March 19, 2024, 12:08:06 AM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: NEW CHILD BOARD CREATED IN THE POLITICAL SECTION FOR THE 2016 ELECTION
 
   Home   Help Login Register  
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Show transcripts  (Read 100174 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Sassycat
Monkey All Star Jr.
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 7502



« Reply #140 on: August 19, 2010, 10:00:52 AM »

http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1008/18/ng.01.html

NANCY GRACE

Croslin`s Attorney Says She Hid While Haleigh Was Taken

Aired August 18, 2010 - 20:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, Satsuma, Florida. A 5- year-old girl tucked into bed, five hours later, she`s gone. Daddy comes home from the night shift to find not a trace of little Haleigh. The last person to see her alive, new stepmother Misty Croslin, who goes on to flunk four polygraphs. Haleigh`s father, Ronald Cummings, and stepmother Croslin both booked on drug trafficking. Search times, cadaver dogs, scuba divers all combing the St. John`s River as the search for the entire body and the murder weapon goes on.

Bombshell tonight. Did Croslin finally crack? Her attorney, in the halls of the courthouse itself, just reveals explosive allegations, insisting the last night Haleigh is seen alive, the little girl is assaulted, screaming, then kidnapped, carried away in a black bag. A van door slides open, slams shut, drives away. But can Croslin and even her attorney be believed? Do we finally have our answers? What happened to 5- year-old Haleigh?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, I`m going to call it a homicide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The attorney says Croslin was hiding under a blanket but could hear the 5-year-old girl screaming.

HANK CROSLIN, MISTY`S FATHER: What ever you know, you can tell.

MISTY CROSLIN, HALEIGH`S BABY-SITTER: Daddy, I have. It`s not my fault they don`t listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How can you be under the covers and also see her in the bag?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and saw Overstreet put Haleigh in a black bag.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None if it makes sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She heard Haleigh in there crying. She grabbed Junior and got into bed and they covered up their heads completely. And when she took the covers off of her head, Haleigh was gone.

RONALD CUMMINGS, HALEIGH`S FATHER: I just want my daughter back!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re hoping to make an arrest this case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she first told the story about the night Haleigh went missing, she said the back door was propped open with a cinderblock.

911 OPERATOR: You said your back door was wide open?

MISTY CROSLIN: Yes. It was brick -- like, a brick on the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First thing that I was told was that Joe had killed her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s so many people talking.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t even know whether she was dead when she hit the water or not.

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, HALEIGH`S MOTHER: Nobody knows the pain that I go through. Nobody!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, a little girl vanishes from a birthday party just two blocks from her own home. Tonight, where is 13-year-old Karina (ph)?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 13-year-old girl, missing Karina Valencia, was at a friend`s birthday party around 6:30 PM Saturday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very extensive investigation is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Los Angeles police are desperately searching.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her frequent points of contact would be at the library in Sylmar. She also frequents a park on Polk Street and Brandon Avenue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police stay it`s possible Karina may have left party to meet up with an unidentified male she met on the Internet via MySpace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was in contact with a person, apparently, on MySpace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the last time anyone saw her. Police are very concerned for her safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, she`s been missing since Saturday?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karina has not had any contact with her family since Saturday night -- missing 13-year-old girl, who may have been headed to meet a man she met on MySpace. Police are searching the area for any sign of Karina and have asked the public`s help in locating her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She weighs about 90 pounds and she`s about 5-foot, 3.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last seen wearing a white Madonna (ph) shirt and black shorts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to think you for being with us. bombshell tonight. Did Croslin, Misty Croslin, finally crack? Her attorney there in the halls of courthouse just reveals explosive allegations that the last night Haleigh alive, the little girl is assaulted, screaming, then carried away in a van in a black bag.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY CROSLIN: They need to move on, get away from me, get off from me. They need to move on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Misty Croslin`s lawyer says Croslin was hiding under a blanket but could hear the 5-year-old girl screaming...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t believe anything that Misty says.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... and saw Overstreet put Haleigh in a black bag.

SHEFFIELD: Deep in my heart, I know she`s out there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s told so many stories. Whatever it is, it needs to be proven.

TOMMY CROSLIN, MISTY`S BROTHER: I don`t know why she`s making up (EXPLETIVE DELETED). She probably knows something.

MISTY CROSLIN: I don`t have the answer. I`m not the key in what (INAUDIBLE) It`s not me.

SHEFFIELD: Do I believe my daughter`s dead? No.

MISTY CROSLIN: People keep saying, this person, this person, so you know, in your mind, you`re, like, Well, hey, that`s that person. So you actually start to believe it.

CUMMINGS: If I find whoever has my daughter before y`all do, I`m killing him.

SHEFFIELD: I just want whoever took her to let her go!

CUMMINGS: I know somebody took my little girl!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to investigative journalist Art Harris. Art, the attorney there in the courthouse halls reveals a startling theory, allegation -- it`s more than a theory. It`s allegations about what happened that night, that Haleigh was assaulted, was screaming, then stuffed into a black bag and taken away in the night in a van. What happened?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Nancy, Robert Fields is saying for the first time publicly that Misty Croslin has told police from the beginning that cousin Joe -- cousin Joe came to the trailer looking for a machine gun, got mad, couldn`t find it, grabbed Haleigh...

GRACE: Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Wa-wait! Wait! A machine gun? A machine gun?

HARRIS: Yes, that`s...

GRACE: Before that, it was some other gun. Now it`s a machine gun?

HARRIS: No, no, no. Nancy, it`s always been...

GRACE: Because if I find a crack...

HARRIS: ... a machine gun.

GRACE: ... in this story, Croslin`s just lying again!

HARRIS: No, Nancy. Let me...

GRACE: But Art, if the attorney says it, he must believe it.

HARRIS: The attorney says he came there looking for a machine gun that Ronald had showed off a week or so before. It wasn`t there. He got mad and grabbed Haleigh. Misty is frightened after Joe gropes her, gropes her sexually, roughs her up. She grabs Junior, dives sunder the covers, is cringing as she hears Haleigh screaming, and finally lifts her blanket up a little bit to peek out and sees him toss her in a black bag. And then she pulls the covers back, hears the van door outside slam.

Tommy Croslin was there at the beginning. She said he looked stunned as Joe went crazy. Now, Joe has denied any involvement. But suddenly, Tommy picks up the story and has told his lawyer that he rode down to the river, where he sat in the van. He was high on Xanax. And he looked out and saw Joe take Haleigh to the edge of the dock. But he didn`t see him drop her in.

GRACE: OK, Jean Casarez, why is it at that crucial moment, suddenly, he can`t see anymore? You want to tell me that at the moment this child, most likely still alive, is thrown into the St. John River, he averts his gaze? I don`t believe that for one minute!

JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": I think that`s someone that doesn`t have legal knowledge that thinks that will make them not guilty of any crime. You know, Nancy...

GRACE: Well, actually, Jean, I`ve seen that many, many times. A co- defendant will verify a story as to what happened up until the very moment when the gun is fired or the car takes off or the bank is robbed. Then somehow, they didn`t see exactly what happened at the crucial moment. This is not the first time I have seen this scenario. Go ahead.

CASAREZ: Nancy, when I read this story, heard about it, I immediately went to Florida law. Do you know how many crimes that I believe that there is probable cause that they could be arrested on? May I start with child neglect? But here`s the reality. No one has been charged with anything.

GRACE: And that`s what I don`t understand. To you, Marlaina Schiavo. What more can you tell us?

MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, it`s really bizarre that she said that she peeked out from underneath the cover at the last minute and saw this black bag, Nancy, because if she was underneath the covers -- we`ve seen the layout of the trailer -- where would Joe, the cousin, have to be standing while all of this was happening? So...

GRACE: OK. Great. Thank you, Dana. That`s just what I want to see. Marlaina, look at your screen. What are we seeing?

SCHIAVO: That`s the bedroom. And so she said she was in the larger bed with Junior. Now, you see the doorway is right there. Where would Joe have to be -- cousin Joe have to be doing all of these things she`s saying when it was happening, that she could just peek out? Did she see through the wall? And then she said she heard several doors slamming, but we know that she also said that that back door was propped open with a cinderblock. So again, a lot of inconsistencies.

GRACE: Well, another thing -- back to you, Art Harris. What is giving this credence is that the attorney is saying this. Look, even defense attorneys have some modicum of honor. They`re not going to put out some crazy story, also a story that they may be stuck with when they go back court. They`ll be stuck with that story. They can`t change their minds midstream. The attorney is saying this there in the courthouse halls!

HARRIS: Nancy, what he is saying is that Misty told police right after she was investigated -- arrested back in January and has not really wavered from this story for all these months.

GRACE: Another issue is, it`s my understanding that Croslin says that she saw Haleigh stuffed in a black bag, either a bag, a trash bag or a suitcase. Now, right there, Art, anybody -- my great grandma Clotilde (ph) can see the difference between a suitcase and a trash bag. How can you not know?

HARRIS: Nancy, it was very quick. I don`t know. I can`t explain it. I`m just telling you what Misty has told her attorney. And I reported on Artharris.com that she saw one of the above. It looked like a black bag and was not sure what kind. I can tell you, though, that the next day, Tommy -- I mean, Joe wanted to get that suitcase and was too nervous to go to the house, according to a person who drove him to a convenience store.

GRACE: Well, I think they should all be charged because she was there when it happened. She did nothing to help. And the -- Tommy Croslin in the car -- he did nothing to help. Do they think that`s going to save their skin at trial?

Out to the lines. Ann in Louisiana. Hi, Ann.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. It`s nice to talk with you again.

GRACE: Likewise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a quick question, which really is about this case but could apply to so many you`re covering (INAUDIBLE) I know that they can triangulate a person`s phone and find out where they were at a particular time. But I`m wondering, does technology allow them to somehow use the tower and just check what other phones were at that place at that time so they could maybe find out who else was in the area? Is that technically possible, do you know?

GRACE: Now, that is a good question. Let us go to Marc Harrold, former officer, APD, attorney, author of "Observations of White Noise," joining us out of D.C. Marc Harrold, what about it, Marc? Is that possible?

MARC HARROLD, FMR. ATLANTA POLICE OFFICER AND ATTORNEY: Yes, it`s technically possible, but you`d really have to -- I mean, to make it even practical to do, you`d have to have the phones you were looking for to see if they had pinged off those towers. Technically, you could backtrack, like a reverse directory with phone numbers, and work up what phones had pinged off that tower. But we`re talking about, you know, even in a rural area, it`d be almost impractical to do. It`d be very expensive to do if you were just looking generally to see which phones had pinged off that tower. But if you had a collection of, say, 10, 20 phones, you may be able to do that and figure out which ones had pinged off that tower and triangulate to find out...

GRACE: So you`re saying...

HARROLD: ... which phones were in the area.

GRACE: ... you can reverse ping.

Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, renowned attorney out of LA, Gloria Allred, Raymond Giudice, defense attorney, Atlanta, Randy Kessler, defense attorney, Atlanta.

First to you, Gloria. What do you think of this? It`s not just Croslin. It`s now her attorney giving this story right there in the halls of the courthouse!

GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIMS` RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Interesting, Nancy. And the question is, why is he disclosing this to the press? Obviously, the sheriff is very, very upset that these kinds of details are being provided to the public by the attorney because the sheriff feels that it could in some way impede his investigation. So what`s the motive? What`s the agenda of the defense attorney? How does he think this is going to help his client?

GRACE: Ray Giudice?

RAYMOND GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think he may be just be trying to force the sheriff`s office hand. If this story...

GRACE: Oh, please!

GIUDICE: ... has been in existence for a year-and-a-half...

GRACE: That`s not working.

GIUDICE: ... the problem is that the state`s attorney doesn`t want to go to trial with Misty Croslin as his star witness. They want to corroborate either by physical evidence or another witness. The problem is, in the last year-and-a-half, she`s become a worse witness for them.

GRACE: Kessler?

RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think he`s saying, Enough is enough. My client`s been accused of being the murderer in the whole public eye. Everyone thinks she did it. She didn`t do it. She might have done something bad, but not what everybody thinks.

GRACE: Well, you know what? Even by her own words, if I were prosecuting this case, they would all stew in the same pot. I`d put all four of them, all three of them on trial together.

Everybody, quick break. We are taking your calls. But as we go to break, I want to thank you so much for supporting our new book "Death on the D-List." You made it a "New York Times`" best seller. We just found out before I went on the air tonight. My proceeds going to a Methodist home for the handicapped. I can`t thank you enough. Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY CROSLIN: I didn`t do anything with that little girl!

JOE OVERSTREET, MISTY`S COUSIN: I didn`t do it.

TOMMY CROSLIN: And I had nothing to do with none of that crap.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New information from the last known person to see Haleigh Cummings.

MISTY CROSLIN: I woke up, she was gone!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The woman baby-sitting Haleigh Cummings the night she disappeared changing her story.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Misty Croslin believes that Joe Overstreet, her cousin, was looking for a gun...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... a machine gun...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... that belonged to Haleigh`s father, but he couldn`t find it that night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Overstreet couldn`t find it, she claims he took Haleigh instead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... according to Misty Croslin`s attorney...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Croslin says she heard Haleigh scream, cry and struggle. And then Croslin says she saw her cousin, Joe Overstreet, put Haleigh into a black bag.

SHEFFIELD: This is a 5-year-old baby!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would you hide and let a little 5-year-old scream like that? You know, how can the neighbors hot hear her?

MISTY CROSLIN: They`re going to know.

I just got to wait until I can -- my lawyer is ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Right now, out to Leonard Padilla, bounty hunter, who was working a deal to get Croslin out from behind bars, bail her out. Leonard, what do you make of this, the fact that the attorney has committed to this story, to these allegations, right there in the courthouse halls? That`s big deal.

LEONARD PADILLA, BOUNTY HUNTER: Well, he`s a defense attorney. You were always a prosecutor. And defense attorneys -- basically, he`s got -- he`s trying to get her down to a youthful offender situation. And there`s nothing wrong in him repeating what she states. He`s not lying about what she`s stating. He might be, you know, over-emphasizing certain issues and points. But what he`s trying to do is get her down to a youthful offender level and not 30 years in prison.

But the thing about Misty is that every time she`s told a story, it doesn`t make that much sense. The one thing that missing in this whole jigsaw puzzle is Timmy. That van came from Timmy`s house. Everybody has said, OK, the van was there. It came from Timmy`s house. But yet they throw Joe in the van. I don`t think Joe ever was at that trailer that night.

The thing about a gun begin stolen and all that -- that had taken place when Joe Overstreet first came to Satsuma. That was about a month before. And they recovered that gun. And that had nothing to do with this particular situation.

I don`t think he was looking for a gun. I don`t think he was there. He was asleep at Tim`s house. I`d be looking to Tim and saying, Wait a minute, you`re the guy that moved to Massachusetts right away. And also, I`ve talked extensively to Jennifer (ph), who drove with Joe to Tennessee.

That`s not to say that I believe everything that these folks say, but there was nothing awkward in anything that he said to her along the way. They stopped at a gas station, emptied some stuff out of the car. FBI got ahold of that shortly thereafter.

GRACE: Well, let me ask you this...

PADILLA: I have a lot of faith in law enforcement.

GRACE: Leonard, why is it that she goes missing and he hightails it out of town the very next day?

PADILLA: It was a scheduled trip. Jennifer was going back to Tennessee, and it was scheduled. He stuck around the next morning and hung fliers. He didn`t leave that night, or you know, early in the morning. He was out hanging fliers with Misty. When we got into town, there was no suspicion.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Leslie, South Carolina. Hi, Leslie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I just wanted to say I am not impressed with the law enforcement down there. And I`m not blaming them for this. Misty Croslin may be young, but I think she`s extremely street smart. Four polygraphs -- I believe she knows they`re not admissible in court. Also, if she has been charged with these drug charges, then -- and she committed this crime, what`s to make her confess?

GRACE: You know, you`re absolutely right. Gloria Allred, does she have law enforcement over the barrel?

ALLRED: Well, she certainly cannot be compelled to say anything more than she`s already said, and she has in some ways given inconsistent statements. So in a way, yes, law enforcement has to figure out how to extract from her any other evidence that they have not already extracted.

GRACE: What about it, Marc Klaas?

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: She`s got everybody over the barrel! She is -- she has Van der Slooted this story to the point where she has absolutely no credibility whatsoever and any story that she says will have to have verification and/or proof in order to be believed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANK CROSLIN: Don`t be holding nothing back from nobody. Just...

MISTY CROSLIN: Daddy, I`m not!

HANK CROSLIN: ... get it out there. Let it out, Man. Tell the truth.

GRACE: ... the St. Johns River...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All along, she`s saying she didn`t know anything.

MISTY CROSLIN: I don`t know where she is!

I`m not hiding anything.

I don`t!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Misty Croslin`s lawyer told local media...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Joe Overstreet...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... and another man came to the house...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he was looking for a machine gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Overstreet couldn`t find it, she claims, he took Haleigh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He took his frustrations out on Misty Croslin and then moved on to Haleigh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things just don`t ad up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Croslin says she and Haleigh`s little brother hid under the covers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would you hide...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She heard Haleigh scream.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How could the neighbors not hear her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her cousin, Joe Overstreet, put Haleigh into a black bag.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... black bag...

OVERSTREET: I didn`t do it!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Back to Art Harris, investigative journalist on the case from the very gang. Art, what prompted the lawyer to reveal this allegation there in the halls of the courthouse?

HARRIS: Nancy, I think it was a surprise, combination of being surprised by the reporters but also frustration that this was a story...

GRACE: Wait, wait, wait. Art, surprised by the reporters? Reporters are all over this story! How could he be surprised by reporters?

HARRIS: Well, Nancy...

GRACE: It`s not like they jumped out from behind the trees in a courthouse hall!

HARRIS: Well, let`s just say it happened. Beyond that, this was a story that he knew she had been telling to police from the beginning. So from his point of view, she has been consistent and has told me she`s been squeezed...

GRACE: Now, wait a minute! Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Dana, pull up the 911 call. Basically! This is not what she told the police at the beginning. Remember, it was only when the daddy, Ronald Cummings, gets home that he finds out the child`s not there. Then they call police. So at the beginning, she wasn`t telling police this story!

HARRIS: Nancy, I meant in the beginning of the arrest phase, after she was popped for drugs, this is the story she`s told since January.

GRACE: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!

HARRIS: Story number two -- I`m not advocating. I`m saying this is his consistent story. He`s saying (INAUDIBLE)

GRACE: Let`s take it back. Hold on, Art. Hold on. This is what she said at the very beginning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, let me talk to your wife. Let me get some information from her.

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: Can I talk to her?

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: OK.

CUMMINGS: How the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) can you let my daughter get stolen (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911. What`s your emergency?

MISTY CROSLIN: Hi. I just woke up and our back door was wide open, and we can`t find our daughter.

911 OPERATOR: You can`t find what?

MISTY CROSLIN: Our daughter.

911 OPERATOR: OK, when did you last see her?

MISTY CROSLIN: We was just, like -- you know, it was about 10:00 o`clock. She was sleeping.

