Haleigh Cummings: Nancy Grace America's Missing

by FystyAngel Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:15 am

3/2/2011

Haleigh Cummings: Nancy Grace America's Missing

Posted: 12:43 PM ET

For two years police in Satsuma, Florida have been trying to put the pieces together to find missing 5-year-old, Haleigh Cummings. In the process there has been a wedding, a divorce, drug charges, arrests, and sentencing – but no sign of the little girl who was last seen by her babysitter turned stepmother, Misty Croslin on February 9, 2009.

She first said Haleigh was secreted away from the trailer she shared with her father and brother in middle of the night while she slept. Croslin’s story has changed many times – the only constant is Haleigh vanishing. Today, Croslin sits behind bars on drug charges. She insists she had nothing to do with Haleigh’s disappearance. Two years has yielded many clues but no answers to finding the little girl whom police believe is dead.

Tipline: 1-888-277-TIPS
Reward: $30,000
Missing Since: February 9, 2009
Missing From: Satsuma, Florida
Classification: Endangered Missing
Age at disappearance: 5
Height: 3 Feet
Weight: 39 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Strawberry-Blonde
Identifying marks:
-Birthmark on left cheek and back

Missing 5-Year-Old Florida Girl

Aired March 1, 2011 - 21:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Vanished into thin air.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to kind her.

GRACE: So many cases --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re still looking.

GRACE: -- so few leads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

GRACE: Missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness had seen the suspect on NANCY GRACE.

GRACE: There is a God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NANCY GRACE show was out there for us.

GRACE: Found alive.

Fifty people, 50 days, 50 nights.

Let`s don`t give up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want you to go stand up there.

MISTY CROSLIN, HALEIGH CUMMINGS` FMR. STEPMOM, BABYSITTER: Three o`clock in the morning, I got up. And I got up because I had to use the bathroom, but I didn`t make it to the bathroom. I had seen the kitchen light on, and I walked in the kitchen and the back door`s wide open.

RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER: I came home this morning to find out that I didn`t have a child, that somebody stole my child.

9111 OPERATOR: 911. What`s your emergency?

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

CUMMINGS: Those bloodhounds, canines can`t find her nowhere -- helicopters. Somebody has her, and they have her hidden.

CROSLIN: If they go out and look for the right person, maybe they`d have the answers. But they`re trying to get all the answers from me that I don`t have.

TERESA NEVES, GRANDMOTHER: If I go with every whim and every accusation, then I`m going to be flipping back and forth in my life. We just stand for Haleigh here. We just want Haleigh to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ask that you look upon Haleigh right now, about wherever she may be, God.

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, MOTHER: Mommy misses you. Your daddy misses you. Your whole family misses you. And we will bring you home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CO-HOST: Every day 2,300 people in America go missing. They disappear. They vanish. Their families are left wondering and hoping and waiting, but never forgetting, and neither do we.

Fifty people, 50 days. For 50 nights, we go live spotlighting America`s missing people -- girls and boys, mothers and fathers, even grandparents. They are gone, but where are they?

Tonight, Haleigh Cummings, Satsuma, Florida, a 5-year-old girl tucked in bed. Hours later, daddy comes home. He`s working the nightshift.

Not a trace. She is gone. There is no trace of little Haleigh.

Nobody ever saw her going or gone. She didn`t know if she was alive.

Misty Croslin, who flunks four different polygraphs -- Haleigh`s father, Ronald Cummings, and stepmother Misty Croslin are booked on drugs. There`s a search team, cadaver dogs, scuba divers. They all comb the St. Johns River as the search for little Haleigh`s body goes on.

Tonight, after two long years of waiting, what happened to Haleigh Cummings?

I want to go out to Art Harris, investigative reporter.

Art, it has been two long years since we have gotten to know Haleigh Cummings. I want you to take us back to the very beginning, the evening of February 9, 2009.

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Imagine night in the swamp, on the edge of the swamp in Satsuma, Florida. It is 3:27 a.m. when a 17-year- old babysitter picks up the phone and calls 911 to report a little girl who lives there with her and her boyfriend is missing. The back door is open and she doesn`t know where this little girl is.

