ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELLStrange twists and turns in the search for Haleigh Cummings. Why are cops asking Ron, the dad to prepare for her funeral?
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mystery mounts in the desperate search for little Haleigh Cummings. The cops have now told Haleigh`s father to begin to make funeral arrangements.
What did police find in that river? New reports say they are doing tests on cinder blocks and rope. If they still don`t have a body, do they have a case?
Plus a 15-year-old girl fights for her life. Josie Ratley was brutally beaten, her head, face viciously stomped on al allegedly because of a text message.
Tonight we`ll talk live to the 15-year-old suspect`s attorney about the explosive developments in the case and go inside Josie`s painful road to recovery.
Something big may be about to happen in the Haleigh Cummings case. Tonight reports that Haleigh`s father Ron Cummings has been told to start making funeral arrangements. Could this mean the cops have found the precious child`s remains or even a speck of conclusive, biological evidence?
Police are investigating the 5-year-old`s disappearance as a homicide. But are they any closer to nailing who killed Haleigh?
Art Harris of thebaldtruth.com reports cops have found a piece of a yellow rope from a home where Misty`s brother Tommy Croslin was living when little Haleigh vanished on Misty`s watch more than 14 months ago. Misty Croslin`s grandmother said Misty told her about a yellow rope as a possible weapon used to tie Haleigh to cinder blocks and then tossed her body in the St. Johns River.
HLN affiliate WJXT reports cops also pulled a pair of cinder blocks from the river and are sending them for forensic testing; could those blocks have been used to weigh down little Haleigh?
Meantime, did Ron Cummings -- get this -- purposefully divorce Misty and then intentionally get himself busted in that February drug sting along with Misty, just to try to get Misty to crack and finally tell the whole truth? Ron`s attorney made this jaw-dropping statement.
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TERRY SHOEMAKER, RONALD CUMMINGS` ATTORNEY: The police have always said that, you know, first if you divorce Haleigh -- I`m sorry -- divorce Misty, you know, we`ll find something out. She`ll crack. They told him, you know if Misty got in trouble, if Misty was in jail, we could probably get her to crack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow, if true, talk about a father`s dedication, willing to get arrested, possibly go to jail.
By the way, bounty hunter Leonard Padilla tells ISSUES that Ron`s family has approached him to bail Ron out of jail. A dizzying array of new developments to discuss.
I`m taking your calls; 1877-JVM SAYS, 1-877-586-7297.
Straight out to my fantastic expert panel, plus we are joined by Jean Casarez, "In Session" correspondent from our sister network, TruTV.
Jean, you`re tracking this case. What is the very latest?
JEAN CASAREZ, TRUTV CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Well, we do know -- let`s look at the facts -- that Terry Shoemaker, the attorney for Ronald Cummings went to see him on Friday. We also know that the sheriff`s department gave him two updates during the week in regard to the search at the St. Johns River.
And now the reports are coming out that he may have, in fact, have been told to prepare for a funeral. If true, that is a huge, huge statement. Because to have a funeral, what we can translate that to, common sense tells us that they found something in the form of remains.
And I think also, Jane, it is huge that this case became a homicide case last week. That means something had to have been found in the St. Johns River.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mike Brooks, everybody thinks we`re looking for a body, we`re looking for a body. But in fact, all they need is one tiny bone from that child`s body that was somehow on the river bed and test that for analysis. And if that test comes back positive, they have got what they need, right?
MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That`s exactly right, Jane, because as we know, there was a forensic anthropologist there on the scene doing some testing of some of the items that they did recover. We heard that there were items recovered by Sheriff Hardy. He said that they did recover their 20 to 30 divers.
What exactly did they get? We don`t know but the initial results that there was a cooler that was recovered; apparently they were using that as a sifter for the silty bottom of the St. Johns River. He said they were recovering all kinds of things, alligator nails, but did they recover one little piece of bone or possibly more? We don`t know.
They are holding that evidence very close to their vest. But that`s what the indications are if they are telling Ron to prepare for a funeral.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s right. Lots of new evidence up for analysis and investigation: two cinder blocks reportedly sent for testing; rope that was found allegedly in Tommy`s former home. What about deer blood found in the mystery van? The private detective who gave Misty a lie detector and voice analysis test said this on ISSUES just last week.