911 OPERATOR: You said your back door was wide open?

MISTY CROSLIN: Yes. It was brick -- like, a brick on the floor. Like, when I went to sleep, the door was not like that.

911 OPERATOR: OK, the back door -- listen to me. Your back door was wide open? What are you talking about a brick?

MISTY CROSLIN: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: What -- what is the brick?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLORA HOLLARS, MISTY CROSLIN AND JOE OVERSTREET`S GRANDMOTHER: Those three grandkids of mine is involved in this. And I don`t know why.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A horrifying new story emerges about Haleigh Cummings.

MISTY CROSLIN, FORMER STEPMOM/BABYSITTER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: They`re going to know. They`re going to know.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Misty Croslin, the last one to see the little girl, now claims the child was violently attacked.

M. CROSLIN: When I woke up, she was gone.

JOE OVERSTREET, MISTY CROSLIN`S COUSIN: I didn`t do (EXPLETIVE DELETED). My story and I`m sticking to it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And saw Overstreet put Haleigh in a black bag.

OVERSTREET: I didn`t do it.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: All three are pointing the finger at each other.

HOLLARS: And what Tommy told me.

TOMMY CROSLIN, MISTY CROSLIN`S BROTHER: They don`t want to listen to me.

HOLLARS: Says, Nanny, I have got to break down.

T. CROSLIN: I promise you, I`m done with all this stupid (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

HOLLARS: I got to tell somebody.

T. CROSLIN: And don`t be making stories.

M. CROSLIN: I was like, oh my god.

T. CROSLIN: Misty is going to get her little butt kicked.

HANK CROSLIN, MISTY CROSLIN`S FATHER: You tell them where Haleigh is, bring Haleigh home.

M. CROSLIN: I`m not -- I can`t just bring her home, you know?

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. For those of you just joining us, explosive allegations, not from Croslin but actually from her attorney there in the halls of the courthouse.

As we go to air, we learned that he has stated little Haleigh taken out of the home that night, assaulted, then screaming -- taken out of the home in a black bag, thrown into a van. The doors slam, the van disappears.

To Dr. Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist. You know what? Marc Klaas was right and Art Harris is right about Misty Croslin. Can we believe anything she says at this juncture? Because that`s where the lawyer is getting his information.

PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: No, I -- we really can`t believe anything she says. She -- I think mixes little bits of reality in with fabrication. Let`s not forget, Nancy, this whole family are substance abusers so their sense of reality is fluid and so is their conscience. It`s easy for her to lie.

GRACE: Well, speaking of the family, take a listen to what some of the family has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: I understand that you believe there is a scenario in which little Haleigh was molested before she was murdered?

HOLLARS: I feel like that.

GRACE: Why?

HOLLARS: I just don`t know but that`s what I think.

GRACE: Isn`t it true that there has been a scenario put out there and it had to come from behind bars that Misty Croslin heard the child in the next room screaming?

HOLLARS: Yes.

GRACE: Where did that come from?

HOLLARS: So did little Junior hear the couch bouncing.

GRACE: And my question is, where did that story come from?

HOLLARS: They came from Misty.

GRACE: What did she say?

HOLLARS: That she heard Haleigh in there crying.

GRACE: And who was in the courtroom with Haleigh?

HOLLARS: I`m going to say Joe or Tommy, one.

GRACE: Or both.

HOLLARS: Or both.

GRACE: What, if anything, did Misty Croslin do to take care of Haleigh?

HOLLARS: According to what she told me, when all this was going on, she had already been threatened by Joe and she grabbed Junior and got in the bed and they covered up their heads completely and when she took the covers off of her head, Haleigh was gone.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And back to the lawyers. Gloria Allred, L.A., Raymond Giudice, Atlanta, Randy Kessler, Atlanta.

Kessler, where does this leave Tommy Croslin if what the attorney says today at the courthouse is to be believed? He is basically saying I was just along for the ride. There is no along for the ride in a murder case. You are part and parcel of the whole thing.

RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, he is going to be along for the ride. It`s going to be a long ride sitting in jail for a long time. It`s going to be felony murder plus all the other things.

You`re right. You can`t bury your head and say I didn`t see it. That doesn`t count.

GRACE: And of course, to you, Gloria, in our jurisprudence system there is no duty to act. It`s not his duty to go save the child, but the fact that he rode along, and basically the kidnap van, and was there when the child was murdered, to my mind, makes him part and parcel of it.

GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIM`S RIGHTS ATTORNEY, CHILD ADVOCATE: Well, yes, and that`s what the defense attorney was just arguing and I think he`s right that if in fact there is a charge, it maybe that he`s going to be involved at least as a -- part of the felony murder if in fact that`s what there is evidence to support.

GRACE: And you know, Ray Giudice, I don`t buy into this whole "I was afraid of Joe Overstreet so I hid under the sheets". What`s hiding under the sheets? If you`re afraid, you`d run out the door. If you really are afraid, why would you hide under a sheet? That doesn`t make any sense?

RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I don`t buy the story at all. And I think Putnam County Sheriff`s Department doesn`t either.

But let me just disagree with you. If her story is believed -- you just pointed out -- she has no obligation to stop a felony, meaning the kidnapping and the harm to that child. And in fact, she has an argument that she was protecting the other child in the bed by staying there with him.

GRACE: Really, Ray, is that so?

GIUDICE: She -- if her case --

GRACE: Then that -- does that theory extend to lying to police in the 911 call?

GIUDICE: Nancy, I`d roll her in and plead her to an obstruction tomorrow --

GRACE: Roll her in and --

(CROSSTALK)

GIUDICE: -- if we didn`t have to worry about a murder case. If we didn`t have to worry about a murder case.

GRACE: Yes, well --

GIUDICE: f her story is true, she will not be charged with murder.

GRACE: You`re making up in your mind.

GIUDICE: No.

GRACE: Because there is a murder case.

GIUDICE: I`m going --

GRACE: If we`re not dealing with murder -- we are dealing with murder of a 5-year-old girl.

GIUDICE: I`m going -- no. Nancy, I`m going with the story that the lawyers told in the courthouse. If that story is true --

GRACE: That`s murder.

GIUDICE: -- she will not be charged with murder. Write it down. She will not be charged with murder.

GRACE: OK. Yes, you know what, Ray? I am writing it down.

GIUDICE: OK, I`ll be back.

GRACE: To Dr. Leigh Vinocur, University of Maryland School of Medicine, joining us out of New York.

Dr. Vinocur, to prove a murder case it would help if we had the body.

DR. LEIGH VINOCUR, M.D., UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: True.

GRACE: If we find the body this much later, she`s just -- would have just turned 7 years old. What could you expect to find?

VINOCUR: Well, you wouldn`t have a lot of DNA evidence. It was like what happened with the other little girl in Florida. Sometimes, depending on the condition the body was kept in, whether you had bones and such. So it would be very hard to prove abuse in those types of thing if it was this far out.

GRACE: But, Art Harris, back to you. Where the body is found, the manner in which it is found, would add to a murder charge. And based on the story that you are reporting, how would she have been found?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, ARTHARRIS.COM: That`s just it Nancy. The currents are swift. The gators are mean. And where are you going to find bones? And by then, of course, as you know -- and medical examiners have testified -- there is very little evidence that could be linked to even Joe`s knife that he was supposedly carrying.

GRACE: And to my mind, to my mind, Jean Casarez, if the decomposed body was found -- of course, by now it would just be skeletonized. Depending on how it was hidden if it were in fact in a black bag, that would go a long way to proving that the story is true.

Probably not her involvement or she would have told at the beginning if she were not involved in some way she would have picked up the phone and called 911.

JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Exactly. And that`s what I`ve been waiting to say. Because if we take the scenario as true, she did not call 911.

And, Nancy, am I missing something? She was the caregiver that night. That was her job. That`s why she was at the home that night. To take care of the children. And a caregiver does have a duty and does have responsibility. And by not calling 911 that aids to the neglect of the child.

GRACE: Well, you know, Jean, it`s not just not calling 911. She calls when the father comes home.

CASAREZ: She never called.

GRACE: And lie.

CASAREZ: The father called.

GRACE: Yes, you`re right.

CASAREZ: Ronald called.

GRACE: He dialed the number.

CASAREZ: Yes.

GRACE: Remember, the story she gives is a lie. It`s a lie.

CASAREZ: That`s right.

GRACE: So she, in effect, covered up for what happened. And Tommy Croslin saying he was high on Xanax that doesn`t impress me one bit as to his innocence.

Out to the lines, Diana, Washington. Hi, Diana.

DIANA, CALLER FROM WASHINGTON: Hi, it`s nice to talk to you again.

GRACE: Hi, dear.

DIANE: You guys have said pretty much everything I was going to ask except I have got another question. The first thing is if he was high on Xanax, he`d be asleep. You can`t get high on Xanax, it puts you to sleep.

But anyway, if he is in a black bag -- what I was going to say, why don`t they charge them all, but you`ve already touched on that a couple of times. So if she is in a black bag and she was in the river, OK, she`s probably gone. But if she`s in a black bag, have they even tried or thought about maybe digging up around the area?

GRACE: That`s good question.

DIANA: And I think she should be charged, too.

GRACE: I think she should, too. I think they are all part of it. They are all a party to the crime.

To Art Harris, didn`t they actually do some excavating there?

HARRIS: Yes, Nancy. Divers went down and they dug a bunch of things up including a bone. It turned out to be a Native American Indian bone and you find a lot of those in that area.

But to go back to the bag and the body, the story is that they dumped the body in, weigh it down with a cinder block, tied by a yellow rope, similar rope was found Tommy`s house the next day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Who killed Haleigh Cummings?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Divers removed two cinder blocks which are being examined.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He misses his baby. Good lord, his heart`s tore out.

RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: Please, all I want is my child. That`s it.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: I know somebody took my little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m comfortable to go ahead and say that I`m going to call it a homicide.

CUMMINGS: Sorry piece of trash.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He`s revealed to investigators that her cousin Joe Overstreet, he took Haleigh.

M. CROSLIN: People keep saying this person, this person, so you know in your mind, you`re, like, hey, it`s that person. So you actually start to believe it. Like the Joe thing.

CUMMINGS: If I find whoever has my daughter before you all do I`m killing them.

TERESA NEVES, HALEIGH CUMMINGS` MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: Just want whoever took her to let her go.

CUMMINGS: I don`t care. I will spend the rest of my life in prison. I`m telling you. You can put it on recording. I don`t care.

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, BIOLOGICAL MOTHER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: I just want my baby home.

T. CROSLIN: If I knew something you`d know a long time ago. Leave me alone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joe Overstreet has been a person who Misty Croslin. And it appears he`ll --

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. The attorney for Croslin gives the story as to what happened to little Haleigh the night she was last seen alive. The story that she was heard screaming in the next room, thrown in a black bag, then placed in a van and disappeared into the night.

Is it finally for real?

Out to the lines, Missy in Indiana. Hi, Missy.

MISSY, CALLER FROM INDIANA: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

MISSY: Question is, I -- I don`t think it`s ever been asked that why in the world was Ronald even with Misty after he filed for divorce? I mean they got arrested together. But no one, I don`t think, has ever asked the question why were they together?

GRACE: To Leonard Padilla, bounty hunter who`s offered to bail Croslin out, intimately involved in this case. Why did they get back together? Do you believe the story he was trying to get information about Haleigh?

LEONARD PADILLA, BOUNTY HUNTER, OFFERED TO BAIL MISTY CROSLIN OUT OF JAIL: No, absolutely not. He likes young girls and she happened to be the young girl of the day. And even the divorce thing, the marriage, all of that stuff was all concocted by thinking that somehow they needed protection.

But in Florida, it doesn`t give you the wife/husband privilege. And why go out and look for another young girl when you have got one handy anyhow? And it`s all drug-related. And --

GRACE: You know, you`re right.

PADILLA: And the whole thing was a scam as far as what happened to that child.

GRACE: You`re right about Florida law. When it comes to the victimization of a child, the husband/wife privilege does not apply.

Back to Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation, what do you think?

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I think that Leonard`s absolutely correct about Misty being the young girl of the moment and the young girl that was there.

I think that this is -- and I have said this before. This comes back to a small circle of individuals. This was not a stranger-generated attack on a little girl. This was about people that like young girls, people that like drugs, people that like guns, people that have no moral compass.

And basically, whatever happened that night -- and we`ll only know if it`s ever proven -- goes back to a very, very few people, many of whom we have been talking about this evening.

GRACE: Marc Klaas, this is your expertise. I think you are right.

Everybody, we`re taking your calls. But we`re switching gears. I want to her -- I want you to hear about a little who goes missing from a birthday party just two blocks from her own house. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A missing 13-year-old girl. Police say Karina Valencia was seen at a friend`s birthday party in the area around 6:30 p.m. Saturday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit more to it than just the average kid that gets in a little tick with mom or dad and walks away for a few hours.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: MySpace. Cops say it`s possible Karina left the party to meet up with an unidentified make she met on MySpace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young girl is radical, I think, on the Web site MySpace and things like that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She has not been seen or had any contact with her family. Police are searching the area for any sign of Karina.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You should ask a simple question, would you leave with somebody that you don`t know?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Karina stands five foot tall, 90 pounds, long brown hair and brown eyes, last seen wearing a white Madonna shirt and black shorts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don`t know him and leave with nobody that I don`t know.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: California authorities are concerned for the welfare of a missing 13-year-old girl. Police are searching the area and have asked the public`s help in locating her.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to Sebastian Kunz, anchor with Green 960 AM joining out of San Francisco via Skype.

Sebastian, how do you disappear? How does a little girl disappear from a birthday party?

SEBASTIAN KUNZ, REPORTER, GREEN 960 AM, COVERING STORY: It`s unclear, Nancy. And we`re still awaiting information from the police regarding specifics. In fact, we understand in the next 13 minutes or so there is a news conference or police will be giving us some more information.

But you know, it all started Saturday night, a party, not far, just blocks away apparently from the family`s home. And family and friends were in fact in attendance at the party and young Karina also reportedly had no history of running away, which is why they are continuing to look a little more with concern. And obviously it`s been a few days since Saturday.

GRACE: You`re right, Sebastian Kunz. Sebastian, joining us from Green 960 AM.

To "L.A. Weekly" staff writer Dennis Romero, I don`t get it. At the birthday party there`s family, there`s friends, she`s a little girl. How could you lose a child at a birthday party a couple of blocks from your home?

DENNIS ROMERO, STAFF WRITER, LA WEEKLY, COVERING STORY: Well, it seems possible that she might have been in contact with some older boys or men that she had met on MySpace.

It`s also possible now that there was another party that she might have attended that night in which there was a shooting. Six people were injured at that party. And the LAPD is going to have a us in news conference to release some information about a possible connection between her case and the party.

GRACE: To Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation. Cops are telling us she`s at a birthday party -- this little girl. You`re seeing her picture right now. She is Karina Valencia, 5`3", 90 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a white Madonna shirt, black shorts.

She is at a party with her family. How do you vanish from a birthday party? Something`s not right, Marc.

KLAAS: Well, if in fact she had met somebody on MySpace and there`s a pervert thought who had spent some time grooming her, he could very easily have convinced her to meet him at a neutral location, a location where there wouldn`t be people present so that he could quickly control and overwhelm her.

That certainly is not an impossibility at all. It happened. It`s happened before. And until governments in this country get it together and understand that these threats exist online, it will continue to happen.

GRACE: To Dr. Saunders, clinical psychologist joining us out of New York, a child this young can be so trusting to somebody that they meet online. They don`t know anything about the person. But they believe they know them. They`ve got a false sense of security because they`ve been conversing online.

SAUNDERS: That`s right, Nancy. There was a study that was just published this past June about risky Internet behavior and teenagers and tweens, and what was really scary was that 46 percent of the kids share personal information to strangers.

Only a tenth of those kids give things like their address, description and photographs of themselves. But parents really have to watch what kids are doing on places like MySpace. Kids are trusting. It`s exciting. It`s romantic and it`s rebellious. And they`re likely to act on it.

GRACE: Two hundred, thirty-three registered sex offenders there in that area, just surrounding -- just the five miles surrounding where Karina was last seen.

Back to Sebastian Kunz from 960 AM. Sebastian, what have police done to try to find the little girl?

KUNZ: Well, Nancy, you heard the one police officer say right there she`s known for being prolific on MySpace. They`ve been taking a close look at the social networking aspect of this and trying to figure out exactly who she was in contact with prior to the party.

And, you know, if there was perhaps a rendezvous that occurred following the party that maybe they aren`t aware of yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Karina Valencia, a missing 13-year-old girl. She was at a friend`s birthday party around 6:30 p.m. Saturday night. That was the last time anyone saw her.

California authorities are concerned. She has not been or had any contact with her family. May have been headed to meet a man she met on MySpace.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Karina Valencia was at a friend`s birthday party around 6:30 p.m. Saturday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A very extensive investigation is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thirteen-year-old girl, she was last seen two blocks away from her Sylmar home.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Los Angeles Police are desperately searching.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young girl is radical, I think, on the Web site MySpace and things like that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police say it`s possible Karina may have left the party to meet up with an unidentified male she met on the Internet via MySpace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through our investigation we`ve determined that she has in fact been in contact with several males much older than she is.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Dennis Romero, did she have a cell phone?

ROMERO: Yes, she did. In fact I talked to her sister today. And she told me that she was in constant contact with her older sister until she went missing on Saturday. And that`s one of the reasons they were quite concerned. There weren`t very many times where she was out of touch like this.

GRACE: Well, to Marc Harrold, if she`s in constant contact with people via cell phone, that she`s texting, certainly there are messages that they can investigate.

MARC HARROLD, FMR. OFFICER, ATLANTA PD & DIGITAL EVIDENCE EXPERT, AUTHOR OF "OBSERVATIONS OF WHITE NOISE": Yes. Sort of the same thing we talked about earlier. You know, you can go to the third party, the -- Internet service provider and hopefully get a lot of those texts.

GRACE: Exactly.

HARROLD: Depending on how the settings are on the phone that she has and how advanced the phone is. And again, like we`ve said, you want to triangulate that phone and see if it`s on if you can find her so -- you know, there are a lot of --

GRACE: Good point, Marc Harrold.

To Rhonda in Missouri, hi, Rhonda, what`s your question?

RHONDA, CALLER FROM MISSOURI: Hi, Nancy. I watch your show all the time.

GRACE: Thank you.

RHONDA: My question is -- she`s such a young girl, only 13 years old. And my question is why did her family let her out at such a young age?

GRACE: That`s what I don`t get. Marc Klaas, did they know she was leaving the party -- quickly?

KLAAS: I have no idea what they knew. But we have to understand that kids can access the Internet through a variety of devices. It`s not only the home computer.

GRACE: Everybody, tip line, 818-838-9800.

Let`s stop and remember Army Captain Ralph Jay Harting III, 28, Union Lake, Michigan, killed Iraq. West Point grad. Awarded Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation, Army Achievement, National Defense Service.

Lived by the West Point motto -- duty, horn, country. Loved soccer. Leaves behind parents June and Ralph, brothers Lawrence and William, serving the Navy, sister, Sara, widow, Jennifer. Children Warren, Ralph IV, and Adeline.