You hear on the 911 tape the father screaming at her, calling her bad words. He is so angry. He`s furious. And it goes downhill from there -- Jean.

CASAREZ: To Marlaina Schiavo, NANCY GRACE producer, who was there at the mobile home days after little Haleigh went missing.

Tell us what Misty told you in her own words of the last time she saw Haleigh.

MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, as you know, Jean, she`s told a few stories to a few different people about the night Haleigh went missing.

CASAREZ: But what did she tell you?

SCHIAVO: She said that she was home in the trailer that night. She said that she put the kids down at about 8:00 p.m., and that she, herself, went to bed at around 10:00.

She also said she had done some laundry that night. And then when she got up around 3:00 a.m. to go to the bathroom, a light was on, and that is when she realized the back door was open and Haleigh was missing.

CASAREZ: To Art Harris, investigative journalist.

This was just the beginning of everything. And law enforcement really didn`t waste any time, because once Ronald Cummings called in that 911 call, law enforcement came to the scene. From the very beginning they didn`t think she ran away. They thought it was an abduction.

HARRIS: They thought this was somebody close to the family, someone who had to have access to that trailer, knew their comings and goings, and know the whereabouts, knew the habits of this little girl. So they were there.

They polygraphed the whole family. They brought in dogs. They picked up a scent. They checked dumpsters. Every dumpster in the county was searched.

Dogs went down a railroad track, Jean. They picked up a scent and lost it.

Suddenly, there is nothing. They have a father taking a polygraph, they have Misty Croslin taking a polygraph.

We learn later, as I report on "The Bald Truth," ArtHarris.com, she`s flunked four polygraphs. That was the first of many, and each time a different story.

CASAREZ: And Marlaina Schiavo, talking about the different stories, I remember the very first time I said to myself, wait a minute, there`s an inconsistency here. Originally, she had said that little Haleigh and her brother, or little Haleigh and she, Misty Croslin, were in the same bed that night, but then she put Haleigh in a separate bed in the bedroom that night.

SCHIAVO: Well, yes, Jean. And then later on we saw that there were two beds in the bedroom where they were sleeping. And she said -- her later story was that she was in the bigger bed, the big bed with junior, and then Haleigh was in a smaller mattress that was right next to the bed. So that was one of the inconsistencies.

Also, that thing I said about the laundry, it turns out there was no laundry detergent in the house. So how was she possibly doing laundry? And even when we went through the trailer, we saw there was tons of laundry everywhere. And the grandmother, the great-grandmother, Annette Sykes, who we have on tonight, will tell you that she just brought laundry to the home that evening.

CASAREZ: Marlaina, what were your thoughts when you were in that trailer and you were looking at that door that she said was open, propped open, and you realized it automatically shuts, so it would be strange for it to be open? And you saw there wasn`t any laundry detergent in the home. What went through your mind?

SCHIAVO: Well, there were a few things. I mean, obviously, the door that automatically shuts made a really loud sound, so that was something that, you know, I think an adult would hear.

But the other thing that struck me was the story about the bathroom. There were actually two bathrooms in that trailer. And I couldn`t figure out which bathroom she was talking about, because at one point when she came back from the bathroom, she saw the light was on. And another time she said she never even made it to the bathroom.

But one of bathrooms was in the bedroom and the other one was in the living room. So which bathroom was it?

There were a few things, many things that struck us in the aftermath.

CASAREZ: And that is just the beginning of the story of little Haleigh gone missing.

We have some very special guests tonight.

First of all, I`d like to introduce Teresa Neves, who is joining us. She is the grandmother of Haleigh Cummings.

It is wonderful to see you. I can`t believe it`s two years now that Haleigh`s been gone, that we`ve gotten to know Haleigh, that you have lost Haleigh. What is it like now for you two years and no answers?

NEVES: It`s a very hard thing. You get up every day praying that this is the day that Haleigh comes home. And every night you go to bed praying for the same thing. And you just wait for answers and, you know, do what you can. It`s not an easy life.

