Thursday, February 12, 2009

Haleigh Cummings: UPDATES 3:00EST: Padilla offers $25.000 reward; Equusearch, Josh Duckett, Arrives On The Scene


An Amber Alert remains in effect for a missing 5-year-old. I will be following the Haleigh Cumings disappearance case from all angles. .


Haleigh Cummings mother, her parents and other family members sat outside the subdivision where deputies said the 5-year-old was snatched from her father's home.
They're handing out fliers and asking questions.
They even have questions about the father and his girlfriend's story.
"Yeah I question all of it,” said Haleigh’s maternal grandmother Marie Griffis. “How can someone get up out of bed, go to the bathroom, then come back and find the child missing? Why didn't she see the child missing when she got up?”
The 5-year-old was first reported missing Monday by her father and his girlfriend







The father told deputies he locked the back door before leaving for work and left Haleigh in bed with his girlfriend.
The girlfriend, Misty Croslin, told deputies she went to the bathroom for a few minutes, and when she returned, Haleigh was gone.
Cunningham told deputies he routinely did this every night.
"If the back door is dead, bolted you're not just gonna pry it open, you're gonna have to break the door down," said Haleigh’s maternal grandfather Jeff Scheffield.
The grandfather and grandmother said someone inside a mobile home would have heardsomeone trying to break in.
Sheriff Jeff Hardy said there were no signs of forced entry.
"We don't know what to believe," said Griffis.
There is an ongoing rift between Haleigh’s mother and father, who are legally separated, but not divorced.
Griffis said the girl’s father would often threaten to take away visitation rights from the mother -- a mother who now sits speechless waiting for new information about her daughter's whereabouts.

Investigators : Haleigh Abducted

Putnam County investigators are getting some help with the search of missing 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings.
About a dozen members of Texas EquuSearch will be helping with the search on horseback on rough terrain. Josh Duckett, the father of missing Lake County toddler Trenton Duckett, is also helping in the search.
For the second night in a row, family and friends held a vigil for Haleigh, who has been missing since Monday night. Investigators still don't know if she was abducted or wandered away from her Satsuma home, which is about 70 miles north of Orlando.
Deputies said there were no signs of forced entry, but a back door was open.
At an 11 a.m. press conference Thursday, Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy said investigators have covered a 5 mile area by helicopter and on the ground for Haleigh. A dive team also searched the St. Johns River near the girl’s home. Hardy said he’s not certain Haleigh is still in the area.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement and FBI are working with Putnam County investigators to locate the 44 known sex offenders living in the area.
Haleigh's father said his daughter was missing when he returned from work around 3 a.m. Tuesday. Ronald Cummings, who has legal custody of Haleigh, said his girlfriend was awake and frantic after she realized Haleigh was missing from her bed.
"I just got home from work and my 5-year-old daughter is gone," Cummings told a dispatcher on a 911 call. "If I find whoever has my daughter before you all do, I'm killing them. I don't care if I spend the rest of my life in prison."
Hardy said Cummings’ girlfriend was interviewed and given a polygraph. However, he did not disclose what was revealed.
Crystal Sheffield, Haleigh’s mother, admits the girl has wandered off before and was found in a canal.
"It wasn’t like she wandered out. I mean, we were getting ready to leave. I told her father to get her and put her in the car. I had already put Junior, the baby, in the car. I went back in to get the bags and the baby's stuff. I come out, Haleigh was not in the car, and I ran straight down to the canal, and that's where she was," Sheffield said.
Authorities said until they have other evidence, they are treating this as an abduction case.
Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla is offering a reward of $25,000 for the safe return of Haleigh by midnight Saturday.
If you have seen Haleigh Cummings, call the Putnam County Sheriff's Office at (386) 329-0808 or 911.

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