Ralph Jay Harting, American Hero.

Thanks to our guests for especially to you for being with us. And a special goodnight from Florida friends, winners of the Angel Ball Auction, Tom and June. And Georgia friend, Carol. Now that`s a classy bunch.

And good luck to one of our stars, Marlaina. Competing tomorrow night in the "Funniest Reporter Contest", Gotham Comedy Club.

Everybody, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END


http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1008/18/ng.01.html
Logged
Sassycat
Monkey All Star Jr.
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 7502



« Reply #141 on: August 21, 2010, 06:37:03 AM »

http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1008/20/ijvm.01.html

ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL

Ron Cummings Agrees to Plea Deal; Couple Arrested for Keeping Toddlers in Filth; Millions of Eggs Recalled

Aired August 20, 2010 - 19:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight explosive developments in the case of missing Haleigh Cummings. Ron Cummings has just copped a plea deal on drug charges, agreeing to testify in any trial about his daughter`s disappearance. What does this mean for Misty, Tommy and the rest of the key players in this case? A panel of Haleigh experts will weigh in.

And one of the biggest egg recalls ever. The inside story you need to know. You`ll hear it only here on ISSUES.

Plus, the shocking, sickening story of two little girls cops say were living in a filthy, bug-infested home in Georgia. Morbidly obese children, one with rotting teeth, matted hair and head lice, the other found sitting in her own waste. How could their parents let them live in such stomach- churning conditions?

ISSUES starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight breaking news in the Haleigh Cummings case. Haleigh`s own father, Ron Cummings, pleaded guilty today to three drug- trafficking charges. Prosecutors cut him a deal, agreeing to drop two other charges. But now Ron will have to testify for the state when there`s an arrest in little Haleigh`s disappearance. Does this mean the state is expecting to arrest someone and soon?

A smiling Ron Cummings changed his plea from "not guilty" to "guilty" today. He could still get 90 years behind bars when he is sentenced next month.

Haleigh`s biological mother, Crystal Sheffield, was in the courtroom. She is still hoping that Haleigh is somehow alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, HALEIGH`S MOTHER: All I think about is Haleigh and that`s all I`m going to say. And, Haleigh, I love you. And I won`t give up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That poor woman.

Last week, Ron`s ex-wife, Misty Croslin, pleaded no contest to her drug trafficking charges. Misty was baby-sitting little Haleigh the night the girl disappeared. Now Misty claims her cousin, Joe Overstreet, attacked Haleigh that night and stuffed her in a black bag and took off. But can we believe Misty? Cops are not calling Joe a suspect.

And that`s just Misty`s latest story. Is she trying to save her own hide perhaps?

The missing girl`s grandmother has absolutely no sympathy for Misty Croslin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESA NEVES, GRANDMOTHER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: If it turns out to be the truth I think they should hang her, you know, like an old-fashioned hanging in the square kind of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Is Ron`s guilty plea in exchange for testimony a sign that prosecutors are honing in on his ex, Misty Croslin, and believe Ron has information to incriminate her?

Straight out to my fantastic panel.

First to investigative journalist Art Harris.

Art, if they are saying Ron Cummings must testify for the state, is that basically saying they don`t believe Ron is involved in his daughter`s disappearance? Because how can he testify against himself?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: That`s right, Jane. He is one of -- he is their strongest suit right now and has made a deal to testify in the future at anybody`s trial and to keep providing information as needed. So he is not a suspect right now.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ron Cummings reportedly called Misty Croslin dozens of times the night little Haleigh disappeared, but he never got a hold of her. Listen to an exchange that occurred right here on ISSUES just last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEVI PAGE, BLOGGER: Ron dialed the home, Misty`s number 90 times that night. What was he worried about? He knew what went down.

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Exactly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow, he dialed it 90 times that night. Yes, I seem to remember that that is bizarre. Why would he do that before the child went missing?

PAGE: Because he knew what was going on.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, Art Harris, why would Ron call Misty 90 times in one night, in particular on the night Haleigh disappeared, in particular before the child was reported missing while he was still at work?

HARRIS: Remember, Jane, she had just gotten back from this wild revenge weekend of drug, sex, rock `n` roll, and he wanted to check up on her. And didn`t know...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ninety times?

HARRIS: That`s what I reported in ArtHarris.com, more than -- 98 times to be precise.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m sorry. I`ve got to say something. I don`t buy it. First of all, let me go back to Art. Do you know he called 90 times? I mean, do you have information from cops or your sources?

HARRIS: Jane, I reported that from -- from sources very close to the investigation about a month or so ago, and it was 98 times I was told. Now...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ninety-eight times over how many hours?

HARRIS: Over a very few -- well, he was -- it was about an hour or two.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Before the child was reported missing...

HARRIS: Correct. She did...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... before that infamous 911 call?

HARRIS: She did not pick up. Later she said to a relative that her phone wasn`t working but...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but you know what, Art? I just want to get to this point. Flo Hollars, you are Misty Croslin`s grandmother.

FLORA HOLLARS, MISTY`S GRANDMOTHER: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`ve never called anybody 98 times for any reason. Maybe over the course of a month and a half but not over the course of an hour and a half. And that happening right before something as momentous as a child being abducted.

What do you, Flo, make of these 98 calls that Art Harris claims cops told him Ron made from his workplace to Misty the night the child went missing, before the child was reported missing?

HOLLARS: I think he had something to do with it. I think he knew what was going down.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`ve never said that before.

HOLLARS: I`ve never been asked that before.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, what do you think, then? Because the story you have told, Grandma Flo, is that you feel cousin Joe Overstreet, who is not considered a suspect and says he`s innocent, but cousin Joe Overstreet, you believe, came in there and attacked the girl and took her and dumped her in the river. This is what you claim Tommy and Misty told you. So now...

HOLLARS: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... all of a sudden you`re saying Ron is involved in this too. How so?

HOLLARS: Ninety phone calls? What`s the sense in it? Why not just go home?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, but, I mean, do you have anything but your gut? Is this just your gut telling you this?

HOLLARS: This is just -- this is just my gut feeling.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. I`ve got to bring in Kim Picazio.

You are the former attorney for Haleigh Cummings` mother.

KIM PICAZIO, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What do you make of these phone calls?

PICAZIO: Well, I know that Art Harris has wonderful sources, but I have not heard of that from law enforcement, and I don`t believe that there`s been any official count of phone calls or otherwise. And I wouldn`t expect there to be any release of information by law enforcement confirming or denying any phone calls were made.

But I find it hard to believe there were 98 phone calls in any period of time.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Art, do you want to respond to that?

HARRIS: I can just tell you that`s what my sources are telling me, and I feel comfortable that -- with their accuracy.

However, if you think about their relationship, Jane, and what led up to this -- remember four days before Ron had kicked her out. She took off with her friend NeNe Prevatt and then went off partying with Greg Page and came back that Sunday.

Now, my sources say they were up all night, talking and working through whatever issues they had. And then the next morning, that`s why Haleigh was late for school. They overslept, why he was speeding out of the neighborhood and parents -- one parent said he almost ran over some kids at a stop sign there.

So this is something that led up to that next night, Monday night, when Misty is home alone, does not want to be there. Remember she tried to get Theresa Nevis to baby-sit. And then...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me say this. Dr. Dale Archer, why would any father leave their child with a woman who has allegedly, purportedly been on a drug and cheating binge the last three days, and who doesn`t want to baby-sit the child?

DR. DALE ARCHER, PSYCHIATRIST: No. And first of all, any good father wouldn`t do that.

Second of all, 90 phone calls, if that is true, that`s an obsession. Then the question would be what would trigger that? That`s not because she was on a three-day party binge. That reeks to me of a guilty conscience.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Pat, Michigan, your question or thought, ma`am.

CALLER: Hey, Jane. How are you doing?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, hi, Pat. How you doing?

CALLER: I want to comment first. You`re doing a great job on this case, and I want you to keep up the great work.

I`ve got a two-parter. One, if he called 98 times in -- within that two hours, why didn`t he just take off work and go home?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s a good question. What`s your second one?

CALLER: The second one is that if he was told while they were married that -- that his at that time wife knew about what happened, couldn`t he be held responsible for withholding evidence?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. Excellent question, Jeff Brown. I mean, let`s say he`s not involved, but he`s going to testify now. They`re going to give him a break for testifying in whoever they arrest for little Haleigh`s abduction and/or murder. But shouldn`t he also face a charge of withholding evidence if he`s known something important all this time?

JEFF BROWN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. There`s charges such as aiding and abetting. There`s a federal charge called misprison (ph) of a felony in which you don`t report a crime that you know to have occurred.

But to say that he`s not a suspect, I have to disagree with Art. State attorneys and prosecutors are always cutting deals with people that are involved maybe to a lesser degree, but that`s the nature of the game. They cut deals with people, because they need certain gaps of evidence filled.

So just because he signed -- he did a plea agreement, and he`s willing to testify against others doesn`t mean that there isn`t some responsibility on his part criminally. They may have already cut a deal with him for that.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: There`s one other possibility, Jane, that they want him to feel -- and this is what some theorize -- overconfident so that he thinks he`s in the clear and something trips him up. But I`m telling you, he is not considered a suspect according to my sources.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`ve got to ask one quick question of Levi Page. Why would Ron`s testimony be key? If in fact he was at work and he didn`t know anything about the disappearance because he wasn`t there, what could he possibly be testifying about that would be so valuable that they`d cut him a plea deal?

PAGE: Because he has information about what happened before he went to work. Something could have went down before he went to work. He`s controlling of Misty. He likes to get them young. He likes to get them when they`re 17 years old, and he`s controlling her. He`s calling her. He`s telling her to dump the body here, do this, clean up evidence.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You don`t know that.

PAGE: Get the house clean until the police -- when the police get there. It`s a theory. I`m not saying he...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to the blogs.

PAGE: Well, we -- on the other side of the break, we`re going to analyze that theory a little bit. Again, he is not considered a suspect in his child`s disappearance. Hold on, fabulous panel.

Ahead a shocking discovery. Two morbidly obese teenagers found in a filthy home covered in bug bites. What were their parents thinking? Were they thinking?

Plus, more on the Haleigh Cummings case and a look at all the bizarre characters involved. More theories next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON CUMMINGS, FATHER OF HALEIGH: They told me that their main focus is not one of putting me in jail but finding Haleigh. They already know I know nothing else about Haleigh`s disappearance. Nothing else, otherwise I`d already been in DOC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: The Haleigh Cummings case straight from the mouths of those trapped in the vortex. What really went down the night little Haleigh vanished and what are the invisible mysterious forces motivating Misty Croslin, Ron Cummings and the other characters in this baffling case?

Tonight, more than a year and a half after little Haleigh Cummings disappears cops say they are still searching for the truth. Frustration over the conflicting stories has sparked national outrage and caused despair to Haleigh`s family. While cops say this is now a homicide case, the missing child`s mother refuses to believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, HALEIGH CUMMINGS` MOTHER: Do I believe my daughter is dead? No. And until they show me something, I won`t. Deep in my heart, I know she`s out there. And nobody knows the pain that I go through, nobody. And they never will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Given the latest in a slew of shifting stories that Haleigh was attacked, snatched and tossed in the river as 17-year-old Misty Croslin cowered under the sheets, the missing girl`s grandmother says Misty should pay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESA NEVES, HALEIGH CUMMINGS` GRANDMOTHER: If it turns out to be the truth, I think they should hang her, you know, like an old-fashioned hanging in the square kind of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, boy. What really went down the night 5-year-old Haleigh vanished? Will we ever solve this baffling tragic mystery?

Straight out to my fantastic expert panel: we begin with Kim Picazio; Kim, of course, the former attorney for the mother of the missing child. Who do you predict, if anyone, will be charged ultimately in Haleigh`s disappearance?

KIM PICAZIO, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD: If I were betting woman, I would have to say that Tommy would be charged for an accessory after the fact as well as Misty. And I believe that Joe Overstreet will probably be charged for the murder. I just look at what has happened with the different plea deals.

I also see that Ron Cummings, they`ve dropped two charges against him at this point. So that only tells me he`s already probably given a proffer to the state attorney. They already know what he`s going to say. So I think that this case is about to heat up and we`re on the final stretch here.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, first of all, I have to say that cops have interviewed cousin Joe Overstreet a number of times and he is not considered a suspect or a person of interest in this case. Cousin Joe says -- there he is -- "I didn`t do it. They`re pointing the finger at me trying to pin it on me but I`m not to blame."

Now, Tommy Croslin`s attorney James Werter is with us tonight. You just heard Kim Picazio say that your client -- Tommy, Misty`s brother -- will ultimately be in some way implicated in this. What`s your response to that?

JAMES WERTER, ATTORNEY FOR TOMMY CROSLIN: Well, there`s no telling with the state attorney`s office, Jane, because they`ve done so many different things that don`t make sense to me. Tommy has been cooperative.

The version that I`ve gotten from Tommy and what I hear through Robert Fields about Misty`s role is that they`re not accessories after the fact. They had no participation with this, not even in words. You have to have some sort of participation after the crime.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Can I ask you this? There`s a picture of Misty down by the river. We know your client, her brother Tommy, was also pointing cops down by the river.

Now, how would they know to tell cops to look down by the river if they weren`t in some way, shape or form involved at least to observe what was happening down by the river?

WERTER: Well, in speaking with Mr. Fields, Misty wasn`t -- didn`t take them to the river as you know from prior interviews. It was Tommy who brought them down to the river on April 13th.

Misty was brought down there by law enforcement unsolicitedly and actually it was against Mr. Fields` wishes from what I understand. She just happened to be there. Of course from the helicopter it looks like something totally different.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Let`s just say this. Your client Tommy took cops down to the river. So how would he know to take them down to the river if he had no knowledge or was not involved in what happened?

WERTER: Oh, no, we`ve talked about this plenty of times. He was there that evening. Misty was there that evening. They both give the stories. Contrary to the news stories that came out that Misty is saying now, it`s not a new story. She has told what happened since January and Tommy, while they`re both in custody and away from each other, started telling them in April when I came into the picture.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why would Tommy help Joe dispose of Haleigh`s body? What is his motive to help him do that?

WERTER: No. Tommy did not help him dispose. Tommy was there, rode with Joe. Joe was a very threatening individual to this family, has been his whole life.

LEVI PAGE, CRIME BLOGGER AND INTERNET RADIO HOST: Why didn`t he tell that to police?

(CROSS TALKING)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Somebody wants to say something. Come on, let`s -- who is talking? Let me see the panel -- Levi.

PAGE: I`m talking. Why did not Tommy Croslin not tell that to the police in February when Joe Overstreet went back to Tennessee? I`m sorry, Werter, nobody is buying that story.

WERTER: It`s actually Mr. Werter or Jim but there`s a fear factor. If you`re in their shoes you can`t predict. You didn`t grow up in that atmosphere. You didn`t grow up with this person.

PICAZIO: But I can tell you that the Croslins --

(CROSS TALKING)

PAGE: He went home to a different state in Tennessee.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: One at a time. Let me see the panel. Go ahead, Kim.

PICAZIO: The Croslins did tell law enforcement that they believed that Joe was responsible and told them details. That was -- they told me that in March of `09.

PAGE: Misty has blamed it on a drug dealer. She`s blamed it on the mother`s side of the family. She`s blamed it on all these people in addition to Joe.

PICAZIO: Not Tommy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me say this.

WERTER: First of all, you got to realize that all of these people are drug users, drug addicts and drug dealers. And when you`re dealing with that type of individual, I think that speculating on who was afraid of who is very, very wild because the bottom line is they`re all criminals. They all have been charged with various crimes.

And I think it would be shocking to think that one, two or three of them are not actively involved in what took place with Haleigh Cummings.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me -- to your point cops in perhaps a brilliant move managed to ensnare just about everybody remotely involved in the Haleigh Cummings mystery. Police set up a covert drug trafficking sting and caught all of them on videotape. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY CROSLIN, FORMER STEPMOTHER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 in there.

RONALD CUMMINGS, HALEIGH CUMMINGS` FATHER: 100 in here. They`re all in ten packs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Hey, do me a favor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground. Get on down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Misty Croslin now staring down the barrel of 240 years in the slammer; Ron, who just made a plea deal, facing six 90 years. And Tommy has already gotten his sentence of 15 years.

So Art Harris, this has got to be the ultimate squeeze play to try to get Misty and Ron to finally spill the whole story.

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: That`s right, Jane. And Jim Werter told me something interesting the other day. And that is, he believes that the state attorney in coming down hard on Tommy threatening with him lethal injection, which some of the cops discussed with him while he was in jail before Werter drew the line in the sand, he thinks he may have shut off the oil well of information, that these people are bubbling up with tidbits here and there and more could be revealed if they weren`t facing the barrel of a gun as it were.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I understand -- speaking of guns, Art Harris -- you have some new information about Misty and a gun?

HARRIS: That`s right. Misty had slept with a gun under her pillow that Ron gave her to protect herself from just such intruders but it was not under the pillow that night. She told that to Flo Hollars. She told that to her attorney who I interviewed. And what happened to those guns? Ron took them out of the house. The guns are at the heart of their alibi. And that is that --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. First of all -- ok, go ahead finish.

HARRIS: The machine gun that he kept in the closet that he showed to Tommy and Joe a week earlier they were drinking beer and he really loved his guns, had a gun fetish. A lot of his ex-wives said he would put a gun in his mouth and play Ronald Roulette. But here he wanted that gun. Joe wanted to steal that gun and it wasn`t there.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. I got it. Flo Hollars.

FLO HOLLARS, MISTY CROSLIN`S GRANDMOTHER: Yes, ma`am.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Did you know that Misty, your granddaughter, slept with a gun under her pillow?

HOLLARS: Yes, ma`am.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tell me about that. Why?

HOLLARS: I really can`t say why. All I know is she said she had to sleep with a gun under her head every night in case anybody came in to shoot them.

PAGE: Why would somebody come in --

HARRIS: As you said, Flo, I believe you told me she would have shot Joe that night if she had had the gun but she didn`t have it.

HOLLARS: Yes, she did.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Misty told you she would have shot Joe that night?

HOLLARS: Yes, ma`am.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. Ok. Once again, cousin Joe Overstreet not named a suspect. Police have questioned him. They haven`t arrested him. And he says he is totally innocent of any wrongdoing.

So many explosive details to talk about in the disappearance of Haleigh Cummings; we are just getting started and we`re breaking this case wide open for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEVES: I don`t believe anything that Misty says. She`s told so many stories. And to just pick and choose which one you want to believe, I don`t think that`s right. I believe that whatever it is, it needs to be proven.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: Hello?

911 OPERATOR: Ok, sir. Let me talk to your wife, let me get some information from her.

Ok. Can I talk to her? Ok?

CUMMINGS: How the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) do you let my daughter get stolen (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ron Cummings livid, furious at his then girlfriend Misty screaming at her for losing his daughter. And that is one of the most perplexing aspects of this mystery. Why would anyone go on to marry a woman who lost his child? That`s exactly what happened.