CASAREZ: I am so sure that it changed all of your lives forever.

Annette Sykes is joining us also tonight. She is the great- grandmother of Haleigh Cummings.

Ms. Sykes, thanks for joining us.

You saw Haleigh in the early evening hours of February 9th. Tell us that story.

ANNETTE SYKES, GREAT-GRANDMOTHER: I had gone by to take some of the children`s clothes that I had to take home to wash, and I took them by there to drop them off. And the children were sitting on the front porch eating supper, and Misty was sitting there with them.

They jumped down and ran out to the car to see me when I got out. And I hugged them and kissed them, and we took the clothes in the house. And then I hugged and kissed them good-bye and told them I loved them.

CASAREZ: Ms. Sykes, I`m sure you have such mixed emotion, so grateful that you got to see Haleigh that night.

What was she wearing? What was she like? What did she say to you?

SYKES: She just hollered "Granny! Granny!" And put her plate down, her and Bubba (ph) both sitting right out in the car.

And she didn`t have her shirt on, and I told her to get her shirt back on. She was real about taking her shirt off. She was real hot-natured. And I told her to get her shirt on. Her and Bubba (ph) put their shirts on while I was there.

CASAREZ: What time was this?

SYKES: About 7:30.

CASAREZ: Was anything said that night that maybe Misty was going out, or anything was going to happen that night, future plans?

SYKES: Nothing. They were just -- the children, like I say, were sitting there eating supper. And she was sitting smoking a cigarette out on the porch. And they were telling me what she had fixed them to eat for supper, green beans.

CASAREZ: Yes. Green beans?

SYKES: Haleigh loved them.

CASAREZ: You know, Ms. Sykes, law enforcement, at the two-year anniversary, released a statement that we want everybody to listen to tonight, because these -- it`s been a long time since law enforcement has spoken on this case, although they are actively investigating it.

But they say, "At this point, the evidence and investigatory effort has minimized the likelihood that Haleigh`s disappearance is the work of a stranger. The individuals with direct knowledge of Haleigh`s whereabouts the night she went missing have still failed to provide the necessary information to bring this case to a logical conclusion."

Teresa Neves, I want to ask you, when I read this -- and I read this over and over and over again -- they don`t believe it`s a stranger. I think at this point we can understand that. But when I read this, I think they questioned whether little Haleigh stayed at home that night the entire time.

What do you think?

NEVES: I think that they have to question a lot of things when you consider the fact that the story changes so often. But they did say that it`s minimized, so it doesn`t mean that she couldn`t be found by somebody out there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are starting to talk.

CROSLIN: I don`t know where she is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are starting to cooperate.

CROSLIN: There`s nothing to break me on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she`s come to realize that, you know, she`s in trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I see a smile.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you hurt so many lives --

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- you don`t want to believe anyone.

GRACE: What is the second version?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was told that Misty had knocked her in the head and killed her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cannot believe anything.

GRACE: Who knows if any of them are true. (INAUDIBLE) have not been named official suspects or persons of interest.

CROSLIN: When I showed up there, they told me I was taking a polygraph.

They took a polygraph.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know anything about her flunking a polygraph.

GRACE: I mean, royally flunked it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We tried to make an arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told her, I said, "Baby, don`t cry. This is something you should have said a long time ago."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re trying to bring somebody to justice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says, "But Nanny, I was scared."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This little girl right here and her family --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bring her back.

CUMMINGS: I know somebody took my little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want our baby to come home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez.

Where is Haleigh Cummings?

Haleigh Cummings has to be found. You know why? Her mother needs her. Her grandmother needs her. Her great-grandmother needs her. And her father needs her.

That`s why Haleigh Cummings needs to be found. And her family wants her found alive.

We are taking your calls live tonight.

Bonnie in Florida.

Hi, Bonnie.

BONNIE, FLORIDA: Hi.

CASAREZ: Thank you for calling.

BONNIE: Yes. I was wondering, the last story that we heard was that they had found a brick and some rope in the water. And I was wondering if they`d ever found any teeth or bone out there.

