Grandmother of Haleigh Cummings: 'Just bring her back'

Haleigh Cummings was last seen at her home on Green Lane in Satsuma, a small town about 80 miles north of Orlando.

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Helen Eckinger and Gary Taylor

Sentinel Staff Writers
February 11, 2009

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Haleigh Cummings, 5, was last seen at 10 p.m. Monday in the bedroom of her Satsuma home. (MISSINGKIDS.COM / February 10, 2009)

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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 Sentinel today as investigators stepped up a massive search for the Putnam County girl.

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"We are absolutely treating this like an abduction," said Major Gary Bowling of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office. "There is no longer any reason to believe that the child simply wandered off outside. "Haleigh, who is nicknamed Doodlebug, lives with her father and his girlfriend in this rural county about 80 miles north of Orlando.

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The girlfriend, Misty Croslin, 17, put Haleigh to bed about 10 p.m. Monday. She woke up and noticed Haleigh was missing about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, right before Cummings returned home from work at PDM Bridge.

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"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."

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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."

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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.

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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.

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"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.

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Haleigh's mother, Crystal Sheffield, 23, was talking with investigators today in Putnam County and waiting for news on her daughter's whereabouts. She was in Baker County near the Florida-Georgia state line at the time of her daughter's disappearance.

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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.

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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. 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.

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"It's pretty ironic. We have another child disappear seven hours before Caylee's memorial," he said. Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla also joined the ranks heading for Putnam County. At a staging area near Cummings' house, he said that curiosity had drawn him to the scene."It was either this or Universal [Studios]" he said. Anyone with information about Haleigh's whereabouts is asked to call the Putnam County Sheriff's Office at 386-329-0808.

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On Nancy Grace, Haleigh's father said that the story he got from his girlfriend was that they were all in the same bed, girlfriend got up to go to the bathroom, when she went back to bed Haleigh was gone. Already she has told two different versions of that night. Dad has taken and passed a lie detector test, not sure about his girlfriend, but a small video clip showed a slight girl who was weeping crocodile tears.

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Putnam County Sheriff stated that search dogs have picked up no scent yet. Maybe it's a rush to judgement, but I have a strong hunch Misty has done something to her. Just my own opinion as a true crime junkie.

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If not--this is going to give the Anthony/Baez case one plausible alternative to Casey murdering Caylee.

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