This guy was distraught in the wake of little Haleigh`s disappearance on Misty`s watch. And he then went and married her. Married the teenage girl who was watching the child at the moment she vanished.

So why? It`s a big question. Who knows? Jackie, Indiana, your question or thought, ma`am.

JACKIE, INDIANA (via telephone): Hi, Jane. Thanks for taking my call.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thanks for calling.

JACKIE: I don`t know if it`s relevant or not but what is with the bandage that was on Ron`s neck in the beginning of all this?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Interesting point. Art Harris? We have some video of him with that --

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: I can tell you that -- that other -- I don`t know about the neck but I know his knuckles were -- were bloody and bruised and that was from punching the wall at his trailer; he was so angry. That has been confirmed by law enforcement.

The neck I don`t know but he`s -- he`s got a lot of scrapes and some bruises.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I don`t -- I still don`t get what exactly he could tell prosecutors that`s going to convict anybody if he theoretically didn`t know what was going on and was so shocked that his daughter was kidnapped that he was pounding the wall and screaming. I don`t get that.

Kim Picazio, you want to shed some light on that?

PICAZIO: The only thing I could figure would be if he heard information from Misty or from Tommy, someone in the family after the fact.

Also, law enforcement has forensic evidence from the trailer or from the crime scene; witnesses in the community that people who are working on the case and who were inside in the case working for one of the parents.

We did come to know some of those things. Ron has to have known about those things and Ron was not telling the entire truth when he said that he was at work the whole time and things of that nature.

So there`s a lot of things that Ron will say --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wait, wait you`re saying he did leave work that night before he came home, that there`s some mystery story we don`t know about?

PICAZIO: Well, there are some reports that have been substantiated or not by law enforcement about the time that he did get to work and prior nights where he had left work. And we also had confirmation from a security guard at his employer`s that on two occasions Ron had the children, Haleigh and her little brother, Junior sleeping in the car, while he was at work and came to check out on them.

So that might go to the phone calls that he was trying to get in touch with Misty because that would happen when Misty leave the trailer. Misty had left the trailer before on many evenings. We had eyewitness accounts by the neighbors that we had personally spoken to.

So all of these things -- and you take what -- that Ron -- now, the fact is that the prosecutor has dropped two of those drug charges. They would not have done that unless he already had told them probably a sworn proffer with use immunity given to him prior to them dropping.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, Jeff Brown --

(CROSS TALKING)

PICAZIO: They`re not going to believe Ron that he`s going to keep his word.

JEFF BROWN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, let me -- let me just say a couple of things. One Jane any time a defendant in a trial has said something, that statement if it`s against their interest can be used against them.

So they may use Ron because somebody that`s going to be eventually charged has told them things. But the fact that somebody has gotten up to a couple of charges dropped in a plea deal does not necessarily mean that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

BROWN: They do it all the time. He`s still looking I think at 2/20, 3/25 year mandatory so it`s a big -- a big burden over on top of him. But let me just ask this question to Jim, the lawyer, regarding his client Tommy. I`m a little confused as to what Tommy`s position is.

Is he saying that he actually went there with Joe? And if so, why is Tommy saying Joe would have snatched Haleigh? What`s the reason for doing that and what did Tommy do to prevent that?

JAMES WERTER, TOMMY CROSLIN`S ATTORNEY: No, Tommy was of a different state of mind, let`s say that night.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Does that mean high?

BROWN: What does that mean?

WERTER: Wait -- wait a minute. You asked me a question.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Does that mean high?

WERTER: I`ll leave it at that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok.

WERTER: But let me go through with this. Ok. Tommy`s representation is that Joe came and picked up Tommy from his house to go over to -- my understanding was to borrow this gun to go shoot deer at night which they do out there. That`s not an odd thing.

The gun wasn`t there. Tommy was sitting on the couch. Tommy, yes, was high, which could account to some of the variances in viewpoints between Misty and Tommy`s story because of the perception of things between witnesses of different state of minds.

Joe went off the deep end, went into that back room. Tommy didn`t see exactly what happened. Joe comes out with Haleigh, goes into the car, tells Tommy to get in the car. Joe has a very violent temper from what Tommy tells me and this is what he grew up with.

To the -- and rid -- he didn`t in any shape, way or form help Joe in any aspect of this -- this incident. That`s Tommy`s position that he gave to me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What about the bag? What about the black bag?

(CROSS TALKING)

WERTER: That`s what he gave to FDLE in Putnam County.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but what about the black bag? There were reports that -- that according to this story Joe put Haleigh in a black bag.

WERTER: That came from Misty and we`re not sure -- we`re not sure where that came from if there was a black bag. Maybe there was a black blanket or something. I don`t know.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, what happened to the child? Was the child dead or alive? One of the child -- what happened to the child?

HARRIS: Jane, I can -- Jane I can tell you what Tommy told his private investigator that works with Jim. He says that she was strangled inside the trailer by Joe and there -- he has reason to believe that that happened and there`s time that you can -- if you listened, compared Misty`s story from when she said she heard screams and then suddenly the screams stopped.

She heard the car -- the house door slam and then the car door slam. She recognized that van because she had ridden in it.

BROWN: But she -- ok so Joe doesn`t get the gun --

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hold on.

BROWN: -- that he wants and then turns around --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I can drag something there.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Please, I`ve got to see the panel. I`ve got to see somebody. I don`t know who is talking. Who wants to talk?

BROWN: I am, I am, Jane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok.

BROWN: I am Jeff.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok, Jeff go ahead.

BROWN: So my -- my understanding, then, is Tommy says Joe is upset that he doesn`t get this gun to hunt deer so he goes in and in snatches Haleigh and kills her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WERTER: My understanding is that there was bad blood between the two of them to start. Not of course not against Haleigh but between Joe and Ronald Senior.

Ok, Joe has a history with this family of being a very violent person. If you looked at his MySpace page, it has him there with guns holding up aiming at the camera. I don`t know if that MySpace page is still there but I`ve seen it myself.

The guy prized himself on being a tough guy. This was covered before.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He looked like a ninety-pound weakling.

(CROSS TALKING)

WERTER: The thing is about --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But what about the strangulation --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He looks like a 90-pound weak ling. I don`t see him as being the intimidating person that you`re saying he is. But you`re saying --

WERTER: We look at him from the outside.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`re claiming that he strangled the little girl because he couldn`t get a machine gun to go deer hunting?

WERTER: He went into a rage, ok. Whatever the reason was, the gun, the hatred, whatever -- you go into a rage you`re not really focused on what you`re doing. You just do it. You can go to your psychiatrist with that. But the thing is the strangling part is a speculation because Tommy didn`t actually see what transpired in that bedroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLLARS: I believe the one that Misty told me, that they tied her up in a rope and dropped her in the river. I just don`t know whether they raped her or not, but I sort of believe that they did. I just hope and pray that the child was already dead before she hit that water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We are breaking through here on ISSUES with a panel of Haleigh experts. We are coming up with perhaps the most detailed scenario to date of what might have happened to little Haleigh from the attorney from Misty`s brother, Tommy, James Werter who is here with us tonight. The way I left it is when the little girl was taken out of the house according to this scenario, was she already dead.

WERTER: Well, Jane, what I can say is that Tommy said she wasn`t moving, she seemed to be lifeless. He didn`t have any firsthand knowledge as to whether she was actually dead or not. She was in the back seat. She was quiet, again unmoving. To give you a clinical answer, I can`t do that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, what happened then?

HARRIS: Jane, I can tell you what happened.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok, Art, go ahead.

HARRIS: According to -- speaking to Jim, his investigators and others who have spoken to Tommy, they rode down to the St. John`s River. Tommy says he`s high. He`s high on Xanax. He doesn`t actually get out of the van. He claims he sits there with his head in his hands while Joe takes the body down to the dock. Claims he doesn`t see the body go in but Joe took the body and threw Haleigh in the river.

And we believe from what Grandma Flo says tied her down with a cinderblock and yellow rope. Yellow rope that I`ve reported on artharris.com, similar rope was found at his house.

Investigators went over there, his soon-to-be ex-wife Misty Croslin (ph) let them in. And they found yellow rope that was similar to the rope that Flo described them using.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I have to stress again that have cousin Joe Overstreet says he is not involved, that he is a scapegoat, that Misty and Tommy are pointing the finger at him to cover their own butts and he has not been named a suspect.

Levi Page, we have just heard a pretty compelling scenario from beginning to end of what Tommy and apparently Misty believe happened that night. Do you buy it?

PAGE: Well, I don`t think it`s compelling at all. If anything, I think it`s just more BS from the Croslin clan. And what`s interesting here is that Joe Overstreet had gotten into a fight with Ronald Cummings, Haleigh`s father, over a gun and yet he doesn`t get into a fight with Joe over his own daughter, Haleigh. That`s what`s telling to me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you know, and I`ve got to go back to the Ron and Misty relationship mystery. There`s been talk of a drug-fueled sex binge that Misty had with a mystery man named Greg. Greg has claimed that the Ron/Misty romance was no Romeo and Juliet story.

Here`s what I`m wondering, Grandma Flo, if you want to talk about people having something to be angry about, wouldn`t Ron be angry if in fact Misty had gone on a three-day drug binge and was having sex with somebody else? Flo.

HOLLARS: Yes. From what Misty told me, they had argued all night long that night because of it.

HARRIS: That`s right. And I had dinner actually with Ron, Jane, at a little restaurant called Mimo`s (ph) down there and asked him the same thing. Why would you -- how could you be with a woman in that circumstance?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Quick answer, five seconds.

WERTER: He said, you keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. Well, that does it. You`re watching ISSUES on HLN.


<snipped to include Haleigh coverage only>

http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1008/20/ijvm.01.html
Logged
Sassycat
Monkey All Star Jr.
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 7502



« Reply #142 on: August 21, 2010, 06:40:55 AM »

http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1008/20/ng.01.html

NANCY GRACE

Tommy Croslin Attorney Says Haleigh Was Strangled

Aired August 20, 2010 - 20:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. Satsuma, Florida, a 5- year-old girl tucked into bed. Five hours later, she`s gone. Daddy comes home from the night shift to find not a trace of little Haleigh. The last person to see her alive, new stepmother Misty Croslin, who flunked four polygraphs. Haleigh`s father, Ronald Cummings, and stepmother Croslin booked on drug trafficking. Search teams, cadaver dogs, scuba divers all comb the St. John`s River as the search for Haleigh`s body and a murder weapon goes on.

Tonight, did Croslin finally crack? Her attorney in the halls of the courthouse reveals explosive allegation the last night Haleigh seen alive, she`s assaulted, screaming, kidnapped, carried away in a black bag. A van door slides open, slams shut, and drives away in the night. But can Croslin and even her lawyer be believed? Do we finally have answers?

Bombshell tonight: A lawyer for Croslin`s brother now gives up the COD -- cause of death. He says Haleigh strangled. Haleigh`s own grandmother says she`s not buying the story. Tonight, what happened to 5-year-old Haleigh?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLORA HOLLARS, MISTY`S GRANDMOTHER: She heard Haleigh in there crying.

GRACE: ... carried away in a black bag.

HOLLARS: She grabbed Junior and got in the bed, and they covered up their heads completely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... brutal attack...

HOLLARS: And when she took the covers off of her head, Haleigh was gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How can you be under the covers and also see her in the bag?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A horrifying new story emerges about Haleigh Cummings.

MISTY CROSLIN, HALEIGH`S BABY-SITTER: They`re going to know. They`re going to know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of it makes sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Misty Croslin, the last one to see the missing girl, now claims the child was violently attacked.

MISTY CROSLIN: When I woke up, she was gone!

HOLLARS: Those three grandkids of mine is involved in this, and I don`t know why!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn`t do (EXPLETIVE DELETED). That`s my story, I`m sticking to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and saw Overstreet put Haleigh in a black bag.

JOE OVERSTREET, MISTY`S COUSIN: I didn`t do it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All three are pointing the finger at each other.

HANK CROSLIN, MISTY`S FATHER: And don`t be making up no stories.

MISTY CROSLIN: I was, like, Oh, my God.

HANK CROSLIN: You tell them where Haleigh is. Bring Haleigh home.

MISTY CROSLIN: I can`t just bring her home, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And breaking tonight, live, rural Oregon. Stepmommy walks a 7-year-old boy down the hall of his elementary school. He`s never seen again. Police insist that stepmommy take a second poly. In a stunning twist, 7-year-old Kyron`s dad files for divorce in secret. The court slams stepmommy Terri Horman with an emergency order to stay away from her own children. Bio mom pleads for stepmommy Horman to please, please help police.

In another bizarre twist, we learn stepmommy tries to hire a hit man to murder Kyron`s father, her husband, and carries on a torrid sex affair after Kyron goes missing, even sending X-rated photos to the lover.

Breaking tonight. Police try their best to ID an accomplice spotted in stepmommy`s truck the day Kyron goes missing and now investigating a third accomplice. We learn stepmommy so concerned about police tapping her home, she goes out in the yard to talk, even has friends use disposable cell phones. If she`s so innocent, what`s there to hide?

Now her friends refuse lie detector tests. And also, somebody tell me where does stepmommy Terri Horman get nearly a half a million dollars cash? How -- how -- does a 7-year-old boy go missing from his own elementary school classroom?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kyron`s disappearance involves criminal behavior.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators have focused intently on Kyron`s stepmother, Terri Horman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Dede Spicher...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dede Spicher is a very close friend of Terri Horman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s become a new focus of the Kyron investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... Dede Spicher...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) developments, the woman the Hormans say refuses to cooperate with the search for their son, Kyron...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... that mother`s friend...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dede Spicher, one of Kyron`s stepmom`s friends, was gardening the day Kyron vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s obviously very suspicious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... significant process...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) opinion, I hope Terri Horman is arrested. And her friends that are involved, they need to speak up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Kyron.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know if Terri is hiding something? Were you with her on June 4th?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The key date is June 4th.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never give up hope! We are all coming to get you to bring you home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. A lawyer for Misty Croslin`s brother reveals COD -- cause of death. He says little Haleigh was strangled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So many stories. Whatever it is, it needs to be proven.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She hears Haleigh screaming.

GRACE: ... screaming...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... the night the little girl vanished...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... a black bag...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... black bag...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... tossed her in a black bag...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She peeked out from underneath the cover at the last minute and saw this black bag.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would you hide and let a little 5-year-old scream like that? You know, how can the neighbors not hear her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone thinks she did it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... could hear the 5-year-old girl screaming...

TOMMY CROSLIN: I wonder why she`s making up (EXPLETIVE DELETED). She probably knows something.

MISTY CROSLIN: I don`t have the answer. I`m not (INAUDIBLE) It`s not me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has absolutely no credibility.

RONALD CUMMINGS, HALEIGH`S FATHER: If I find whoever has my daughter before y`all do, I`m killing them.

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, HALEIGH`S MOTHER: I just want whoever took her to let her go!

CUMMINGS: I know somebody took my little girl!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t believe anything that Misty says.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it turns out to be the truth, I think they should hang her, you know, like an old-fashioned hanging in the square kind of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: As the public now demanding a public hanging for Misty Croslin, do we finally know the true COD -- cause of death? Out to Art Harris, investigative journalist, Artharris.com. We`re taking your calls. Art, what do we know tonight?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Nancy, for the first time, Tommy Croslin has revealed the cause of death, says that the night he was at the trailer, his cousin Joe strangled Haleigh. That`s what his lawyer says Tommy Croslin, his client, told police in April. Now, it`s just coming out officially by his lawyer, but that raises a whole new -- a whole new chapter...

GRACE: Hold on. Put Harris up! It raises a whole new what?

HARRIS: It raises -- it opens a whole new chapter, Nancy, in this...

GRACE: Well, I`ll tell you...

HARRIS: ... in this very sad tale.

GRACE: ... what it raises to me, a big red flag that he`s waited this long to tell it, if it`s the truth! That`s what I don`t get about this whole bunch. They`re all, in my mind, lying. And another thing. What can you tell me about the allegation that Misty Croslin slept every night with a gun under her pillow?

OK, you know what? I will analyze that with a shrink later.

HARRIS: I can tell you, Nancy, that...

GRACE: But assuming it`s true, why didn`t she shoot the hell out of the guy that was hurting the baby?

HARRIS: Well, Nancy, I`m going to report on Artharris.com, Misty slept with this pistol under her pillow. But that night, she didn`t have it. She told her grandmother, Flora Hollars, and her lawyer that had she had it, she would have shot Tommy, and that would have been...

GRACE: Oh, really. Why that night...

HARRIS: Well, if you believe that...

GRACE: ... Art? Why that night of all nights? What was different about that night?

HARRIS: Well, that night -- apparently, Ronald had gotten his guns out of the trailer. Once his pistol had been stolen by cousin Joe. That was the story the family told me. And then Joe got it...

GRACE: Now, I`m worried about you. I`m worried about you, Art, because I really think, after all the stories you`ve covered, the big reporter with "The Washington Post," blah, blah, I think you`re starting to believe these people! I really think you`re buying into their BS!

HARRIS: Nancy, you know, since you don`t have the criminal lawyers or defense lawyers here, I`ve got to tell you what they said on the record. Now, that`s -- that`s for your viewers. This is what they are saying, the key suspects are saying, Nancy. And it`s going to be a very important turn of events. Werter -- Jim Werter says he didn`t -- you know, he didn`t let Tommy speak any further to investigators because he didn`t get a proffer of immunity. He thinks that Tommy might have revealed more.

GRACE: Hey, so now, still with no proffer of immunity, he just blurts it out? That doesn`t make sense. That doesn`t make sense, especially for the lawyer. I could see an inmate behind bars blurting something out, not thinking. But the lawyer to blurt it out when he says he didn`t say it before because he didn`t have immunity for his client, but now he blabs it to a reporter? Uh-uh! No! Something smells.

And another thing, Art Harris. Let`s nail it down. If this is the COD -- cause of death -- when did the strangling happen?

HARRIS: It would have happened, according to Tommy, right at the trailer after he busts in. Misty reports that Joe manhandles her sexually, gropes her, then looks for the -- can`t find the machine gun he`s there to try to steal, grabs Haleigh. She hears her screaming, and then there`s silence, Nancy, and...

GRACE: So you`re saying right then, before she leaves the home. And so...

HARRIS: Before she leaves the home...

GRACE: ... Tommy Croslin says after he strangles the baby, he just rides shotgun? He just hops in the van and goes along?

HARRIS: And he holds the door.

GRACE: Who wants to be in a car with a dead body?

HARRIS: He holds the door, Nancy, and that`s...

GRACE: OK, right there -- you know what? I almost can`t take it anymore because it`s such BS. If I didn`t want to find out what happened to Haleigh, I wouldn`t even hear it. But everything they say, Art, leads us to another clue. So you`re right, we do have to report it. We do have to find out about it because in the end, we`re going to piece this thing together.

Let me ask you this, Jean Casarez. So the new story is Tommy Croslin goes for a ride with a dead body? I don`t think so, Casarez.

JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": Well, this is what Tommy`s attorney is trying to do. He`s trying to show someone that Tommy`s story and Misty`s story corroborate each other.