CASAREZ: To Art Harris, investigative reporter.

You know, it was last April. And we were saying, "Hallelujah," because they`re going to solve this case.

And it all started after Tommy and Misty and Ronald were arrested for drug deals, prescription drug charges. They were incarcerated. Tommy took a polygraph, so his attorney says, and several days later he takes authorities out to the boat ramp.

HARRIS: That`s right, Jean. The polygraph given by a retired FBI agent in Jacksonville, that I reported on ArtHarris.com.

He flunked miserably. And they did not reveal that.

But he goes out to the river and takes law enforcement, shows him where he says he went down to the river with cousin Joe Overstreet (ph) of Tennessee. No proof Joe did anything.

And Joe dropped Haleigh in the river, anchored down by a brick or one of those concrete blocks that you jack up trailers with, and a yellow rope. Yellow rope later found on the door and in the car of a van that Tommy Croslin was driving.

In fact, his wife, Lindsay (ph), gave them permission to search the house. And that`s when they found it.

Now, no charges. Only suspicion, Jean.

You have Misty then flunking another polygraph, a fourth one in front of law enforcement, who are so eager for her to say anything that can be confirmed by forensic evidence. Just one thing. She`s lied so many times, that they have got to have some physical proof.

I report at ArtHarris.com that they offer her immunity, complete immunity in the Haleigh case, if she will give them something that leads them to a body or remains. She does not do it. She doesn`t take it. Says she doesn`t know.

So, she has gone so many ways, has told so many stories, and has now retracted the story she told that she came home, she was at home that night, and saw Joe and Tommy in the trailer, and heard Haleigh scream, and that Tommy took -- I mean, Joe took Haleigh out. And that`s when Tommy says he went to the river and watched the body go in.

CASAREZ: So, Marc Klaas, president of KlaasKids Foundation, what does this tell you if she was offered immunity, didn`t take it?

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Yes. Listen, Jean, this little girl grew up in a toxic environment. Her father and the babysitter, many of their friends and the family, all put to consideration their next pill of Oxycontin ahead of everything, including the welfare of the children. She really didn`t have a chance from the beginning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROSLIN: I wish that they would have took me instead of her, you know, because I could have fought. She`s only 5. She can`t really to anything.

I don`t know where she is.

KLAAS: She was a 16-year-old child whose job was to look after somebody else`s two young children. And I can only imagine that this girl would want to get out and have some fun of some kind.

CROSLIN: I love her like she`s my own, and I`ll do anything to get her back.

CUMMINGS: Well, of course, I want to know if she knows anything, what she does know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: Haleigh Cummings was 5 years old when she went missing February 9, 2009. She was sweet, she was innocent. All she did was just love her family. That`s all she did, and she didn`t deserve whatever happened to her.

I want to go to Tom Shamshak, former police chief, private investigator, joining us tonight.

Law enforcement, in coming out with their very recent statement, saying this is very much an ongoing investigation, says that there are so many conflicting statements between the witnesses, that it shows them that they are concealing relevant information.

What does law enforcement do?

TOM SHAMSHAK, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Jean, good evening.

Well, typically, the prospect of serving time has a tendency to loosen one`s lips, motivate somebody to be truthful, and provide meaningful information. Not with this cast of characters, though. They will take this apparently to their grave with them. It`s very frustrating.

What law enforcement can continue to do is to watch Joe Overstreet (ph), who has been named as a potential player here, and to follow any new additional leads that come in, again, to still work on the timeline associated with the relationships of all of the people around Ronald Cummings -- Jean.

CASAREZ: Everybody, we are taking your calls live tonight.

And with us is the grandmother of Haleigh Cummings, Teresa Neves, and also the great-grandmother of Haleigh Cummings, Annette Sykes.

Teresa, I want to ask you, in the beginning you supported Misty Croslin. You supported her. When did you turn the other way and realize, no, wait, there`s something very wrong here?

NEVES: I believe that would be about the fourth story. You know, some of the stories, the inconsistencies.

