discovery of Haleigh.

In a news conference Wednesday, Putnam County Sheriff's Office Capt. Dick Schauland said investigators are now working through about 1,200 tips, including again questioning the child's father, Ronald Cummings, and his girlfriend Misty Croslin.

Haleigh vanished nine days ago from her father's double wide mobile home, just outside the community of Satsuma, which is about 10 miles south of Palatka.

That statement makes me uneasy.. Reminds me of KC saying "im innocent, They will never break me".

 

[PookyBear]

Per Dana, Tim is in Florida searching for Haleigh.  I thought the search was called off.  Good news!

Maybe not so good..... They took a car for searching for evidence,who's car, the family being taken in like that and now word is TM is there searching.. Got a REAL bad feeling about this... I'm getting chills here now....I mean will be good she is found either way,just do not like the sounds of this....

Oh Searching -- I am getting bad vibes as well.

[PookyBear]

Search For Haleigh : Grandmother Discouraged
SATSUMA, FL -- As day nine of the search for Haleigh Cummings comes to a close, candles still burn, tips continue to come in, and family members say they are left with even more questions.

"Nobody can make up their mind on what she was wearing, who was at home with her, where anybody was that night. It's unbelievable!" says Marie Griffis, Haleigh's maternal grandmother.

Griffis says it's hard to know what to believe. She just wants the truth.

"There are just so many lies going around," says Griffis.

Investigators aren't saying much when answering questions about possible leads, including talk about examining a particular vehicle as evidence.

"It was processed for evidence, but we're not going to get into that, but it was processed by FDLE," says Detective Dominick Pape with FDLE.

One thing both detectives and family want to focus on is the five- year-old's face. They hope the more people see her, the better chance she has of coming home soon.

"She has a brown mark on the left side of her face, close to her ear and it's pretty big. You would notice it if you looked at her," says Griffis.

Haleigh's grandmother also says the girl has another birthmark on the right side of her face near her mouth. She also has asthma and Turner's Syndrome.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=131718&catid=3&GID=ltKqw8AnY6/C7EOda7Rz5Pm+O0Onl3xOMz5zdcqebq0%3D

[islandmonkey]

http://www.palatkadailynews.com/articles/2009/02/19/news/news01.txt

Lawmen seeking answers; Investigators again question Haleigh's father and his girlfriend

BY LARRY SULLIVAN
Published: Thursday, February 19, 2009 12:21 AM EST
Palatka Daily News

Investigators searching for 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings are reviewing more than 1,200 tips.

In addition, Putnam County sheriff's detectives on Wednesday again questioned the girl's father, Ronald Cummings, and his girlfriend, Misty Croslin.The questioning was conducted at the sheriff's office headquarters in Palatka.



"That's a continuing part of our investigation," said Dominick Pape, special agent in charge of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's office in Jacksonville, which is assisting Putnam County authorities.

"As leads are developed we will always be bringing back in the family members," Pape said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. "As this case goes on and we feel the need to bring them in, we will. They've been very cooperative with us."

Pape and Capt. Dick Schauland, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, on Wednesday continued the refusal of authorities to publicly discuss results of the intensive investigation by local, state and federal officers.

Haleigh, a kindergartner, was reported missing from her home in Satsuma on Feb. 10 and no trace of her has been found.

Her disappearance triggered a massive search in and around the Hermits Cove neighborhood, not far from the St. Johns River in South Putnam.

Croslin, who was babysitting both Haleigh and her 4-year-old brother Ronald Cummings Jr., said she last saw the girl at 10 p.m. Feb. 9. Haleigh was reported missing a few hours later at 3:27 a.m.

Though the number of tips continues to swell, Schauland said information from the public likely would play a critical role in solving the case.

"Of course we're following up every one of them," he said during the press conference. "Sooner or later the one we need is going to come up and it's going to make the difference."

Schauland added, "There's no persons of interest or suspects."

Meanwhile, rewards totaling $16,000 are being offered for information leading to the discovery of Haleigh.

The bulk of that fund, $10,000, was given to local authorities by "an anonymous contributor here in Putnam County," Schauland said.