GRACE: I know that`s what he`s doing. You`re right, Jean. With me right now out of Nashville, Tennessee, both Croslins, Misty and Tommy Croslin`s grandmother, Flora Hollars. Ms. Hollars, thank you for being with us. What do you make of this story?

FLORA HOLLARS, MISTY`S GRANDMOTHER (via telephone): Well, Nancy (INAUDIBLE) remember back in April is when Tommy told me on the telephone that Joe had did it, on a Saturday. And on a Monday is when Misty called me and told me that -- at that time, she told me he had wrapped her up with yellow rope and had...

GRACE: What do you make of the story...

HOLLARS: (INAUDIBLE) and dropped her into the river. (INAUDIBLE) Tommy`s getting scared and he`s ready to come clean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANK CROSLIN: Don`t be holding nothing back from nobody.

MISTY CROSLIN: Daddy, I`m not.

HANK CROSLIN: Just get it out there. Let it out, man. Tell the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Croslin finally opening up about Haleigh Cummings`s disappearance?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All along, she`s saying she didn`t know anything.

MISTY CROSLIN: I don`t know where she is.

I`m not hiding anything.

I don`t.

SHEFFIELD: They`re doing the best then can. But do I believe my daughter`s dead? No. And until they show me something, I won`t. Deep in my heart, I know she`s out there. And nobody knows the pain that I go through. Nobody!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, I`m going to call it a homicide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what happened to Haleigh? Her answer, No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The attorney says Croslin was hiding under a blanket but could hear the 5-year-old girl screaming.

HANK CROSLIN: Whatever you know, you need to tell them.

MISTY CROSLIN: Daddy, I am. It`s not my fault they don`t listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How can you be under the covers and also see her in the bag?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and saw Overstreet put Haleigh in a black bag.

CUMMINGS: I just want my daughter back!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re hoping to make an arrest in this case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she first told the story about the night Haleigh went missing, she said the back door was propped open with a cinderblock.

911 OPERATOR: You said your back door was wide open?

MISTY CROSLIN: Yes, it was a brick, like, with a brick on the floor.

HOLLARS: The first thing that I was told was that Joe had killed her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s so many people talking.

HOLLARS: I don`t even know whether she was dead when she hit the water or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to the lines. Do we finally know a cause of death? Now, according to someone inside the home the night Haleigh goes missing, that COD is strangulation. These stories are piling up, but can anybody make sense of them?

Out to the lines. Anne, Mississippi. Hi, Anne.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. How`re you doing, Nancy?

GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good to hear you, Nancy Grace. Oh! And your panel, God bless you all. First of all, did I just hear Misty Croslin say nobody knows the pain she`s going through?

GRACE: I think you...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the biological...

GRACE: ... might have heard that. I think you may have heard that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the biological mother losing her daughter? I believe that Misty will never know the pain that the mother is going through. OK, now, let`s use common sense here. I don`t believe anything Misty Croslin has to say, ever. With that said, if the story about the cousin putting baby Haleigh in a black bag is true, why is it just coming out now?

GRACE: That`s what I don`t understand. Now, everybody keeps saying they tried, they tried to tell cops that night. But play back the original 911 call, Dana. I want to hear what she said originally. Nobody said anything about a strangulation, a black bag, a van, nothing, Anne in Mississippi, not a word. Dana, do you have it yet?

Jean Casarez, remember the first 911 call? And why did it take these people so long to tell the truth?

CASAREZ: Well, this is what we`re hearing, that she told investigators in January. Her sentencing is coming up, though, Nancy. Substantial assistance?

GRACE: Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911, what`s your emergency?

MISTY CROSLIN: Hi. I just woke, up and our back door was wide open and I can`t find my daughter.

911 OPERATOR: You can`t find what?

MISTY CROSLIN: Our daughter.

911 OPERATOR: OK. When did you last see her?

MISTY CROSLIN: We just, like -- you know, it was (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: You said your back door was wide open?

MISTY CROSLIN: Yes. It was a brick, like, it was a brick on the floor. Like, when I went to sleep, it was not like that.

911 OPERATOR: OK. The back door -- listen to me. Your back door was wide open. What are you talking about a brick?

MISTY CROSLIN: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: What -- what is the brick?

MISTY CROSLIN: It`s on the back door, on the stairs. Like, we have a walkway.

911 OPERATOR: And there was a brick laying there?

MISTY CROSLIN: Yes, it`s still there.

911 OPERATOR: Was your back door locked, do you know?

MISTY CROSLIN: Yes. The back door always stays locked.

911 OPERATOR: Does the door look like it was pried open? Does it look like it -- does it look like you had some sort of someone try to enter into your house?

MISTY CROSLIN: Hold on.

911 OPERATOR: And another thing, make sure you and your husband don`t touch the door anymore. Don`t mess with the door or anything.

MISTY CROSLIN: No, it doesn`t.

911 OPERATOR: It doesn`t look like it is?

MISTY CROSLIN: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to the attorneys. Unleash the lawyers. Renee Rockwell, Atlanta, Alex Sanchez, New York. Renee, you know, I listened very carefully. I`ve read the transcripts. I don`t hear anything in her 911 call about a black bag or a strangulation. Did you?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No. And Nancy...

GRACE: No!

ROCKWELL: ... she could say I did it and nobody would believe her.

GRACE: I`d believe her.

ROCKWELL: I suspect -- well...

GRACE: It`s one thing I`d believe.

ROCKWELL: But anyway, you`re not going to go to court with that. Nobody`s going to do anything until they find physical evidence because there`s been so many stories. One more polygraph? I say that`s a waste of time.

GRACE: Sanchez?

ALEX SANCHEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, the case is incredibly frustrating because of the reasons that you brought up. If she could not fend off this attacker, then how come she didn`t call the police and report immediately what happened? But I`ll tell you one thing. You brought this up, too. Tommy Croslin`s attorney revealing that Tommy Croslin was there and held the door open -- he may have helped build a case against his own client!

GRACE: He really did. But the problem is, you can`t ask a client if they take the stand -- you cannot ask the defendant about statements their lawyer made to the press.

SANCHEZ: No. No. But the lawyer could be called as a witness against his own client. Did your client tell you that he was there that night and helped escape with the body?

GRACE: Well, and another issue on that is, Sheryl McCollum, crime analyst, director of cold case squad, Pine Lake PD -- the problem with the lawyer blurting out the cause of death, according to his client, is that he`s now broken the attorney/client privilege.

SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: Yes, he has.

GRACE: Now anybody can be -- it`s not protected anymore.

MCCOLLUM: That`s right.

GRACE: What do you make of these latest statements, Sheryl McCollum?

MCCOLLUM: Nancy, there`s so many problems here. She`s saying now and Tommy is saying now, Well, the van door was closed and Haleigh was never seen again. But that van was returned, which means whoever drove that child somewhere returned to that house. Then (INAUDIBLE) You know, there`s the brick. The brick. She wants to talk about the brick. She was very clear on that. That`s called staging. She`s a liar. She has lied to everybody.

GRACE: I think the reason the stories are so conflicting is that they all are involved. Quick break. We`re taking your calls.

But I want to take this chance to thank you. Thank you for supporting our new book, "Death on the D-List." You made it a "New York Times" best seller. My proceeds going to a Methodist home for the handicapped, and I cannot thank you enough.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY CROSLIN: I didn`t do anything with that little girl!

OVERSTREET: I didn`t do it.

TOMMY CROSLIN: I had nothing to do with none of that crap.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New information from the last known person to see Haleigh Cummings.

MISTY CROSLIN: I woke up, she was gone!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The woman baby-sitting Haleigh Cummings the night she disappeared changing her story.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Misty Croslin believes that Joe Overstreet, her cousin, was looking for a gun, a machine gun that belonged to Haleigh`s father, but couldn`t find it that night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Overstreet couldn`t find it, she claims he took Haleigh instead.

MISTY CROSLIN: They`re going to know.

I just got to wait until I can -- my lawyer is ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Wanda in Georgia. Hi, Wanda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, hey, Nancy. I`m from your hometown.

GRACE: Well, hello. Thank you for calling in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just wanted to make a statement about...

GRACE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Ronald Cummings, first of all. Remember the 911 call, where the only thing you hear him saying in the background is that, They took my little girl or who took my little girl? It`s never, Where is she? So that tells me, first of all, he knows that something`s not kosher. And I really believe that he knows a lot more than what he`s come out with and he`s not nearly as innocent as he wants people to think he is.

And he didn`t appear to be too distraught when he was in the car with Misty, the last person to see his daughter alive, while the two of them were dealing drugs. I really -- I really think -- he may not have had anything to do with the killing or whatever himself, but I guarantee you he knows who did it.

GRACE: What do you think, Dr. Bethany?

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, Wanda`s right. He knew something was up. Otherwise, why would he have called the house close to something like 90 times that night? And Wanda`s also right in that in every story, there`s a little admission. Ron knows someone stole the child. Misty screams. Joe Overstreet steals something. Tom rides in the van. If you really listen to the stories, they`re all putting their foot deeper and deeper into the situation.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Susan in California. Hi, Susan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy? Hello?

GRACE: Yes? What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This Nancy?

GRACE: Yes, it is. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, God! I`ve been waiting a year-and-a-half to talk to you!

GRACE: Well, thank you for calling in, dear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you and love your kids and everything.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh! My question is, is everybody looking at the eyes on everybody?

GRACE: OK, what do you mean by that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at everybody`s eyes. You can tell who`s lying and who`s not.

GRACE: What do you think, Dr. Bethany? Is that possible?

MARSHALL: Well, when I look at their eyes, I see people who are opiate addicts, that`s what I see, the nose scratching, the lip licking. I see that they`re all high, so I wouldn`t place much stock in, you know, where they`re looking when they`re talking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Terri, do you know where Kyron is?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Terri Horman has been under intense scrutiny since Kyron disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you please tell the world something?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A new lead prompts a massive search.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Authorities handed out flyers here with Dede Spicher`s picture on it and Terri Horman`s picture on it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Stepmom and her friend unaccounted for for several key hours that fateful day.

KAINE HORMAN, FATHER OF MISSING 7-YR-OLD BOY, KYRON HORMAN: We don`t know where he is. And we need to keep looking.

DESIREE YOUNG, MOTHER OF MISSING 7-YR-OLD BOY, KYRON HORMAN: I don`t know that I`m getting through it. I know that I just -- I`m trying to take it each day at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A witness claims Terri displayed some odd behavior during an encounter the day Kyron went missing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Holes in Terri Horman`s timeline.

HORMAN: Come forward. Bring it forward. It may be uncomfortable.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They believe that Terri Horman has these answers.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The parents believe that perhaps Terri might be stashing the boy. The father thinks that perhaps she`s executing a plot.

HORMAN: Put yourself in his shoes for two minutes. Makes you really emotional, I mean. He`s afraid.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: You know I don`t understand it. Out to you, Ellie Jostad. The mom is so worried police are tapping her home, that she goes out into the yard to have conversations with stepmom?

If she`s innocent what does she care if police hear her talking about what she`s cooking for dinner or what time she has to go to work or whatever? Who cares?

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Well, this is coming from Dede Spicher. Now that`s the friend of the stepmom`s. She`s the woman who`s on that flyer with the stepmom Terri Horman that they were passing out to residents saying, did you see these two women that morning?

Now Spicher says that she stayed with Terri Horman, the stepmom, for 11 days and she says that whenever they wanted to talk about something they would go out into the yard because they assumed that they were being surveilled.

GRACE: To CW Jensen, retired Portland police captain. You know, CW, I don`t buy it. Who, if they don`t have anything to hide, gets their friends to all buy disposable cell phones like terrorists and drug dealers use?

And who goes out in the front yard to talk? I don`t buy it. And now we`ve got these text messages. I`ve got them right here in my hands where she`s writing her alleged lover, who becomes her lover right after the little boy goes missing -- you can see where her head was.

That she paid her lawyer 350 grand -- $350,000. Now where did she get nearly $500,000, CW Jensen?

CW JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Well, what most people believe is that her parents, who were involved in the educational system in a town in southern Oregon, have some money.

Generally, I would assume that when people are in this kind of a situation, they go to friends. They go to relatives. And I believe that probably the parents are giving her some money.

Does she need all $350,000 right now? Probably not but she needs a lot to keep this thing going. And why do you go outside to talk to people? It`s because you`re guilty.

GRACE: You know, the other thing, now we learn that the best friend Dede Spicher refuses to take a polygraph.

Why, Jensen? Why? Even if I was afraid I`d flunk it because I was nervous and whatever -- although we know that everybody is nervous when you take a polygraph, everybody. Even if you`re telling the truth. That does not affect a polygraph just being nervous.

She refuses a polygraph. Why?

JENSEN: I`m sure that her attorney has told her don`t cooperate with the police in that kind of a thing. Don`t take a polygraph. It`s just going to make you look that much worse.

So she has an attorney. She knows that they`re looking at her. Everybody in the community knows.

GRACE: Why would a polygraph make her look that much worse, CW? I don`t agree. I mean, yes, you`re saying that`s what the lawyer said. But to me your willingness to take a polygraph would show you have nothing to hide.

JENSEN: Well, I think that if people have nothing to hide, in my experience as an investigator, they take polygraphs. There`s one reason why you don`t want to take it. It`s because you think you`re going to look bad.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Adrian in Illinois, hi, Adrian.

ADRIAN, CALLER FROM ILLINOIS: Hi, Nancy. How are you doing?

GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?

ADRIAN: Well, for one, I`m sorry to hear about your foot.

GRACE: Thank you.

ADRIAN: And I was wondering. You know, I think Terri, for one, is as guilty as hell. And second of all, I don`t understand why -- what makes someone -- for one -- put out a contract on her husband and then all of a sudden his child is missing and she`s the last one to see him?

If she`s that unhappy, why not just get out of it? I mean I`ve never seen that woman once show a bit of emotion about anything.

GRACE: Jean Casarez, legal correspondent, "In Session," how many times have you and I seen women and men, as opposed to getting a divorce, they commit murder?

JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": That`s right. And when you talk about motive, you know, some e-mails have come out. She had a son, an older son that went to live with her parents a few months before.

E-mails have come out saying that he was doing so much better when he wasn`t in the presence of Kyron.

GRACE: Now I don`t understand that. What does that mean, Dr. Bethany?

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": I don`t quite understand that one, to be quite honest with you. But to go to the caller`s question I think that Terri may have had, like, a borderline personality disorder which causes extreme --

GRACE: There you go again.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: You say that every -- you know, do you think everybody out there has a personality disorder?

MARSHALL: Well, most --

GRACE: Do you think you have a personality disorder? I mean because every time I ask you something you say they`ve got a borderline personality disorder.

MARSHALL: Well, Nancy, something is really wrong with someone who puts a hit -- tries to get a hit-man to kill her husband and then does away with her child but -- because with borderline there is such extreme ragefulness and there`s lack of a conscience and at the slightest insult they really want to do away with people.

There is a callousness and a coldness. And that`s why I think about borderline.

GRACE: You know, very quickly, Marc Klaas, what do you make of it? This is your expertise?

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I don`t believe that there`s a grand conspiracy afoot here at all. I don`t believe that Terri was working with other people to get rid of Kyron.

That would make sense if there was possibly some kind of a ransom demand. But I think that this was something much more nefarious and much more sinister than that and as such I believe that possibly she was working with one other person, certainly no more than that in whatever it is that she did after 8:45 that morning. On June 4th.

GRACE: Speaking of the timeline. Ellie Jostad, our chief editorial producer, I understand the timeline has been narrowed. Explain.

JOSTAD: That`s right. It`s actually been narrowed down to between 10:15 and 11:30. That`s the period of time that both Dede Spicher and Terri Horman cannot be accounted for.

Now we know a little bit later Terri Horman went in and checked in at her gym at 11:39. We also know Dede Spicher was apparently seen back on her job gardening at 1:00 but there`s this little window where they can`t figure out where either of them were.

GRACE: OK. We are taking your calls. Very quickly, Sheryl McCollum, what do you make of this?

SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST, DIR. OF COLD CASE SQUAD AT PINE LAKE P.D.: Nancy, the problem with this case is it`s revenge. She attempted to have the husband murdered. She was sexting his best friend from high school. She attempted to do something with Kyron, kidnapping at the very least.

And then she tried to get the other daughter from day care. She is going after this husband in every way that she can. It is revengeful. There`s never going to be a ransom note. It`s not about money. Ever.

GRACE: And still no sign of little Kyron.

Tonight, the latest developments in the search for 7-year-old Kyron. We learn step-mommy is so afraid police are listening she goes outside in the front yard to have conversations, asking her friends to use portable disposable cell phones.

Quick break. Happy birthday to Georgia friend, defense lawyer Peter Odom.

Happy birthday to Hardwick Butler, a local Boy Scout leader for years.

Happy birthday, Mr. Butler.

Tonight I want to tell you about a little 4-year-old Florida boy Ayden in the fight of a lifetime battling spinal cancer. Doctors able to remove out 30 percent of the tumor. Ayden has no feeling in the right leg. Requires physical therapy, proton therapy, chemotherapy.

Tonight his family needs help. Take a look at this precious boy. For info and to donate go to Cure4ayden.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: My theory is that Kyron is alive.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Terri Horman has been the subject of a lot of speculation.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Holes in Terri Horman`s timeline.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Searchers return to wooded areas and open fields several miles south of Skyline School.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The area is where Dede Spicher, one of Kyron`s stepmom`s friends, was gardening the day Kyron vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s obviously very suspicious.

HORMAN: A minute away was awful enough. To be this far along and have him not home is terrible.

YOUNG: Someone`s holding him.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No criminal charges have been filed. No suspects have been named.

YOUNG: I just have a feeling that somebody`s holding him.

HORMAN: I wish there were a lot of things that were different so that I could take on the burden that he`s going through right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kyron`s disappearance involves criminal behavior.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Investigators have focused intently on the stepmother Terri Horman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dede Spicher.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dede Spicher is a very close friend of Terri Horman.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She`s become a new focus of the Kyron investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dede Spicher.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Significant developments.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The woman the Hormans say refuses to cooperate with the search for their son Kyron.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stepmother`s friend.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dede Spicher, one of Kyron`s stepmom`s friends, was gardening the day Kyron vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s obviously very suspicious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Significant progress.

YOUNG: In my opinion I hope Terri Horman is arrested and her friends that are involved, they need to speak up.

We love you, Kyron.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know if Terri is hiding something? Were you with her on June 4th?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The key date is June 4th.

YOUNG: Never give up hope. We are all coming to get you to bring you home.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Holly in Georgia. Hi, Holly.

HOLLY, CALLER FROM GEORGIA: Hi, Nancy. I watch you every night and I love your book.

GRACE: Thank you. Thank you.

HOLLY: You`re welcome. I`m just wondering if they found Kyron`s body, what condition would it be in at this point?

GRACE: To Dr. Michael Arnall, board-certified forensic pathologist out of Denver? What about it, Doctor?

DR. MICHAEL ARNALL, BOARD CERTIFIED FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: After this period of time if the body has been exposed to the air, there may be significant decomposition even animal predation. But if a body is buried you might be surprised at how well the body has been preserved.