We were all in the same bed, we were all in the same room. You know, I could understand in confusion that you might get that wrong, but when the stories were just so different, it was hard to believe anything she said then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEFFIELD: I just want whoever`s got her to bring her home. That`s all I want, is my baby home. I just want my baby home. Whoever`s got her, I just want them to bring her back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Vanished into thin air.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.

GRACE: So many cases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.

GRACE: So few leads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.

GRACE: Missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness seen the suspect on Nancy Grace.

GRACE: There is a God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy Grace show was out there for us.

GRACE: Found. Alive. 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights. Let`s don`t give up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go stand up there.

MISTY CROSLIN, HALEIGH CUMMINGS FMR. STEPMOM; BABYSITTER: Three o`clock in the morning, I got up and I got up because I had to use the bathroom, but I didn`t make it to the bathroom. I`ve seen the kitchen light on, and I walked in the kitchen and the backdoor`s wide open.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Came home this morning to find out that I didn`t have a child. That somebody stole my child.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911, what`s your emergency?

CROSLIN: Hi, um, I just woke up and our backdoor is wide open, and I can`t find my daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dogs, bloodhounds, canines, helicopters. Somebody has her. They have her hid.

CROSLIN: If they got out and look for the right person, maybe they`d have the answer, but they are trying to get all the answers from me that I don`t have.

TERESA NEVES, GRANDMOTHER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: If I go with every whim and every accusation, then I`m going to be flipping back and forth in my life. We just stand for Haleigh here. We just want Haleigh to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God, we ask that you look over Haleigh right now, God, wherever she may be, God.

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, MOTHER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: Mommy misses you. Your daddy misses you. Your whole family misses you. We will bring you home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": I`m Jean Casarez. Haleigh Cummings is a missing person. She needs to be found. Justice must be served in this case. To Art Harris, what are your sources telling you is truly the latest in this investigation?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Well, they have gone through 5,000 tips, but they are still focusing closely on this small group. Misty Cummings, Misty Croslin, her brother, Tommy, and now I`m reporting on artharris.com that another sibling has flubbed or showed deception in a polygraph and that would be her brother, Timmy Croslin.

CASAREZ: So, say that again. Your sources are telling you that Timmy Croslin, who I believe lived in, moved to Massachusetts --

HARRIS: He moved to Massachusetts right after this happened and moved back to Florida. Now, his wife Chelsea tells me that they`re willing to take another polygraph, that there`s no reason that he would have anything to do with this, that he`s got three daughters. Why would he want to, quote, "kidnap" another little girl?

It doesn`t make sense, but I`m just reporting what I`ve been told, Jean, and they`re holding it close to their vest, but I can tell you also that in a ride together from the St. Johns County Jail, sources are telling me that it was Tommy Croslin who told Misty to make up the cousin Joe killed Haleigh story.

CASAREZ: Ray Giudice, defense attorney, it goes on and on. We want the truth, and tell me your thoughts on this because Misty Croslin, she was sentenced recently to 25 years in prison for prescription drug dealing. Tommy Croslin sentenced to 15 years in prison. So, they didn`t get good plea deals, but they didn`t talk either. And isn`t there a big, big chance that if Misty would talk about Tommy or Tommy would talk about Misty, they`d implicate each other at the very same time? They all go down together.

RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, as Tom said, the time, someone talking had the most value for each of them was just before their sentencing on the drug case, and they didn`t use that ace card. That tells me something. The immunity deal, if made to Misty, tells me something else. Immunity deals are not generally given to the person that law enforcement thinks actually committed the homicide.

They`re generally granted to an aid or an abettor, a co-conspirator, or someone involved in the aftermath of the cover-up. If that`s true, that tells me that they`re looking at Haleigh -- Misty as someone who knows what happened and might have been there when it happened but did not commit the crime, herself.

CASAREZ: So, why wouldn`t you take advantage of that immunity deal? That just doesn`t make sense. To Miriam in Florida. Hi Miriam.

MIRIAM, FLORIDA: Hi there, Jean. How are you?

