Haleigh Cummings ~ Missing

Missing Girl's Father Makes Emotional Plea

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 – updated: 9:34 am EST February 11, 2009
PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. -- Investigators from Volusia and Flagler counties continued a massive search for a missing 5-year-old Putnam County girl. An Amber Alert was issued for Haleigh Cummings.

Her father believes someone snatched Haleigh from her bedroom in Satsuma early Tuesday morning.

Haleigh
was home with her father's girlfriend who noticed the child was missing. Her father made an emotional plea for Haleigh's safe return.

"I would give up everything I own. All I want is my child. Please. All I want is my child," said Ronald Cummings.

Investigators said there's no sign that someone forced their way into the home, but they did find a door open.

Authorities searched the neighborhood by ground and air and questioned nearby sex offenders and the girl's relatives.

Transcript of 911 call:

• Caller: I just woke up and my back door was all open, and I can't find my daughter.
  
• Operator: Can't find what?
  
• Caller: My daughter.
  
• Operator: OK. When did you last see her?
  
• Caller: We just like, you know, it was about 10 o'clock. She was sleeping.
  
• Operator: OK. How old is your daughter?
  
• Caller: She's 5.
  
• Operator: OK. What was she last seen wearing, Ma'am?
  
• Caller: She was in her pajamas. She was sleeping.
  
• Operator: OK. All right, you said your back door was wide open?
  
• Caller: Yes, with a brick. Like, there was a brick on the floor. Like, when I went to sleep, the door was not like that.
  
• Operator: OK. Was your back door locked? Do you know?
  
• Caller: Yes. That door always stays locked.
  
• Father: I just got home from work. My 5-year-old daughter is gone. I need someone to be here now. I'm telling you, if I find whoever has my daughter before you all do, I'm killing him. I don't care. I'll spend the rest of my life in prison.
  
• Operator: It's OK, sir. We got them on the way.
  

http://www.wesh.com/news/18681356/detail.html

Padilla offers reward for abducted girl

Excerpts:

SATSUMA, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) - Leonard Padilla, the bounty hunter who for several months in 2008 had been engaged in the search for Orlando toddler Caylee Marie Anthony, is now offering a $25,000 reward for the safe return of another missing girl.

. . . . . . .

According to investigators, Haleigh was last seen on Monday night around 10 p.m. in her mobile home on Green Lane. Haleigh, her younger brother and her father's 17-year-old girlfriend, Mistie Croslin, went to bed in the same room. Deputies say Croslin told them that the little girl got up to go to the bathroom around 3:30 a.m., about the same time Haleigh's father, Ronald, got home from work. When they went back into the bedroom they discovered Haleigh was gone.

http://www2.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/local/0211095_Police_missing_girl_abducted

Grandmother of missing girl: 'Just bring her back'


Helen Eckinger and Gary Taylor |Sentinel Staff Writers4:01 PM EST, February 11, 2009

SATSUMA - Five-year-old Haleigh Cummings is afraid of the dark and would not have wandered off into the night, her family told the Orlando entinel today as investigators stepped up a massive search for the Putnam County girl.

The girl's disappearance was classified as an abduction today.

Haleigh, who is nicknamed Doodlebug, lives with her father and his girlfriend in this rural county about 80 miles north of Orlando.

Her father, Ronald Cummings, 25, put Haleigh to bed about 10 p.m. Monday before he left for work. His 17-year-old girlfriend, Misty Croslin, noticed Haleigh was missing about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.

"Haleigh is a very indoor-type child," Haleigh's maternal grandmother, Marie Griffis, said today. "If she goes outside, she wants you to be with her -- she would never go outside by herself in the dark."

Griffis said Haleigh is bright and loves drawing, makeup and playing with gadgets. She said that if someone has abducted Haleigh, she hopes the person will release the girl.

"Just bring her back," Griffis said. "There are plenty of places you can drop off a kid, no questions asked."

Detective John Merchant of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said that a screen door on the side of the couple's Satsuma home had been propped open with a block, but authorities found no obvious signs of forced entry.

"I just woke up and my back door is open, and I can't find my daughter," Croslin told a 911 dispatcher. She told the dispatcher she had been sleeping and the door was not open when she went to sleep.

Merchant said 44 sex offenders live in a 5-mile radius of Cummings' home, but all have been contacted by law enforcement since Haleigh disappeared.

"Right now, we don't have a lot of clues indicating where she's at," Merchant said. "I'm always positive, though -- we want to find her alive."

In addition to Putnam County deputies, officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Volusia, Marion and Flagler Sheriff's Offices are searching for Haleigh.

Search dogs are combing through woods in the area, and divers are searching the nearby St. Johns River.

Officials said Haleigh's mother, Crystal Sheffield, 23, was in Baker County near the Florida-Georgia state line at the time of her daughter's disappearance. Sheffield was talking with investigators today in Putnam County.

In the 911 call originally placed by Croslin, Haleigh's father told officials he needed their help immediately.

"I just got home from work, and my 5-year-old daughter is gone," he said, seeming to become more agitated as the call progressed. "I need somebody to be here now, I'm telling you. "If I find whoever has my daughter before you do, I'm killing them," he said. "I don't care if I have to spend the rest of my life in prison."

He apparently hung up on the dispatcher, who then called back, trying to get additional information from Croslin, while constantly assuring her that deputies were on the way.

Joshua Duckett, father of missing Lake County toddler Trenton Duckett, said he was acting as a family spokesman and would try to find additional photos of Haleigh to help with the search.

Meanwhile, a volunteer group from Houston that helped look for Caylee Marie Anthony in Orlando last year, said it is gearing up to help in the search for Haleigh. Caylee's remains were found in December, and her public memorial was Tuesday.

Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquuSearch, said his organization has been in contact with Putnam County officials. Some volunteers may drive and others may fly to Florida today or tomorrow, he said.

"It's pretty ironic. We have another child disappear seven hours before Caylee's memorial," he said.

Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla is joining the ranks headed for Putnam County. He and his crew -- including bounty hunter Rob Dick -- plan to drive 80 miles north, where a command center has been set up to search for the missing girl.

Padilla said he's going to see what's happening up there and will help if needed.

Anyone with information about Haleigh's whereabouts is asked to call the Putnam County Sheriff's Office at 386-329-0808.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-missing-florida-girl-021109,0,947501.story