GRACE: Hmm. If the body is buried. Why is that, Doctor?

ARNALL: When the body is buried, it`s in an environment where insects may not be able to get to it and animals may not be able to get to it. Now it will slowly be degraded by bacteria, but without animal predation and insects, the body may be preserved.

GRACE: It`s so hard to look at this little boy with his thick little glasses and imagine that he is buried somewhere.

What about if he`s in water, Dr. Arnall?

ARNALL: If he`s in water, in a summer environment, then there`s going to be insects in the water. There`s going to be predation by invertebrates and there could be extensive degradation of the tissue.

GRACE: To Jean Casarez, legal correspondent, "In Session," you said something earlier that to me just hat ran a chill down my spine. You said that the stepmother says that her husband Kaine Horman is so much worse when he is around little Kyron.

How can you be worse when you`re around your child? I don`t understand that.

CASAREZ: Well, I think what she was saying was that her older son was getting D`s in school but when he went to live with his grandparents that he started getting A`s because he wasn`t around Kyron, the little boy, Kyron. So they had problems.

GRACE: Oh, I see. I understand now. I got it.

Marc Klaas, try to put the pieces together.

KLAAS: Well, I believe that Terri is absolutely involved in this. Her timeline has never made any kind of sense.

I do not for a minute believe that there is a grand conspiracy, that maybe she was working with one other person. That`s a possibility.

I believe that the little boy is not alive, but I understand why the parents say that he is alive. They really have no alternative but to do that. They have to keep hope alive. And I think that this case may go unsolved unless Terri breaks.

GRACE: To CW Jensen. Now we understand cops have been digging in a garden for Kyron`s body. Where is the garden and why digging there?

JENSEN: This is significant. Dede Spicher was gardening at an estate on June 4th and then she disappeared for a period of time. So they went to that estate and they`ve done some significant searches there, I think, to look not only for the possibility of Kyron but the possibility that other evidence might have been buried by Dede Spicher.

And one thing that I think everybody needs to realize is we focus on Dede Spicher disappeared for a period of time. Terri Horman disappeared for a period of time. But remember so did Kyron Horman and only two of those people have ever shown up again.

GRACE: You know, they`ve also searched other locations that relate to the best friend Dede Spicher, CW Jensen. Where?

JENSEN: They didn`t search her home and seized evidence there. What they`ve done is they`ve tried to figure out where these women went and on the best kind of guess they can, go to those areas and search.

I think that we`ll probably see more searches in the future as they continue with this case. We may be in a period of time where we won`t hear a lot. But believe me, the investigators are working very, very hard to find this little boy and to solve this case.

GRACE: Ellie Jostad, didn`t they also search Dede Spicher`s mom`s condo or something like that?

JOSTAD: Yes, it was actually her aunt`s home, Nancy.

GRACE: Yes.

JOSTAD: Reportedly that was one of the other locations that they checked because Dede Spicher had lived there for some time.

GRACE: OK. What about the divorce? What are we learning from the divorce filings and statements related to the divorce?

JOSTAD: Well, Nancy, Kaine Horman wants this divorce to go forward but Terri Horman is asking for it to be stayed. She says because of all the negative attention, all the negative media reports that she can`t possibly -- that her lawyer can`t handle the divorce case right now.

GRACE: Why? What`s her reasoning?

JOSTAD: Well, I guess what they`re trying to say is that they think this should be stayed or put in abatement until after the criminal case is settled. But Kaine Horman`s lawyers are saying we don`t know when the criminal aspects of this case are ever going to be resolved so we need to go through with the divorce case now.

GRACE: Well, Renee Rockwell, Alex Sanchez, it`s not like she`s named a defendant or a suspect. She has no Fifth Amendment immunity so why can`t the divorce go forward, Rockwell?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, because they`re going to want to depose her and start asking her questions. She has a lawyer to the tune of $350,000 so I`m sure he`s giving her some very good advice that they don`t need --

GRACE: Right.

ROCKWELL: -- to put her in any kind of witness position.

GRACE: OK. Sanchez?

ALEX SANCHEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. She doesn`t want to get on the witness stand and stop making statements.

GRACE: OK.

SANCHEZ: Which the police could use to implicate her in these offenses. It`s as simple as that.

GRACE: I don`t think they need a whole lot of help.

Out to the lines. Linda, Missouri, hi, dear.

LINDA, CALLER FROM MISSOURI: I was calling to see if they actually sent the dogs out to track if there was --

GRACE: Mm-hmm. What about it, Jean Casarez?

CASAREZ: Dogs everywhere. And in that garden area where the garden party was going to be the next day, they`ve gone neighborhood to neighborhood, resident to resident with pictures of Terri and Dede asking them if they saw them or the truck.

GRACE: Tonight, everyone, "CNN Heroes".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARMON PARKER, CNN HERO: What strikes me about this place is the beauty and the feeling of being insignificant. Life for people here is very difficult. Very secluded. The beauty of this place also becomes dangerous because of these mountains when it rains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Through Translator): My father came to the market in the morning. He was with my mother. On the way back in the evening, they found the river was flooded. They drowned.

PARKER: I`ve worked all over Kenya. Every community has the same story. Crocodiles and hippos. And loved ones lost.

When it floods, people really suffer not being able to get across to the clinic or the market or to their school.

Look at this. Here come some kids helping.

The very first bridge I built, I saw I could change lives and transform communities. So I carried on. And I love what I do.

My name is Harmon Parker. And I build bridges to transform people`s lives.

The community has to initiate the project. They have to participate and make some sort of financial contribution. I don`t know how many goats I have in this region, but they always give me a goat.

I`ve spent half my life in a tent. I`ve had malaria seven or eight times. It`s hard. It takes a lot of determination.

Get it, get it. (Speaking in foreign language).

A bridge is a beautiful metaphor for many things. I feel I`m privileged to do what I`m doing. I`m destined to help people and I`m driven by that.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and more important the people who touched our lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The search for Nina Keown.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want them to keep looking until we find her.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A 26-year-old woman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blond hair.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has two, a 3-year-old daughter and a 6-year- old son. They want to know why they haven`t seen mommy.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino accused of being the other woman in a love triangle.

FANTASIA BARRINO, "AMERICAN IDOL" WINNER: I did meet him in the T- Mobile Store. They took it and ran with it. They said I was a home wrecker. They`re wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is in North Carolina where you can sue the other women for alienation of affection.

GRACE: You don`t take a guy on an exotic vacation and hop on a jet ski with him if it`s not something more than friendship.

MISTY CROSLIN, FORMER STEPMOM/BABYSITTER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: They need to move on. Away from me, get off of me. They need to move on.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Misty Croslin`s lawyer says (INAUDIBLE) was hiding under a blanket but could hear the 5-year-old girl screaming.

TERESA NEVES, HALEIGH CUMMINGS` MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: I don`t believe anything that Misty says.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And saw Overstreet put Haleigh in a black bag.

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, HALEIGH CUMMING`S BIOLOGICAL MOTHER: Deep in my heart, I know she`s out there.

NEVES: She`s told so many stories. Whatever it is, it needs to be proven.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thirteen-year-old girl missing Karina Valencia was at a friend`s birthday party around 6:30 p.m. Saturday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very extensive investigation is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Los Angeles police are desperately searching - -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her frequent points of contact would be at the library in Sylmar. He also frequents a park on Polk Street and Brandon Avenues.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police say it`s possible Karina may have left the party to meet up with an unidentified male she met on the Internet via MySpace.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: This is dispatch. What is your emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need a paramedic, please. My friend -- I was giving my daughter -- or my friend`s daughter a bath. I walked out of the room to grab a towel and she fell. And I don`t know. I came back in there and she`s all limp.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A South Carolina mom who police say reportedly admitted to killing her two little boys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Duley, you`re being charged, ma`am, on an arrest warrant. Both charges with murder, ma`am. You understand that?

SHAQUAN DULEY, ACCUSED OF MURDERING HER TWO SONS: Yes, sir.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Let`s stop and remember Army Corporal Steven McGowan, 26, North Delaware, killed Iraq. An Army medic. Awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart. Also served Korea.

Loved handing out beanie babies to Iraqi children, skydiving, surfing, rugby. Favorite team New Zealand`s All Black. Remembered for his smile and living life to the fullest. Leaves behind mother Bobbie Ann, sister Mikaela.

Steven McGowan, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially you for being with us. And a special good night from the New York control room.

Good night, Brett, Dana, Evil, Squeaky. Show your face, dear. There you are.

Everyone, see you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END


http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1008/20/ng.01.html
Logged
Sassycat
Monkey All Star Jr.
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 7502



« Reply #143 on: September 27, 2010, 12:32:35 PM »



http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1009/24/ng.01.html

NANCY GRACE

Aired September 24, 2010 - 20:00:00   ET


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ronald Cummings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want my daughter to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Faced a maximum of 70 years behind bars for selling prescription drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He got 15 years in prison.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ronald`s family is not as good as everyone thinks they are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They all take pills, they all do --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was led out in handcuffs and chains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His attorneys cut a deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Set a plea deal in exchange for his testimony against Croslin and her brothers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know where she is. I keep hoping and praying my baby comes home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cummings pleaded guilty to three of the five drug cases --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I find out what happened to my young, it doesn`t matter to me --

(END VIDEOTAPE)COSBY: And I`m Rita Cosby in for Nancy Grace. The mystery goes on surrounding the suspicious disappearance of a 5-year-old Florida girl, Haleigh Cummings.

One key witness after the next heading off to prison in a major drug trafficking bust and now the latest, and it`s a big move. It`s Haleigh`s own father.

For the latest breaking news, let`s go to Art Harris, investigative journalist of artharris.com. Art, what happened? What`s the latest?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, ARTHARRIS.COM: Rita, Ronald Cummings got 15 years behind bars today in a plea agreement that was expected. He pled guilty to three counts -- he could`ve gotten up to 70 years and he is the latest domino to fall in this case.

It`s a drug case, a drug trafficking case, but law enforcement has been using him to try to turn his ex-wife, Misty Croslin into producing the information they say she has about the disappearance of his daughter, Haleigh.

COSBY: You know, let`s go to Joey Jackson, defense attorney. When you hear this information from Art and these new developments, Art was just saying he could`ve gotten 70 years, Joey, he got a bit less.

Are they trying to curry a little bit of favor with him? Maybe we`ll give you the lighter side if you help us with this?

JACKSON: You better believe it. Look, law enforcement has to use every tool at their disposal, Rita, in order to seek justice.

And at the end of the day, what are they looking to do? They`re looking to get answers to this little girl`s, beautiful girl`s disappearance.

There`s a difference between concurrent time and consecutive time. The judge wanted to he could`ve what we call stacked.

And that is on one offense given 15 years, add another 15 consecutive and another 15 consecutive, but they said, look, tell us what we need to know as the investigation develops and we`ll take care of you, and that`s exactly what they did negotiating this deal.

COSBY: Lieutenant Steven Rogers with the Nutley New Jersey Police Department, do you think, you know, on the outside Ron Cummings through his attorney is saying look, he`s said all he knows. Do you think privately maybe he`s helping a little bit on the side?

ROGERS: Well, I`m sure. I`m sure -

COSBY: I think so too, I think it`s all a facade. I don`t know, I`m not sure I`ve given everything. Come on.

ROGERS: That`s why a deal was made. I`m convinced of that. Law enforcement is going to unlock something or at least some of the answers to the questions they have through him, absolutely right.

COSBY: Let`s go to Brenda from West Virginia who is on the line. Brenda, what`s your question tonight?

CALLER: Yes. I wanted to know how Ron and Misty got involved with the undercover cop to begin with.

COSBY: That`s a great question. How this all began? Art Harris, investigative journalist, how did they get sort of caught in this whole melee?

HARRIS: Rita, I can tell you, a friend of a friend learned that they were selling drugs and suddenly he told law enforcement. His friend was the undercover cop who wound up setting them up.

They were pigeons, and they just came willingly because he was the buyer and they were caught on hours of videotape in the car and they just gave it up. They didn`t even need any witnesses for this case, Rita.

COSBY: You know, one of the other things, Art, I`ve got to ask you about this. I thought this was interesting. The attorney for Ron Cummings` dad, you asked him, does Ron think Misty, his ex-wife is a killer, is tied to the disappearance of Haleigh? And what did he say to you?

HARRIS: All he said was that he thinks she was involved and that she holds the key to what happened to Haleigh. But he wouldn`t go that far.

COSBY: You know, when you hear that, Darrell Cohen, defense attorney, she holds the key and then he continues to say that. You`re a smart man, Darrell. What is that saying to you?

COHEN: It tells me she knows a lot more than what she wants to say and they`re going their little squeeze trick and do the little squeeze trick and at some point, they`re going to squeeze it out of her. Because if they don`t, they don`t win and we`re going to win, we`re going to find out what happened.

COSBY: Go ahead.

GARDERE: I can tell you that law enforcement has got her just where they want her. This was their strategy.

COSBY: Absolutely.

GARDERE: To isolate her, to put her on the rocks.

COSBY: This is the dream right now, exactly.

GARDERE: They`ve got her so desperate she started dealing drugs, now they`ve got her facing possibly 240 years. She`s going to be facing her sentencing next month.

But right now, they have this leverage. Her lawyer says she`s told all she knows, that she`s been squeezed harder than a Florida orange until only pulp is left, they say pulp fiction.

COSBY: Jeffrey Gardere -- I love those hard to squeeze more than a Florida orange, maybe a grapefruit of a tangerine. She`s got her sentencing coming up. Psychologically, when you know that time is coming, that`s going to have an effect on her too.

GARDERE: Absolutely, I think she`s going to slowly start to crack. We`ve already seen it in some of the clips we`ve played on this show before. I think at this point she knows that Ron is going to turn over on her and I agree with your other guests.

I really do believe that Ron knows that she`s involved, maybe she didn`t do the deed, but she holds the key. She has the information. He has a love/hate relationship with her and it`s going to turn into full hate.

COSBY: And everybody, to tonight`s CNN Heroes


<snipped to include Haleigh coverage only>
Logged
Sassycat
Monkey All Star Jr.
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 7502



« Reply #144 on: September 28, 2010, 04:42:53 PM »

http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1009/27/ijvm.01.html

ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL

Misty`s Drugs, Sex and Lies

Aired September 27, 2010 - 19:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, explosive new allegations from a Misty Croslin insider. Was Misty put on suicide watch after Ron was sentenced? Misty`s sister in law sits down with me tonight with a new, shattering version of what happened to little Haleigh Cummings. Is her dad, Ron, at the center of the crime?

Then, more twists and turns in the Casey Anthony case as the defense team demands DNA tests on a mysterious canvas bag and children`s shorts found near her remains. Is the defense hunting for a new suspect?

Plus, stunning new video captures the cops faking the arrest of a 15- year-old boy who the officer says had sex with his stepdaughter. Is this an abuse of authority or just an over-protective dad, teaching the team a lesson he`ll never forget?

And she`s in, then she`s out. Lindsay Lohan released from jail for the fourth time. And even the judge who wanted her locked up for a month couldn`t stop it. Now, the wild child has been spotted around town with her new SCRAM bracelet. Is she headed back to rehab?

ISSUES starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, stunning new developments. I mean stunning, people, as Misty Croslin`s family says the terrified teenager is now on suicide watch. Her ex-husband, Ronald, was just sentenced to 15 years in the slammer. Misty could be next. Is Misty losing it?

She`s going to be in court in just two weeks to face sentencing in her drug trafficking case. She could get up 240 years behind bars. Or, she could get just six years. Will it depend on whether she finally talks about what really happened to Haleigh that night? Time is fast running out for her to cut a deal.

Plus, jaw-dropping new theories. Only here on ISSUES. What happened on the night 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings disappeared? Was Haleigh`s own father in on the cover-up? Tonight, we`re going inside Misty and Ron`s twisted world: drugs, sex and lies. And yes, even video tape. I`m talking one on one with Misty`s sister in law in an ISSUES exclusive. She is pulling back the curtain on the secret life of these troubled lovebirds.

Is Haleigh`s dad a monster who intimidated his teenage bride, leaving her terrified to tell the truth?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER OF HALEIGH: I want my child back so bad. All I wanted is my child. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Does Ronald Cummings know where his daughter`s body is? You will not believe that Misty`s sister in law claims she knows about the night Haleigh vanished.

Plus, never-before-seen family photos of little Haleigh. Unbelievable photos. We`re going to show them to you throughout the next few minutes.

Where is this child? Does Misty Croslin knows everything? And will she ever tell?

And these brand-new stunning photos also include Ron and Misty smiling, laughing, getting married, all after Haleigh went missing. They`re really stunning photos.

I`m taking your calls on this: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297.

Straight out to my fantastic expert panel. But, I begin with Chelsea Croslin.

Chelsea, thank you so much for joining us.

CHELSEA CROSLIN, MISTY`S SISTER-IN-LAW: Thank you for having me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I know it`s difficult for you, but we`re going to get through this.

You are married to Misty Croslin`s brother, Timmy, not Tommy, the one in jail. Timmy. You`re saying you know what happened the night little Haleigh vanished. Tell us your theory of what happened to Haleigh the night she vanished.

C. CROSLIN: My theory of what happened the night Haleigh vanished, as far I`m being told from Misty being brought into an interrogation a few days ago, they told her that if she didn`t tell the missing part, that she would get 50 years in prison.

My theory of what happened that night, is that Haleigh ODed in the home. I think that she got a hold of Ronald`s pills, and she died accidentally. I think that the argument phone calls between Ronald and Misty were over how to get rid of the body and Ronald threatening Misty to tell what the truth was.

I believe that the theory of Tommy and Joe being involved in this situation, have led me to believe at this point, that they would have just gone there to help basically cover up and set up the scene to make it look like a kidnapping. I don`t believe that Haleigh was taken out of that home besides deceased before she left.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What proof do you have of this? In other words, where did you get this theory about the fact that we`d heard this before, that she took drugs. But you`re saying that she took drugs in the trailer, drugs that would belong to Ron and/or Misty. She ODed, and then who -- who -- what did Ron do?

C. CROSLIN: I believe -- well, Ronald knows that they were his pills. Ronald is the one who had possession of many pills. Ronald used to call himself the drug boy. He had a dresser in his bedroom that had his drugs in it that would be accessible to his daughter to get to.

As far as Misty not paying attention to her or, you know, leaving the home that night, I don`t believe that happened. I think Misty probably, with her three-day binge, was asleep. I think that she had -- she had fallen asleep and left the children awake, thinking that, you know, they were just going to be running around the home or playing, and had woken up to possibly Haleigh dead from taking -- from taking pills.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And who disposed of the body?

C. CROSLIN: I don`t know who disposed of the body. But, as far as the stories that are being told, that, you know, Joe and Tommy were the ones that were called the scene to get rid of him, get rid of Haleigh. And it would make sense, because there was a phone call from Ronald calling Tommy when Ronald claims that he says that he told Tommy to go check on Misty, because she wasn`t answering the phone. I think that was Ronald calling Tommy to tell him to go help his sister get rid of the child.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you have something that Ron, you believe, was showing up at the house in a black outfit because the little boy said a man in black came and took Haleigh.