CASAREZ: I`m fine. Thank you for calling.

MIRIAM: I want to ask the question. What about Misty`s mom? Has she ever been really investigated because I can`t phantom (ph) a mom that has two children right now in jail and that she would not know something? Was she crying because she was sad about Haleigh or was she crying because she was afraid for her daughter?

CASAREZ: OK. Miriam, good question. You know, Misty`s mother, she`s had a lot of problems on her own. Art Harris, investigative journalist, Misty`s mother has been in jail, in and out of jail in the last couple years. Did she ever take a polygraph?

HARRIS: I don`t think she took a polygraph, but I talked to Lisa Croslin many times, and she comes off as such a sweet lady. And I can tell you that this is a family that sticks together. They have all lied about so many things, and she told me that it was her mother, Lisa Croslin, who Misty called first that night, not 911.

CASAREZ: Well, I think that`s a really good point. Teresa Neves joining us tonight. She is the grandmother of Haleigh. Ronald Cummings is your son. You know, Miss Neves, from the very beginning, my thoughts have been, if your son hadn`t of called 911, when would 911 have been called? Your son is the one that did it.

NEVES: I don`t know. My son is -- he was very adamant, as you heard, that she call 911. I don`t know why she didn`t call before that. I don`t know how much time elapsed before the time she found Haleigh missing, and she made the 911 call, but it`s definitely Ronald who made her make the call.

CASAREZ: Right. What has Ronald talked to you about lately? He is serving 15 years now for prescription drug dealing. What has he said about Haleigh?

NEVES: His number one concern is for Haleigh to come home. And he said he plays the night through his mind over and over. If he only hadn`t went to work, Haleigh would still be with us. It`s very hard for him.

CASAREZ: So, he places guilt on his shoulders?

NEVES: On the fact that he had to go to work.

CASAREZ: Miss Sykes, I know you had a vigil for Haleigh several weeks ago. Did Ronald write a poem for the vigil?

ANNETTE SYKES, GREAT-GRANDMOTHER OF HALEIGH CUMMINGS: yes, he did.

CASAREZ: What did it say?

SYKES: How much he loved his little girl. How much he missed her. How precious she was to him. And that she owned his heart.

CASAREZ: It`s really something. Caryn Stark, psychologist, joining us tonight from New York. You know, there are so many emotions in this case, but one that I am left with is anger. I`m angry because there are people, as far as law enforcement has told us, that are before our eyes that they believe have information that they`re not giving up, and that is angering.

CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Angering and frustrating and you know, Jean, I know that you`re angry, and these two family members are so sad, but you can`t do anything when they`re so committed as a family to keeping secrets. And that they`re nefarious characters in a way. They`re very good at telling lies. So, you can`t really trust what they have to say. And, unfortunately, no one gets to have any kind of resolution as a result of that.

When you think about the fact that Misty was 16 years, old and she was taking care of these two children. At 16, anything was possible. And at 16, she could learn that she shouldn`t say anything because too many people in the family might go down. Maybe, everyone had a little bit of responsibility in what happened, but something definitely happened to Haleigh, and it`s infuriating.

I`m sure for the police, can you imagine what it`s like for them, that they don`t get a chance to be able to take these people who clearly know something and get any information out of them?

CASAREZ: You know what, Dr. Stark, I bet it keeps going. I bet it motivates them to solve this case.

STARK I hope so. I hope so. We both hope so, right, Jean?

CASAREZ: We sure do.

Please help us find Brianna Reed. She`s 5 years old, and she vanished September 29th, 2006 in Little Rock, Arkansas. She`s a white female, 4 feet tall, 45 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes. If you have information, please call 870-423-2901 or 1-800-375-5683.

If your loved one is missing and you need help, go to CNN.com/nancygrace. Send us your story. We want to help you find your loved ones.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ronald, do you feel Misty has the key to this investigation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don`t. I think they`re barking up the wrong tree.

