Search continues for Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings
More than 100 officers from at least seven county, state and federal law enforcement agencies continued the search for a missing 5-year-old Putnam County girl Tuesday afternoon.
On foot, in helicopters and with blood hounds, the search for Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings has been expanded since she was reported missing at about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday from her east Putnam County home. An Amber Alert was issued nationwide before 9:30 a.m.
The girl was last seen in her bed at 10 p.m. Monday. Haliegh lived with her father and his girlfriend at 202 Green Lane in the Hermit Cove area of the Buffalo Bluff community, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
Officers with Florida Fish and Wildlife and other agencies are searching the banks of the St. Johns River with blood hounds. Among the agencies involved in the search are the FBI, Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Palatka Police Dept., and Sheriff’s offices from Flagler, Volusia, St. Johns and Putnam counties.
The heightened investigation is an effort to engage every resource available early in the search, said Putnam Sheriff’s Capt. Steve Rose.
“They always tell you when you have a case of this magnitude, it’s always better to flood your resources up front,” said Rose. “We are looking at everything because at this point we don’t know” what we have.
Haleigh is approximately 3 feet tall, with dirty blond hair, brown eyes, pierced ears and weighing about 39 pounds and was last seen wearing pink shorts and a tan shirt.
Rose said there were no initial signs of forced entry, but officers found a door in the house ajar. He could not confirm whether the doors where locked.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office at (386)329-0800.
There will be a 4 p.m. press briefing held near the neighborhood where the girl lives.
The child’s father, Ronald Cummings, 24, and her mother, Crystal Sheffield, 23, were near the home on Tuesday while the search was happening. Sheffield lives in Baker County.
Haleigh was “stolen out of my home,” Ronald Cummings said. “Somebody came in my back door and stole my child. I came home from work and my daughter was not at home.”
The girl’s maternal grandmother, Marie Griffis, said this: “It’s unspeakable. She’s not going to get up and wander through the house and get up and wander through the back door.”
She asked people for their prayers and for anyone with information to contact authorities immediately.
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#1 by Jeff Bartucci on February 14, 2009 - 12:07 pm
Mark my word. The mother did it.. She is not the grieving mother. She is fake and has not taken lie detector test. She knew her ex would not be there and probaly had a key or had access to be in the home and had a chance to either steal a key or get a key to make a copy. She also knew the screen door would make a bang when closing and propped the door knowing she would be holding her daughter with both hands and did not want the door to bang. She is the one.. Mark my word. She wanted her daughter back and did not want her ex to have her daughter with a live in 17 year old girlfriend.
#2 by Sherry on February 17, 2009 - 11:32 am
I don’t believe the mother did this. She has not been eating and has been to the ER for Dehydration. If she did this she would not have the signs of a distraught mother. But, I do believe that someone that knew the father and his girlfriend are behind this. Their lifesytle and who they hang with needs to be looked very closely at.