C. CROSLIN: Well, when Junior -- the story was released by Crystal in the very beginning. The first day that I seen Junior, I ran up and gave him a hug, and he told me his sister was missing. I told him, "Don`t worry, baby. We`re going to find her, and we`re going to bring her home. And he circled his hand around my face like this, and he said, "No, Aunt Chelsea. The man in all black came in and took my sister."

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And who do you think that is?

C. CROSLIN: The only theory I can think of is Ronald. Because that morning at the sheriff`s department, I was supposed to get clothes for Ronald and Misty to change into so they could take the clothing that they were wearing. And Ronald was wearing from the feet to the end of the arms a black jump suit and boots.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Well, let me say, first of all, that we called Ron`s attorney, and he had no comment. But he is invited on at any time to tell his side of the story. And again, nobody has ever been charged in little Haleigh`s disappearance, which makes it such a mystery.

The night Haleigh went missing, Ron made this frantic 911 call. So let`s listen to that again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: I just got home from work, my 5-year-old daughter is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

CUMMINGS: I need someone to be here now. I`m telling you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Listen to me. Listen to me. We`ve got two officers...

CUMMINGS: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now everybody said that Ron sounded very sincere when he made that 911 call. It would appear that Chelsea is saying Ron already knew what happened to his daughter, and he was acting.

But here`s the problem with that. Ron has an air-tight alibi for the night that little Haleigh went missing. He was at work. People at work say him there. His cell phone pings also show that he was there. Now, he reportedly returned at 3 in the morning and made that 911 call when he realized that his daughter was missing.

I don`t understand how this theory, which I appreciate hearing, could be true, Mike Brooks, if he has an alibi for the time that she went missing.

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You know, Jane, how many theories have we heard? This is one of the very first ones, though, we did hear in this case about -- about little Haleigh possibly overdosing on some drugs.

But I still say -- and you know, I`ve said this a number of times -- I don`t know if any of these people -- we know that Misty was on a bender -- if any of them really know what happened to little Haleigh. Because they were so screwed up.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Levi Page, what do you think of Chelsea, the sister in law of Misty, her explanation now, her theory that the child ODed and that everybody`s kind of involved in disposing of her body?

LEVI PAGE, CRIME BLOGGER: Well, I think that Chelsea Croslin should be a detective, because I think her theory makes perfect sense. I think it`s logical. And I think that Ronald is involved in this. And behavior points to a person that`s not a grieving father.

And guess what, Jane? I have sources close to this case and a woman who will not be named, but she told me that 20 days after Haleigh vanished, Ronald approached her and wanted her to engage in three-way sex with himself and Misty Croslin...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh!

PAGE: ... after his daughter goes missing.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. That`s -- that`s very, you know, scandalous. And anybody can say anything. Unfortunately, the behavior in this case has been so crazy with all the talk of drugs and sex. But, you know, it`s very hard to separate fact from fiction.

Again, we invite Ron`s attorney on any time -- any time -- to tell his side of the story.

Wendy Murphy, what do you make of what Chelsea has to say?

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, let`s talk a little turkey about the timing, shall we? Misty needs a little sympathy right about this time.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK, go ahead.

MURPHY: So, obviously, she needs a little sympathy now, since she`s coming up two weeks from now, facing an awful long time behind bars. It works for her as a PR matter to try to, you know, shift blame and make herself look like the innocent victim. I don`t buy any of it. It is, to me, nonsense.

I don`t disagree that there are drugs involved. Remember that Ron reportedly had a significant drug debt. I do think somebody took the child. I do think someone took the child. That is not uncommon when there`s a debt and you need to pay and you have no money, they could take your kid. But...

PAGE: Police ruled out an intruder. The police have ruled out an intruder.

MURPHY: Levi, stop, stop, stop.

PAGE: This is not an intruder.

MURPHY: Somebody took the child for a reason.

PAGE: It was in this -- it was in that family. In that family, Wendy. It was in that family.

MURPHY: My turn, Levi.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hang on, guys. We`ll debate on the other side.

(CROSSTALK)

And we`re talking more of your calls: 1-877-JVM-SAYS.

Plus, is Casey Anthony`s dream team searching for a new suspect? I`ll tell you about their bizarre new request to dig up DNA.

But first, more on these jaw-dropping Haleigh claims by Misty`s very own sister in law. We`re talking to her exclusively on ISSUES.

And on the other side of the break, some extraordinary photos of Ron and Misty at their wedding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY CROSLIN, EX-WIFE OF RONALD CUMMINGS: I will prove to the world that I didn`t have nothing to do with it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.

CROSLIN: Everybody can kiss my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) when I get on TV. And I`m going to tell them all to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: If you have my daughter, bring her home, please. All I want is Haleigh. Nothing else. That`s it. Please if you have her, bring her home. Babe, if you`re watching, you know, you`ll always be daddy`s little daughter. I love you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, shocking new theories on what happened to 5- year-old Haleigh Cummings the night she vanished, that her own father buried the girl.

Misty`s sister in law feels that he, Ron, is involved. Plus, brand- new, never-before-seen photos of Haleigh`s father Ron and Misty that show the couple after Haleigh vanished. And in some of these, they`re smiling. They`re laughing. Look at that. Now, that`s supposedly a photo of Ron on a roller-coaster after little Haleigh vanished, looking like he was having a good time.

Chelsea, you gave us these photos. Do you think that they point to Ron being, what, too happy in the wake of his precious daughter`s disappearance?

C. CROSLIN: Well, I know that I have three children, and I would not be acting or have a smile on my face the way that he is 32 days afterwards.

Some of those pictures are in New York, when his daughter was missing.

And the one thing I do know about Ronald Cummings is that he is a controlling man. Never mind my sister, but the two other young women that he controlled and had children with. He is abusive. He had her mind warped. He distanced her from her entire family. And it hurts me to get on TV and say that I believe my sister had involvement, because I love Misty with all my heart. But I know that she is hiding something for Ronald Cummings. Not for anybody else but for the Cummings family.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but Ron is now behind bars for 15 years. He can`t hurt Misty. This is -- Misty only has a few days. The clock is ticking to tell the cops what really happened.

C. CROSLIN: Misty is not afraid of Ronald hurting her. Misty is so infatuated and in love with Ronald that she thinks that she has to keep the secret for him. Whatever it may be, he has her so -- in her mind thinking that she is implicated just as much as she is, because she was the one at home that night with her. You know, not him. So, it was technically her fault for Haleigh taking the pills or ODing or, you know, this is a theory.

I don`t have proof behind this, but I`ve lived with this case for 19 months in my life. And I have gone through many different theories and many different aspects of it. And there is certain things that I do know, and the way that Ronald acted before his daughter went missing and the actions he had afterwards. Actions speak a thousand words.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Like what?

C. CROSLIN: And Ronald was a happy man. He would go mud bogging. He wouldn`t pay attention to his son, Junior. The -- Aunt Trina, Hope`s mother, is the one who took care of Junior after Haleigh went missing. He didn`t give his son the time of the day. When you don`t have your daughter, you would want your son by your side at all moments. I know I would. And he...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead.

C. CROSLIN: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, finish it, Chelsea. He would what?

C. CROSLIN: He just -- he would go mud bogging. He`d go hunting. He would just go -- he went to Orlando to Universal Studios. You know, he went to New York. He took trips all the time. He got tattoos. You know, he just had a blast.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Your thoughts. She`s saying basically Ron was having a good time. She`s making the point, the Casey Anthony thing, where Casey was seen dancing after her child disappeared in sort of a similar kind of argument.

ROBI LUDWIG, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Well, it definitely sounds like that Ronald did not provide a home that was safe for his children and probably not a competent parent.

If these pictures were, in fact, taken after his daughter went missing, it is disturbing to see that he seems to be embracing and enjoying life as if nothing happened. It makes you wonder, what was his connection to this child?

I don`t know the details as far as what he did in terms of covering things up. It does seem like they ran in racy circles, where it`s very possible Ronald has a theory as to what happened.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Chelsea, if you had one thing to say to Misty, if she`s watching from jail right now, she`s only got a couple of days to come clean to avoid going to jail, prison for 240 years, what would you tell Misty? Speak to her.

C. CROSLIN: I would say, Misty, please, we love you so much. And please just tell us what happened to Haleigh. It`s not going to matter. It`s not going to change anything. No matter what, you`re going to go to jail, and in the end, Ronald is not going to be there for you. He doesn`t love you, and you`ll never be together again.

Haleigh needs justice, and your family needs justice. We love you, Misty. And we`ll always be there for you, but please, I`m begging you to just tell the truth.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow.

Wendy Murphy, ten seconds. Do you think Misty will listen to her dear relative?

MURPHY: She should. Chelsea`s absolutely right. She knows the truth. She should tell the truth. Because her choice is -- are you ready? Jail or a life of torture, threats and bullies? What does she want? Does she want to go to jail or tell the truth?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Going to leave it right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)


<snipped to include Haleigh coverage only>
Logged
MuffyBee
Former Moderator
Monkey Mega Star
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 44737



« Reply #145 on: July 04, 2012, 10:22:45 AM »

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1207/03/ijvm.01.html
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
What Happened to Haleigh Cummings?
Aired July 3, 2012 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

 ::snipping2::
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: New developments tonight in a case that, well, it`s captivated all of us. What happened to little Haleigh Cummings? And are police any closer to some real answers?

(VOICE-OVER) Tonight a dramatic new twist in the search for Haleigh Cummings, The adorable 5-year-old who`s been missing for three years. Now, the little girl`s dad gets a weekend out of prison. Ron Cummings is less than a year into his 15-year sentence. So why was he temporarily let out? We`ll explain.

Plus, how has Misty changed during all this time behind bars? And are police any closer to finding little Haleigh?

Then, in tonight "JVM`s Most Wanted," who killed a beloved couple in their own home in a quiet California neighborhood? Their killer`s still walking free. We`re reigniting the investigation into this unsolved murder mystery.

And how to live better now: our fitness magician, Tom Holland, shows us how stability balls can change your life.

MISTY CROSLIN, EX-WIFE OF RON CUMMINGS: Everything`s focused on Haleigh. What Haleigh wanted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s always been a shadow of a doubt over Misty Cummings`s accounts of what happened to little Haleigh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The blonde-haired brown-eyed little girl whose community wants her home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The missing 6-year-old now presumed dead by investigators.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Croslin says she heard Haleigh scream, cry and struggle.

CROSLIN: I didn`t do anything with that little girl. I loved her like she`s my own. And I`ll do anything to get her back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Misty was in tears as she heard she`ll spend the next 25 years in jail.

FLORA HOLLARS, MISTY GRANDMOTHER: Tied Haleigh up with a yellow rope and tied a brick or block to the rope and dropped her into the St. Johns River.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hank Croslin Jr. says his conscience has been eating away at him.

RON CUMMINGS, FATHER OF HALEIGH: If I find whoever has my daughter before ya`ll do, I`m killing them. I don`t care. I`ll spend the rest of my life in prison.

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, HALEIGH`S MOTHER: In my heart I know she`s out there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, astounding new developments in a story that has captivated the nation.

Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell.

Little missing Haleigh Cummings vanished in the dead of the night from her father`s Florida trailer. And now, Haleigh`s father is making headlines for going to a new secret child custody hearing. Yes. Yanked out of jail to go to this hearing.

Tonight we`re re-examining everything about this confounding case. And also tonight, police are telling us this is not a cold case, that they investigate Haleigh`s disappearance constantly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: I just got home from work. My 5-year-old daughter is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

CUMMINGS: I need somebody to be here now. I`m telling you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Listen to me, we`ve got two officers...

CUMMINGS: If I find whoever has my daughter before ya`ll do, I`m killing him. I don`t care. I`ll spend the rest of my life in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s the frantic 911 call over three years ago that launched a massive search for 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings.

Her dad`s 17-year-old girlfriend, Misty Croslin, was supposed to be babysitting little Haleigh. She claimed initially that she woke up around 3 in the morning, the back door was wide open, and Haleigh had vanished.

Thousands of volunteers, countless hours of investigation later, cops still have not uncovered what happened to this child. Was she murdered? Misty`s own grandmother, Flo, thought so. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLLARS: Tied Haleigh up with a yellow rope and tied a brick or block to the rope and dropped her into the St. Johns River.

She was crying. And I told her, I said, "Baby, don`t cry. This is something you should have said a long time ago."

She says, "But, Nanny, I was scared."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tragically, Grandma Flo has now died.

Meantime, both Haleigh`s dad, Ron, and his now ex-wife, Misty, are serving very long prison sentences on drug charges. Are cops just waiting for them to crack and tell them what really happened that night?

Straight out to Kim Picazio, the former attorney for Haleigh`s biological mother, Crystal Sheffield.

Thank you for joining us tonight. Kim, we`ve been hearing this news that Ron Cummings left jail just the other day to attend a child custody hearing that was shrouded in secrecy. We do not know the name of the child, or children or the mother involved.

Now, we reached out to Ron`s last attorney on record, but we haven`t heard anything back. What do you know, Kim?

KIM PICAZIO, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD: The only thing I could find out, I called the prison and they had stated that he had been transported to -- from the prison itself to a local jail and had been transported to Brevard County, Florida, which is around the Titusville area.

And apparently, there is a court proceeding that has been confirmed. It`s in relation to a child and the mother. And I guess Ronald would be the putative father. We do not know who the child is or the mother`s name. However, the court dockets do not reflect any case wherein you can see Ronald was a party.

We also called, and we found out that would mean, most likely, that this is a proceeding wherein Ronald is a parent with regard to a Department of Children and Families proceeding. And we all know that Ronald is very used to being in department involvement, as he had lost custody of Junior, his son with Crystal Sheffield.

So this could be a second case where the Department of Children and Families is seeking to take away this man`s parental rights.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And again, if Ron Cummings still has an attorney, that attorney is invited any time anywhere for his side of it at all. We want to be fair here. And obviously, Ron Cummings is incarcerated, so he cannot talk to us directly tonight.

Let`s go out to Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor. If indeed Ron Cummings had another child with another woman before all of this drama that the world was engulfed in, does that change the equation? Does it open the door for other motives and other potential back stories?

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, of course. I mean, but it depends why he`s involved, why he`s being taken here, and what the issue is. If -- and it makes sense that if it`s not on the docket, it`s got to be confidential, which means there`s some question, potentially, about abuse or neglect.

If there`s any reason to connect those dots in terms of him having a pattern of behavior, then it could not only help us understand more about his potential role in all of this, but it could open new doors in the investigation. So that`s a good thing.

You know, I wouldn`t want the guy out of jail for any reason. Why couldn`t they do it by video conferencing? I just don`t like the fact that he was allowed to breathe fresh air, frankly. That`s how I feel.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Haleigh`s father, Ron Cummings -- we all know this crazy story -- he married Misty Croslin, the person who basically was watching his child when the child disappeared just a month after little Haleigh went missing. Misty was just 17 years old at the time. And she was just positively beaming -- beaming -- and just overjoyed where she got engaged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROSLIN: Last night at Chili`s.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did he do?

CROSLIN: He got down on his knees and said, "Would you marry me?"

Everybody`s starting to take this marriage thing the wrong way, but it`s -- it`s still focused on Haleigh. This is what Haleigh wanted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, that fairy-tale romance, as we all know, didn`t last long. Here is their wedding video from NBC. Just seven months later they were divorced.

Misty has said they got married because Ron was worried about being in a relationship with a minor. Some other people said they got hitched so they could each get spousal privilege and not be forced to testify against each other in court about Haleigh`s disappearance.

Ron`s been quoted as saying he married Misty to try to get the truth out of her about what happened, reportedly saying, "You keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

I want to go out to Levi Page, crime blogger, Internet radio host out of Nashville, Tennessee. You`ve been all over this. What about this crazy relationship with these two? And what does it say about what happened to Haleigh that night?

LEVI BLOGGER, INTERNET RADIO HOST: Well, we know that these two have been involved in drugs, drug dealing, drug use for a very long time. And we know that both of them have not been cooperative with law enforcement. Ronald Cummings got an attorney in the very beginning of this case.

We also know that Misty has told inconsistent stories. Everything that she`s told has been a lie.

And you mentioned their marriage. Right after they got married, Haleigh had only been missing about a month, and they went to New York City and "The Today Show." And they also went on amusement park rides all the while this child is missing.

And now the police have said that she was dead. That means her body was rotting somewhere dead, and these two were out there partying. And they claim they love Haleigh, but their actions speak otherwise.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, to your point, the night Haleigh vanished from her bed, it`s still a mystery to investigators. But we`ve talked to them. And they assured us it is not a cold case.

Let`s look at some of the key facts we know. Misty, Haleigh`s father, Ron`s girlfriend. So Misty was going out with Haleigh`s dad, Ron. Misty was babysitting little Haleigh and Haleigh`s little brother, Ron Jr. that night.

Now, Ron came home after 3 in the morning. He says he discovered little Haleigh had vanished from the trailer. During the 911 call Ron blamed Misty, it would seem, for what happened. Listen to this infamous 911 call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: Hello?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, sir, let me talk to your wife. Let me get some information from her.

CUMMINGS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I talk to her? OK.

CUMMINGS: How the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) do you let my daughter get stolen, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. T.J. Hart, co-host of "Des Moines Morning News," you covered this case. Misty initially said she woke up in the middle of the night. The trailer door was propped open with a brick, Misty was gone.

But there were reports that claimed she switched her story and then talked about some kind of fight over a gun with a bunch of members of the Klan. And little Haleigh being snatched. How many versions are out there of what happened that night?

T.J. HART, CO-HOST, "DES MOINES MORNING NEWS" (via phone): Ask her, and when you ask her, but I`m only aware of about seven or eight.

The first inconsistency was that -- which bed was the child in? Because they had a large bed and a smaller bed.

Also, going out to get a drink of water, or going to the bathroom, seeing a light on. And a bathroom is accessible from the room she was in. Why would she go out into a hallway? That`s the only way that she could ever see that light.

There are inconsistencies also pertaining to whether the bed was made or not made. According to Ron when he came home, the bed was made. So where did the children sleep, if they did sleep at all that night? Where were they?

There were rumors that Misty had been out of that trailer. She`s told me point-blank that she was not partying that night. But as inconsistent as everything else has been with her story, you`ve got to -- you`ve got to believe that there`s something else going on there.

There are also stories that the -- the young boy had mentioned that he saw a stranger come in with tennis shoes and made the couch bounce. That`s another story that went around.

And then there were other ones where she might have heard something, but she wasn`t sure. She might have seen something, but she wasn`t sure. This is when she was allegedly under hypnosis, as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROSLIN: I didn`t notice about Haleigh until I seen the back door open. And I go, and she`s gone. And that`s all I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Misty Croslin has changed. Look at her appearance. During her time behind bars she has put on weight. Oh, my gosh. She`s barely recognizable. She`s doing 25 years on an unrelated drug charge.

We`re investigating tonight.