GRACE: I don`t believe you. I think you do suspect your ex-wife, soon to be ex-wife`s story. I think you don`t want to discuss it in the midst of a divorce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, are you saying that you didn`t fail the polygraph like people in law enforcement are kind of claiming that you did?

CROSLIN: No, I did not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So, bottom line, you don`t know where Haleigh is?

CROSLIN: Bottom line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Misty is just kind of digging herself in a deeper hole to the point where her attorney has now dropped her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If this girl keeps doing what she`s doing, it`s only a question of time before she`s charged with something having to do with this kid`s disappearance. She just repeatedly, repeatedly contradicts herself.

SHEFFIELD: She`s the last one to see our daughter, and her stories just don`t add up. Everything she says is crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. We are taking your calls live. Haleigh Cummings, missing person. Missing person that has to be found. Out to Robin in Ohio. Hi, Robin.

ROBIN, OHIO: Hi.

CASAREZ: Thank you for calling.

ROBIN: You`re welcome.

CASAREZ: What`s your question?

ROBIN: I wanted to ask, what happened to the little boy -- hi.

CASAREZ: You know, Robin, I think you have your television on. Do you have a question?

ROBIN: Yes. I was wondering, what happened to the -- what ever happened to the little boy and was Misty Croslin on drugs?

CASAREZ: OK. Teresa Neves, your other grandchild, Haleigh`s brother. How is he doing, and is he with his mother?

NEVES: He is with his mother. He naturally misses his father, but he seems to do very well there.

CASAREZ: Did he say that he and Haleigh were in the trailer that night? When they went to bed?

NEVES: He does actually.

CASAREZ: He does. So, he places Haleigh in that trailer. That`s very interesting. To Pat Brown, criminal profiler, joining us tonight from Washington, D.C., what do they do, Pat? Where does law enforcement go at this point?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, Jean, I think they know exactly where to go. They`re looking for the body of this child. They know that everyone in that house knew what happened to that child, and that probably includes Ronald who is kind of being whitewashed this evening, as you know, the guy who cares so much about his child that, well, let`s see what happens. He marries the woman that`s lying about his child.

Oh, and he goes to prison for 15 years instead of looking for his child. So, I mean, he`s not any cleaner than the rest of them. So, the police are going to be right on top of Misty and Ronald and everybody else that`s hooked up with them.

CASAREZ: Marc Klaas, president of Klaaskids Foundation. You know, as I remember this case going through it day by day by day, I remember Ronald Cummings searching for Haleigh. I remember him crying out and begging for anyone that knew anything about Haleigh to come forward.

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: You know, he did, Jean, and he made a very compelling case for himself. But, when your child disappears like this, you have to give up your drinking. You have to give up your drugs. You have to stop the lying and you have to pursue the truth and do everything that you can to bring your child back.

In this case, all of the players, Ronald, Misty, their friends, many of the people in their family went exactly the opposite way. They seem to fuel themselves with even more drugs, the lies increased, and the result is many people are now in jail. We still have absolutely no idea where this little doll is.

CASAREZ: Ray Giudice, defense attorney, why haven`t any charges been filed in regard to obstruction of justice with all the inconsistencies, the different stories?

GIUDICE: Well, an inconsistency in an of itself does not necessarily make it obstruction. Obstruction is a willful attempt to fight and stop law enforcement. I don`t say it`s a bad charge. It`s possible, but what`s the difference? You got him in jail for the next 20 to 25 years on felony drug charges. What are you going to do? Put another misdemeanor on him? That`s not going to turn him.

We`re looking for one day either finding this poor child`s body and evidence surrounding the body or a jailhouse snitch. That`s what`s going to happen. Because even if one of these two people picks up the phone and says, I want to talk to the D.A., if I`m the D.A., I`m not going to believe a word they say without corroborating evidence to back up their 19th or 20th or 25th story, whatever it will be.

CASAREZ: And that`s the issue right there. That is the issue. No corroborating evidence at this point. Phyllis in Ohio. Hi, Phyllis.

PHYLLIS, OHIO: Hi, Jean. How are you?

CASAREZ: Thank you for calling. I`m fine. What`s your question?