Another $5,000 was provided by the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation of Modesto, Calif., and $1,000 is being offered by Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida.

Haleigh is described as 3 feet tall and weighing 39 pounds with blond hair.

Investigators are not discouraged as the case goes into its 10th day, Pape said.


  No POI~I call BS on that! We are on day 10, and they still don't seem to be able to clear these two, JMO-but IF these two passed their poly's that would have gone along wa in clearing them and moving on .....I think it's time to agressively question these two and maybe tossing them in jail for neglect, gun charges, etc., could make somene (maybe Misty) break. This fiasco has gone on far too long while this child is still missing.

[pharlap]

Tip Takes Search for Haleigh to Tennessee

SATSUMA, FL -- The search for Haleigh took investigators to Tennessee, First Coast News has learned.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol confirms that Sunday afternoon a witness claimed to have seen a man with a girl matching Haleigh's description at a Carrabba's in Knoxville.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/amberalerts/news-article.aspx?storyid=131662&catid=295

[cookie]

I agree that they need to put more pressure on these 2...especially Misty..

In the above post where it said that Misty said that she was home with the kids and that they watched movies and that Haleigh snuggled into the blanket, didn't it say before somewhere that Haleigh was covered with a sheet cause Misty was washing blankets cause someone had peed on the blankets? which was it, a sheet or a blanket that she was covered with?
I don't believe her...I think that she had gone out and she is too afraid to tell...costing valuable time in finding HC cause she is trying cover her own bum....just my opinion of course...

[cookie]

Isn't the cousin who had been visiting with Misty earlier in the evening from Tennessee? the cousin who had supposedly messed with Misty when she was younger? how old is that cousin? in saying "messing" with her, could it have been 2  young cousins just fooling around as kids and that is why nothing was ever done about it?

[Brandi]

Taken from the above news report:

"Croslin said she met Cummings about six months ago when she was baby-sitting for a woman who had a child with Cummings.

Croslin said she was concerned the baby boy was not being cared for properly.

“I told him you need to get your son before something bad happens to him,” she said. Croslin said the two started talking. She was 16 at the time."

 

I've read earlier rumors that Ron had another child with someone else, this confirms that as being true.  Wondering if we'll hear from that woman anytime soon, and if there are anymore little Ronald's running around... 

and notice her statement.. kinda makes you go hmmm since she was the LAST ONE known to have been with/seen this missing little girl...

Makes me worry about how that son is being cared for right now, if there was an issue 6 months ago.

[Brandi]

Isn't the cousin who had been visiting with Misty earlier in the evening from Tennessee? the cousin who had supposedly messed with Misty when she was younger? how old is that cousin? in saying "messing" with her, could it have been 2  young cousins just fooling around as kids and that is why nothing was ever done about it?

This is what I have in my notes about the cousin:

Croslin also told the Times-Union that the day Haleigh disappeared, she told authorities a cousin who had been staying in Crescent City for about a month went back to Tennessee. She said the cousin had “messed with” her sexually when she was a child but not been deemed a sexual offender.

The cousin had visited the mobile home she shared with Cummings but was told not to come back when a gun in the house turned up missing around the same time, she said.

And this from Wyks notes:
Perry, Jeff
cousin of Misty, lives in west Nashville TN, married 5 years to Maria Boyles Perry, 2 yr old son. His myspace is http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=100325897

[Brandi]

In his myspace site, he has a picture of him holding a baby, with the caption: "I think I might want a little girl" Creepy under the circumstances, but could be perfectly innocent.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=100325897&albumID=630510&imageID=17062335

[Brandi]

Tip Takes Search for Haleigh to Tennessee
SATSUMA, FL -- The search for Haleigh took investigators to Tennessee, First Coast News has learned.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol confirms that Sunday afternoon a witness claimed to have seen a man with a girl matching Haleigh's description at a Carrabba's in Knoxville.

There was a brief search which resulted in nothing.

<snipped>
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/amberalerts/news-article.aspx?storyid=131662&catid=295

[pharlap]

Another board just said an arrest has been made.
I'm watching cnn now.....don't see anything yet....