Haleigh Cummings - Florida police are searching for a 5-year-old girl named Haleigh Cummings - aka Hailey Cummings - who disappeared from her mobile home late Monday night.
An Amber Alert was issued shortly after Haleigh Cummings vanished from her bed in her Putnam County, Florida, home, police said.
Authorities launched a massive search for Haleigh in this rural county about 80 miles north of Orlando but had found no trace of the little girl by Tuesday evening.
Ronald Cummings, who is in his 20s, was working Monday night for a company that builds bridges, and his girlfriend, Misty Croslin, 17, woke up and realized Haleigh was missing just before he returned home about 3:30 a.m., according to Lt. Johnny Greenwood of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office (386-329-0800).
Croslin alerted authorities while Ronald Cummings began to search for his daughter. He was soon joined by 130 officers from several law-enforcement agencies withbloodhounds and helicopters.
The double-wide trailer on Green Lane where Haleigh lived with her father, Croslin and a 2-year-old brother showed no sign of forced entry, according to Lt. Johnny Greenwood of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. A back door was ajar, sheriff’s Capt. Steve Rose said.
The girl’s mother was at her home in Georgia when Haleigh disappeared. It’s too early, Greenwood said, to say whether a stranger kidnapped Haleigh.
"At this point, all we know is that we have a missing little girl," he said.
Her father said he thinks that a man snatched Haleigh from her bed.
"All I want is my child … please … all I want is my child," Ronald Cummings told reporters, his voice breaking.
Ronald Cummings’ girlfriend, Misty Croslin, was the first to discover that the child was missing and called 911.
Haleigh had been put to bed at 8 p.m., the girl’s grandparents told reporters Wednesday. Croslin went to the bathroom two hours later and returned to find the child missing, grandmother Marie Griffis said.
Putman County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Jason Nettles told reporters that amassive manhunt for Haleigh was under way Wednesday morning, with more helicopter searches planned as well as extensive searches on the ground using K-9 units.
Nettles said Tuesday he didn’t have information on whether or not Haleigh Cummings’ father, Ronald Cummings, and girlfriend are suspects in her disappearance.
"I don’t know that for sure," he told media representatives.
"The girlfriend and the father are cooperating with police," Special Agent Steve Donaway of the Florida Dept of Law Enforcement told reporters on Tuesday.
"It could be an abduction. We’re looking at it from all angles," Donaway said. Leads have been minimal, he said, and investigators are asking for the public’s help.
Haleigh was reported missing after her father’s girlfriend told police she discovered the child wasn’t in her bed about 3 a.m. Tuesday.
Cummings said his girlfriend was awake and frantic after she found the child was gone.
The woman said the back door to the residence was not locked at the time. Police found the door to the trailer home unlocked when they arrived, but there was no sign of forced entry, according to Donaway.
Several registered sex offenders reportedly live in the vicinity of the missing girl’s home in Satsuma, Fla. Donaway said they’ve all been identified, and either have been or will be interviewed by police.
Nettles said he couldn’t confirm whether authorities were worried a sex offender might have abducted Haleigh.
"I don’t think they’ve ruled anything out," he told reporters.
Haleigh is 3 feet tall and 39 pounds with blond hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a pink shirt and underwear.