PHYLLIS: My question is, I want to say you do a good job for filling in for Nancy.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

PHYLLIS: I love her and her twins and the work that she does. My question is, I know multiple people in this case have been giving the polygraph test. Is there any such thing or any legal way that they can be given --being hypnotized, going in hypnosis to get at the truth?

CASAREZ: Hypnosis is used. That is true, maybe not in this circumstance. To Tom Shamshak, former police chief and private investigator, joining us tonight out of Boston, hypnosis, it`s been used in some of these cases. Would it be appropriate here, though?

TOM SHAMSHAK, FORMER POLICE CHIEF: Jean, no. Hypnosis is customarily used on witnesses. And I want to go back to what Ray Giudice said earlier about the fact that Misty was offered immunity. We don`t proffer immunity to somebody who is the perpetrator. And again, she`s not going to roll over on family members. I disagree with Pat Brown`s perspective that Ron is somehow involved in this. I think his affect was certainly appropriate to the circumstance.

Again, the guy is in a crisis, and if he`s been drinking and drugging as Marc Klaas had alluded to, those are, obviously, maladaptive behaviors in a crisis situation. But to get back to the question, no, I don`t think that hypnosis would be used here. I think, again, the questions that they`ve been giving to Misty that she`s been failing are, did you know what happened to the child?

No. Did you harm the child? She probably says no, but she`s not answering straight and lying when it comes to, do you know what happened and do you know who did it? Jean.

CASAREZ: Dr. Caryn Stark, talk to Haleigh`s family tonight. How do they go on from here?

STARK: It`s very hard. They need a tremendous amount of support, Jean. Maybe through their religious affiliation. They need to be able to keep talking to people about what this means and what might have happened in a way to keep her alive within them and in the community. It`s very bad that they have no closure, that they have --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How the (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I talk to her? OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) can you let my daughter get stole, bitch?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CASAREZ: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, a sister, a brother, a father, a mother, they disappear. Their families are left behind wondering and waiting and hoping. We have not forgotten.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yasmin Acree was last seen at her home in Chicago in January 2008. Evidence of a broken lock is one reason her adoptive mother thinks an intruder may have taken Yasmin. She was 15 years old at the time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My niece and nephew were at the house, and they told me that someone had broke into the house, and I said, nobody broke into the house. And they said, yes, they did and they was showing me the lock that had been cut off the burglar gate. Yasmin loved to play with kids. She was a fun person. She loved activities. Likes skating, riding bicycles. She liked going to movies.

You know, sometimes, I wonder, but I don`t want to give up hope, but I wonder if Yasmin is still out here. So, I haven`t gave up hope. This has been much, much too long. If there`s any type of way that she could get in touch with us, I would like for her to do that. We love Yasmin, and we miss Yasmin very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Earnest Franklin was last seen in his home in Shreveport, Louisiana in 2003. If you have any information, call 318-673- 7020.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After a college field trip to the police station in Denton, Texas, Kelli Cox went to her car in the station`s parking lot. She had trouble with the car key and called for help. Soon after, Kelli vanished. Her mother --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one has come forward that they saw anything, and this was during the middle of the day, about 12:15, very busy area. There were lots of people. It`s one of those just unbelievable that it could happen anywhere much less right in the police department parking lot. Kelli had a daughter, a year and a half old at the time, who we are now raising. So, she`s now 15 years old.

And not only do we want answers for us, we want answers for her. Fun- loving, very focused, very focused on finishing school. Kelli was majoring in psychology with a minor in criminal justice because she wanted to do adolescent counseling. So, she could take care of not only herself but Alexis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. We`ll see you tomorrow night, 9 o`clock sharp eastern. Until then, we will be looking. Good night, everybody.

END

by FystyAngel Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:16 am

I'm not a big fan of Art Harris but.... www.artharris.com he does have some interesting stories about this case.

Haleigh Cummings: Nancy Grace America's Missing

Haleigh Cummings: Nancy Grace America's Missing

Re: Haleigh Cummings: Nancy Grace America's Missing