Let`s go out to the phone lines. Laura, Illinois, your question or thought, Laura -- Laura.

CALLER: Hi, Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi, how are you?

CALLER: OK. How are you?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good.

CALLER: It`s always been my feeling from the first time I saw Ronald Cummings give his first interview that he was in an altered mental state. I mean, there was no doubt in my mind -- I have personal experience with addiction -- that he was higher than a kite when he talked on the news.

And I really believe that somehow something happened before he went to work that resulted in the death of Haleigh. And I think both he and Misty were present. And I think that she`s more covering up for him than he is for her. I think...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think you`re making some excellent points. The Cummings/Croslin families have certainly had their own share of drama, even before little Haleigh went missing.

Misty`s own grandmother made some shocking allegations on our show about what happened, for example, between Misty and her cousin, Joe Overstreet, which kind of gets back to Ron at the end of it. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Have they been friends in the past? Or was there friction?

HOLLARS: Oh, yes, they`ve always been friends. Now, Misty stated that Joe had molested her when she was up there in Nashville. But she never once said anything to me about it. And she always wanted to go to his house. So if he molested her, she must have liked it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Misty`s grandmother, Flo, again has now passed away.

This is Joe Overstreet. He`s never been arrested on molestation charges. We can`t independently confirm those allegations. He`s always claimed he`s being used as a scapegoat by his family. We have a call into his attorney and haven`t heard back.

One theory, though, and I`ll take this out to T.J. Ward, private investigator who`s covered this case. One theory from the night Haleigh went missing is that Joe Overstreet and Misty`s brother, Hank Croslin, went to that trailer to get a gun. Some kind of memorabilia, some weapon. And when they couldn`t find the gun, they took Haleigh instead. What do you know about that theory?

T.J. WARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Well, I administered the layered voice analysis on Haleigh [SIC]. And that was one of the things that came up. And she was not being truthful.

The whole test based around what she talked about and what events took place on the night that she went missing are totally false. She has just lied through the whole test.

And she wanted to take the layered voice analysis test after she had taken the polygraph and flunked and then shortly after that took the hypnosis test while I was there.

And ironically, she was talking about the hypnosis test just freely, that she basically knew she was going on. So I don`t think the hypnosis actually put her under.

But she talked about Overstreet. And she basically just said -- and used him as an escape goat. But I can tell you from the test results from me running the -- administering the voice analysis test that Haleigh Cummings [SIC] does know what happened -- I mean, Misty Croslin knows what happened to Haleigh Cummings on that night.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Misty Croslin does know, according to you.

WARD: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why do you say that?

WARD: Because all these direct questions and what she told about her story were very false and untrue. Which leads me to believe some of the questions that I asked her and what she talked about, that she personally had knowledge to come up with false statements and inaccuracies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: Keep Haleigh`s face out there. And if you have any information leading to her disappearance to call it in. It don`t matter who it hurts. And I want to let everyone know that I`m not hiding anything from anybody. And if somebody has something to do with it, let them fry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So right now Ron`s doing 15 years. Misty, 25 years. What did they do to get thrown in prison?

Even as investigators were frantic to figure out what really happened to Haleigh, check out the dash cam video of Misty dealing drugs to an undercover detective. She was caught and sentenced, again, to a quarter of a century in prison.

At the time her grandma, Flo Hollars, said it was a good thing she was going to jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLLARS: Really, she knowed [SIC] better than to do that. And I feel like that after she gets in there and she starts doing all her stuff, she`ll come out early, and she`ll know what to do the next time around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Misty did not have a prior record. She just turned 18 when she was sentenced to 25 years. Oh, my gosh. Twenty-five years for an 18-year-old. I mean, that is extraordinary. That`s like watching your life slip away.

Wendy Murphy, if in fact, she does know what really happened, as T.J. Ward, private investigator, just told us through voice analysis, and she`s been given a 25-year sentence, can she still use the truth as leverage to get a reduced sentence and help us get closure to find out what happened to Haleigh?

MURPHY: Yes. I mean, I think there`s no doubt that part of what we`re watching unfold is a strategy to separate and squeeze the two key suspects. One of them is clearly more responsible. I don`t think it`s Misty. I think she`s a dim-witted nitwit, frankly. I don`t think she knows the deal. She may know some stuff, but she doesn`t know the real deal.

I mean, that somebody owed somebody a lot of money and they took the kid as payment on some kind of drug debt makes sense to me. I don`t think that was Misty`s doing.

She probably does know a lot. But here`s the thing, Jane. I write about this in my book, "And Justice for Some," what`s called the cross finger pointing problem. So as long as these two, Ron and Misty, stay quiet about the truth, and they keep putting these nonsensical theories out into the court of public opinion, they each get to essentially point the finger at the other.

And that`s what makes it impossible for law enforcement to solve this crime. They need one of them to give that up, because you can`t let either of them go to trial. They`ll blame the other. They have built-in reasonable doubt. It`s a frustrating case.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A lot of people think Misty`s covering up for Ron because she`s so in love with him. Remember, this woman tattooed Ron`s name on her body after all this went down. That`s pretty obsessed.

Now, Ron Cummings, of course, was thrown into the spotlight when little Haleigh went missing. He was in front of the cameras crying saying he wanted to find his child. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: We got her off the school bus. She ran to me and jumped in my arms, drove the car home. Got out. Gave me a hug and a kiss. Loved on me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Levi Page, what about Ron spilling the beans?

PAGE: Yes. Well, you know, Jane, that he got a plea deal in 2010 -- in the summer of 2010, and he got some of his charges dropped. And he`s serving 15 years. And we know as part of that plea deal that he gave a proffer to the state attorney.

And as part of that proffer, he gave new information in Haleigh`s case. We know that it was about Haleigh Cummings` case, Jane, because the proffer is sealed. If it was about the drug case, we would be able to know about it, because the drug cases are closed. He gave a proffer on an ongoing investigation.

So I think that Ronald does know information. I think that`s pretty evident by now. And I think that clip you played of him crying was a fake. I agree with the caller that called it earlier. He was high as a kite.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROSLIN: Everything`s still focused on Haleigh. This is what Haleigh wanted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s always been a shadow of doubt over Misty Cummings` account of what happened to little Haleigh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The blond-haired, brown-eyed little girl, whose community wants her home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The missing 6-year-old now presumed dead by investigators.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Croslin says she heard Haleigh scream, cry and struggle.

CROSLIN: I didn`t do anything with that little girl. I love her like she`s my own. And I`ll do anything to get her back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Misty Cummings was in tears as she heard she`ll spend the next 25 years in jail.

HOLLARS: Tied Haleigh up with a yellow rope and tied a brick or block to the rope and dropped her into the St. Johns River.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hank Croslin Jr. says his conscience has been eating away at him.

CUMMINGS: If I find whoever has my daughter before ya`ll do, I`m killing them. I don`t care. I`ll spend the rest of my life in prison.

SHEFFIELD: Deep in my heart I know she`s out there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: New developments tonight in the search for missing Haleigh Cummings. As cops say this is not a cold case. And they continue to search for her and investigate every day.

We are learning that her father, Ron Cummings, was yanked out of prison where he is doing hard time and long time for drug dealing, and taken to a court hearing that is shrouded in secrecy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to Kim Picazio; you are the biological mother of little Haleigh`s former attorney, in other words Crystal Sheffield`s former attorney. What do you know about this secret family court hearing?

KIM PICAZIO, CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD`S FORMER ATTORNEY: We don`t know much because apparently the docket does not reflect any cases regarding children involved with DCF or Department of Children and Families. So at this point the verdict`s out. We don`t really know what type of proceeding this is. What we do know --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, but there is a possibility of another child that Ron had -- listen, I hadn`t heard about it. Look at the files that I have from the case. This is just one of them. We have drawers full of it. And we were frantically looking to see if, well, maybe this had come up earlier. We couldn`t find any evidence. If he has another child, is that a secret that`s just been revealed essentially to the public?

PICAZIO: I don`t think so. I think there is another child that was reported on during the case when I was -- my legal team was in town. It was very evident. And Ron understood that he had another child. He had never been involved with that child. He in fact had done news reports where he claimed -- and his mother, that they only had two children which was Haleigh and Ronald Jr.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s what I mean.

PICAZIO: However, we do know there is another child by another lady who he used to date after Crystal Sheffield. He has never been through a paternity proceeding or otherwise. So this could actually be a proceeding involving that woman.

Or, since we know Ron very well, that he would think nothing of having multiple children out of wedlock with other teenage-type mothers since that was his MO. This could be a third child out of wedlock that he`s decided to shun and throw away as he`s done all of his other children.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, listen, we want to be fair here. We`ve been trying to reach out to his last-known attorney. We have not been able to. That person or any representative for Ron Cummings is invited on our show any time.

But to that point, Haleigh`s biological mother Crystal Sheffield has always been an outspoken critic of her ex, Ron. Here`s what she has had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, MOTHER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: Deep in my heart I know she`s out there. And nobody knows the pain that I go through -- nobody. And they never will. I don`t care who they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Wendy Murphy, we had sort of seen Ron crying and screaming about little Haleigh. We thought, well, he may have problems, but he`s a good dad, but this other child now -- potential child, surfacing. What does it say about his parental sense of responsibility?

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, assume it`s a situation involving another child, you know, it doesn`t take a lot to get from point A to point B on what kind of dad he really is. Any guy who irresponsibly impregnates women of any age, particularly teenagers, is inherently a bad father and probably a terrible human being.

And this isn`t just about child support. It`s just irresponsible to create kids that you don`t give a damn about. You know, it`s too bad that there has to be a hearing for this guy to figure out what his rights are. I think if you`re in prison for the rest of your life and a suspect in the disappearance, likely murder of your own child, I don`t think you should be allowed to be a father no matter how biologically connected you might be.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s get back to the last major search for Haleigh Cummings. Two years ago -- there`s video of the search. You may remember this, cops scouring the St. Johns River which isn`t far from the trailer. They actually took Misty -- you see her there down by the river.

There were claims that Misty`s cousin, Joe used to feed al gaiters at that dock. Grandma Flo claimed that she thought Haleigh was thrown into the river.

T.J. Ward, briefly, you`re a private investigator, what do you know. Apparently they found nothing, right?

T.J. WARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: They didn`t find anything. They found bones and they found a rope that they thought may have been something, but they believed it was somebody from fishing. They found a couple of bricks with ropes on it, but I think they didn`t tie those up -- they didn`t tie it to her at all (inaudible) to her going missing.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. What a tragic mystery. We`re all over it.

 ::snipping2::


 

Logged

  " Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."  - Daniel Moynihan
MuffyBee
Former Moderator
Monkey Mega Star
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 44737



« Reply #146 on: September 22, 2012, 10:43:04 PM »

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1209/21/ng.01.html
NANCY GRACE

911 Calls Caught on Tape

Aired September 21, 2012 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, shocking 911 calls caught on tape. They are made in the heat of the moment. A crime just takes place, a child discovered missing. But 911 calls serve another purpose other than just alerting authorities. The 911 calls themselves turn out to be critical investigative tools in solving crimes. Tonight, chilling 911 calls from all across the country.

We start in Satsuma, Florida. A 5-year-old girl tucked into bed, five hours later she`s gone. Daddy comes home from the night shift to find not a trace of little Haleigh. Last person to see her alive, the baby- sitter/stepmother, Misty Croslin. But Croslin waits to call 911. Why?

BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911. What`s your emergency?

MISTY CROSLIN, BABY-SITTER/STEPMOTHER: I just woke up and our back door was all open, and I can`t find my daughter.

911 OPERATOR: Can`t find what?

CROSLIN: Our daughter.

911 OPERATOR: OK. What`s your address?

CROSLIN: Green Lane. (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: What`s the numerical?

CROSLIN: The numerical? What`s that?

911 OPERATOR: The number?

(DELETED) Green Lane?

CROSLIN: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: OK. When did you last see her?

CROSLIN: We just, like -- you know, it was about 10:00 o`clock. We were -- she was sleeping. I did cleaning (ph).

911 OPERATOR: OK. How old is your daughter?

CROSLIN: She`s 5.

911 OPERATOR: OK, what was she last seen wearing?

RONALD CUMMINGS, HALEIGH`S FATHER: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: Ma`am?

CROSLIN: She was in her pajamas. We were sleeping.

911 OPERATOR: OK. All right. You said your back door was wide open?

CROSLIN: Yes. It was a brick -- like, there`s a brick on the floor. Like, when I went to sleep, the door was not like that.

911 OPERATOR: OK, the back door...

CROSLIN: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: Listen to me. Your back door was wide open. What are you talking about a brick?

CROSLIN: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: What? What is the brick?

CROSLIN: It`s on the back door, on the stairs. Like, we have a walkway.

911 OPERATOR: And there was a brick laying there?

CROSLIN: Yes. It`s still there.

CUMMINGS: Tell them they better come on! (INAUDIBLE)

CROSLIN: They are!

911 OPERATOR: We`ve got them coming. Tell him we`ve got them coming.

CROSLIN: They`re coming.

911 OPERATOR: OK, what`s the color of your house, ma`am?

CROSLIN: It`s blue.

911 OPERATOR: It`s blue? OK. What -- what does she look like? How tall is she? Give me some description of her.

CROSLIN: She has, like -- like, long hair, curly, like, curls...

911 OPERATOR: Long, curled -- what color?

CROSLIN: She`s white.

911 OPERATOR: OK, what color hair?

CROSLIN: She`s got brown hair.

911 OPERATOR: Brown hair?

CROSLIN: Yes. Oh, my God! (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: OK, how tall is she, about? Or how much does she weigh? Do you know that?

CROSLIN: Huh?

911 OPERATOR: About how tall or how much does she weigh?


CROSLIN: Like, 4-something, like, I don`t know, like -- she`s not that tall.

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: OK, tell your husband we`ve got them coming, OK?

CROSLIN: OK.

911 OPERATOR: How much does she weigh, do you know?

CROSLIN: Huh?

911 OPERATOR: How much does she weigh?

CROSLIN: Like, 40, 50 pounds, 60 pounds.

911 OPERATOR: Forty to sixty pounds?

CROSLIN: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: OK, what`s her date of birth?

CUMMINGS: You all are (DELETED) playing games! I`m going to (DELETED) kill somebody!

911 OPERATOR: OK. Tell him we understand. We need to get her date of birth.

CROSLIN: What`s her date of birth?

CUMMINGS: (DELETED) her birthday! We need to find her! (DELETED) her date of birth!

911 OPERATOR: OK, listen to me. I`m getting this information. I`m not the officer driving out there, OK?

CROSLIN: OK.

911 OPERATOR: They`re coming out there to handle that situation. I need to gather all our information from you over the phone.

CROSLIN: OK.

911 OPERATOR: It has nothing to do with me driving out there. The officers are taking care of that, OK? They`re coming out there, OK?

CROSLIN: OK.

911 OPERATOR: OK. I`m going to stay on the phone with you, OK...

CROSLIN: OK.

911 OPERATOR: ... until they get there. All right. Hang on. Tell him we`ve got them coming. He needs to try to calm down a little bit, OK? The officers are going to come out there and do what they can. We can`t have him screaming and yelling at the officers whenever they get there, OK?

CROSLIN: OK.

CUMMINGS: Hello?

911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, let me talk to your wife so I -- let me get some information from her.

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: OK, can I talk to her?

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: OK.

CUMMINGS: How the (DELETED) can you let my daughter get stole, (DELETED)!

Hello?

911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, let me talk to your wife so I -- let me get some information from her.

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: OK, can I talk to her?

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

CROSLIN: Yes?

911 OPERATOR: OK, listen to me. I need you to answer some questions. Does the door look like it was pried open?

CROSLIN: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: Does it look like you had -- does it look like you had some sort of someone try to enter into your house?

CROSLIN: Hold on.

911 OPERATOR: And another thing. Make sure you and your husband don`t touch the door anymore. Don`t mess with the door or anything.

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

CROSLIN: No, it doesn`t.

911 OPERATOR: It doesn`t look like it is?

CROSLIN: No.

911 OPERATOR: OK, now, listen, tell your husband...

CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: ... do not touch anything. Make sure (INAUDIBLE) because we`re going to try to get a K-9 out there, OK?

CROSLIN: OK. She says don`t touch anything because they`re bringing a K-9 out here.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Right now, the father of little Haleigh, Ronald Cummings, is with us. Mr. Cummings, you and your family are in so many prayers across the country right now. Please, tell us what happened when you got home from work that night. I believe it was around 3:00 AM.

CUMMINGS: Actually, it was about 3:25, 3:27.

GRACE: OK.

CUMMINGS: And I pulled into the yard, and my girlfriend opened the front door. And I already knew something was wrong because she`s not up at this time. She told me -- I said, What are you doing up at this time? She says, Your back door`s wide open and your daughter`s gone.

GRACE: What is her description -- what scenario took place?

CUMMINGS: She got out of the bed and went to use the restroom and came back to find out that my daughter was not in bed with her.

GRACE: OK, what time...

CUMMINGS: And the back door was wide open and she was -- and she was gone.

GRACE: Ronald, what time did she put Haleigh to bed?

CUMMINGS: She puts them to bed every night at 8:00 o`clock.

GRACE: At 8:00 o`clock. When she put...

CUMMINGS: And...

GRACE: When she put her to bed at 8:00 o`clock, did she also put to bed the little 4-year-old boy?

CUMMINGS: Yes, she did.

GRACE: OK. What time did she go to bed?

CUMMINGS: Approximately 10:30, 11:00.

GRACE: At 10:30, 11:00. At that time, was little Haleigh in the bed asleep with the brother?

CUMMINGS: Yes.

GRACE: And they all slept together in the same bed, correct?

CUMMINGS: Yes.

GRACE: So sometime between 11:00 PM and 3:30 AM, Haleigh goes missing. Now, did she call 911?

CUMMINGS: No, she did not, not until after I was there. She tried to call me, but I was pulling in the driveway. So I asked her how come she was trying to call me, she needed to call 911. So she immediately called them then.

GRACE: And where does the biological mother live, Ronald?

CUMMINGS: In Baker County, in Glen St. Mary.

GRACE: What is that, about 150 miles away?

CUMMINGS: I would say approximately 90 to 100.

GRACE: Now, have you and your girlfriend both taken a polygraph, right?

CUMMINGS: Yes, I have, passed it with flying colors. Yes, she has passed hers.

GRACE: And you volunteered to do that and you`ve been cooperating with police, right?

CUMMINGS: Yes. Why not? Why -- I don`t have anything to hide. I just want my daughter back. Anything that`s going to help them eliminate more people is the best thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)
 ::snipping2::

GRACE: We`ve heard shocking 911 calls caught on tape. But as we have learned, those 911 calls serve another purpose, other than just alerting authorities. The calls themselves can be a critical investigative tool in solving the crime.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2012, 11:07:41 PM by MuffyBee » Logged

  " Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."  - Daniel Moynihan
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Use of this web site in any manner signifies unconditional acceptance, without exception, of our terms of use.
Powered by SMF 1.1.13 | SMF © 2006-2011, Simple Machines LLC
 
Page created in 6.34 seconds with 21 queries.