Haleigh Cummings

Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings was a five-year-old girl who disappeared from her family's mobile home in Satsuma, Putnam County, Florida, on the night of February 9-10, 2009. [Despite one of the largest search operations in Florida history and extensive media coverage, Haleigh was never found, and her case remains one of the most prominent unsolved missing child cases in the United States](https://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/12/florida.missing.girl/index.html).

On the night of February 9, 2009, Haleigh was in the care of Misty Croslin, the 17-year-old girlfriend of Haleigh's father, Ronald Cummings. Ronald was working a night shift at a local company. At approximately 3:27 AM on February 10, Ronald called 911 after returning home to find Haleigh missing from her bed. Croslin told investigators that she had put Haleigh and her younger brother, Ronald Jr. (age 4), to bed around 8:00 PM, then went to sleep herself. She claimed she woke up around 3:00 AM, discovered Haleigh missing, and noticed a cinder block propping open the back door of the trailer.

The Putnam County Sheriff's Office launched a massive search, deploying hundreds of volunteers, search dogs, helicopters, and dive teams across the rural area surrounding the Cummings home. The FBI joined the investigation. The search expanded to include the St. Johns River and surrounding waterways, but no trace of Haleigh was found.

Suspicion quickly centered on Misty Croslin, whose account of the evening changed multiple times during police interviews. Investigators noted inconsistencies in her timeline and her emotional responses. Croslin failed multiple polygraph examinations.

Ronald Cummings married Croslin on March 12, 2009, just one month after Haleigh's disappearance. [In January 2010, both Ronald Cummings and Misty Croslin were arrested on unrelated drug trafficking charges. Ronald was sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling oxycodone, while Misty received a 25-year sentence for drug trafficking](https://apnews.com/article/misty-croslin-sentencing-drug-haleigh-cummings).

[Investigators hoped that the drug arrests would pressure Croslin to provide information about Haleigh's fate. During jailhouse conversations recorded by law enforcement, Croslin made various conflicting statements, at times implicating Ronald's cousin, Joe Overstreet, as having taken Haleigh](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/08/AR2010040803542.html). Tommy Croslin led investigators to a dock on the St. Johns River where he claimed Haleigh's body had been disposed of, but extensive underwater searches found nothing.

[In 2010, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office officially reclassified Haleigh's case from missing person to homicide, though no body has been recovered and no charges have been filed in connection with her disappearance](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/10/haleigh-cummings-missing-florida-girl-10-years). The case remains open and active.

No criminal charges have been filed in connection with Haleigh Cummings' disappearance or presumed death. [The case was reclassified from missing person to homicide by the Putnam County Sheriff's Office in 2010](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/10/haleigh-cummings-missing-florida-girl-10-years), though no body has been recovered. [Misty Croslin was sentenced to 25 years in state prison for drug trafficking charges in 2010](https://apnews.com/article/misty-croslin-sentencing-drug-haleigh-cummings). Ronald Cummings was sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking. Neither has been charged in connection with Haleigh's disappearance. [The case remains an open investigation with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office and the FBI](https://www.npr.org/local/305/2019/02/10/693207321/haleigh-cummings-case-anniversary).