Quote, "She -- Misty -- talked about a van. And she said there was blood in the van. But she went to tell me that it was deer blood."
Now, Levi Page, you`re a blogger, way on top of this case. Cops said they found alligator toenails in the St. Johns River. So if they found alligator toenails that means alligators are in that river.
T.J. refused to speculate as to whether Haleigh`s killer they put deer blood on the child so that alligators would eat her but you`ve got to look at that possibility. And if it turns out there`s no body and no confession, despite everything that happened last week, is there still no case, Levi?
LEVI PAGE, INTERNET RADIO HOST AND BLOGGER (via telephone): You know what, I think that that`s a possibility. It`s horrific to think that anybody would put deer blood on a child to attract alligators to eat them.
What is interesting to me is that Haleigh Cummings had Turner Syndrome (ph). She had violent outbursts, temper tantrums, screaming. Whoever tried to do this, (INAUDIBLE) I want to know if he had any scratches, did he have any bite marks on him, any bruises that Haleigh tried to put up a fight.
Wouldn`t Misty or Tommy have had that if that were the case? There`s not that many descriptive details in order for me to believe what they are saying.
And also this -- I want to address what Ronald Cummings attorney Terry Shoemaker is saying. I think it`s a load of crap. That Ronald Cummings engages in drug trafficking in order to -- that`s not Ronald Cummings` first (INAUDIBLE). He has a history of drug offenses before this happened. And if he wanted to help police, why did he marry Misty Croslin?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, yes. None of it really makes sense. And then we`re hearing, did Ron Cummings divorce Misty and then get himself busted in that February drug sting just in order to get close to Misty.
Listen to what his attorney said yesterday. This is unbelievable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHOEMAKER: The police have always said that, you know, first if you divorce Haleigh -- I`m sorry, divorce Misty, we`ll find something out. She`ll crack. They have told him, if Misty got in trouble, if Misty was in jail, we could probably get her to crack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now Mark Eiglarsh, Ron`s mother is saying Ron may have gotten involved in that alleged prescription drug ring just to get close to Misty.
MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Makes me chuckle, Jane.
BROOKS: Exactly.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why are you laughing about that?
EIGLARSH: Come on. I`ve defended enough drug traffickers to know that love isn`t their motivation. It`s the mighty dollar. Give me a break.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: No. I guess what the mom is saying is that even after he divorced her, ok, they are saying the cops said divorce her, she`ll crack. So he divorces her. Then the mom is saying he got involved in the drug ring with Misty in order to get close to her to get information.
EIGLARSH: And that`s what my mother would say, too, to defend me. God bless her.
That`s a wonderful defense when you`re caught on video or audio; when a busload of nuns catch him doing whatever he`s doing, you come up with something. I think the best lies are based on half truths. Ok. Got it. He loved her, he wanted to get close to her. That works.
I`m not buying it.
BROOKS: And he married her, Jane, after the initial police report when he called her his dumb b-word girlfriend. Then he marries the woman. So what did he do? Did he marry her to try to get some information out of her, and then divorced her? I`m not buying that story.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m just saying it`s a crazy case. These people are very hard to figure out --
BROOKS: To say the least.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- right, to put it mildly.
What if, for example, Jean Casarez -- it sounds crazy but what if the mom is right, that Ron purposely maybe even colluded with the cops to be part of the sting, to get himself arrested so that they would be sure that Misty would end up in jail and therefore crack and tell the truth.
CASAREZ: Two things Jane. First of all, I heard on a jailhouse tape between Ronald Cummings and his mother Teresa Neves, her saying that to him very tenderly. Number two, I`ve watched hours of jailhouse videos, especially in the drug interaction when they were making the drug deals and definitely Misty is in charge of that whole thing. Ronald is in the back seat most of the time. He talks, but she`s really the one that is running the operation.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow, ok. None of it continues to make any sense. We pray that there`s a break in this case and that we can all get closure soon.
Fantastic panel; thank you so much. And remember, tomorrow night right here on ISSUES we`re going to talk to Misty and Joe`s grandmother Flora Holler (ph). She`s the one who got this whole search going. You don`t want to miss that.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1004/19/ijvm.01.html
