Chris's Crime Forum

Wow I don't even know what to say.

Janitor charged with theft of Haleigh Cummings reward cash

Baker County deputies have charged a janitor with stealing reward money collected by school bus drivers for information in Haleigh Cummings' disappearance.

Among the ties to Haleigh's case: the bus drivers include her maternal grandmother, Marie Griffis, school officials said.

Investigators charged Jeremy D. Leonard, 23, with grand theft after a school official reported the money missing March 4. An arrest report said deputies recovered the money after confronting Leonard.

The Macclenny man was released on $5,000 bail, court records show. Leonard told the Times-Union today that he found the money in a blank envelope and was holding it for safe keeping. He denied stealing anything.

The incident began after authorities were told that $670 in reward money, collected for information that would lead to Haleigh's whereabouts, had been stolen from envelopes at the Baker Bus Garage. The facility is where school buses are kept and maintained.

Deputies were told that keys to a cabinet where the money was kept were hidden in the office. There were no signs of forced entry into the building or the cabinet, the report said.

The report said the only person who had access to the building before the money was found missing was Leonard, a substitute janitor who works on an on-call basis. Deputies confronted Leonard and recovered $600 from his home on Violet Lane. The rest was found in his car, the report said.

Leonard said he found the envelope on the floor while cleaning. He said he called his boss to report the discovery, but couldn't reach her. He declined to identify who he called. He said he is being wrongly accused of theft.

"All I did was pick the money up off the floor," Leonard said. "It didn't say whose it was."

Leonard declined to discuss other details.

Sherrie Raulerson, the school system's superintendent, said news that the money was missing was "unthinkable" and she is pleased that it's been recovered. She said Leonard will no longer work for the school system.

"We're so happy that the money is going to the cause it was intended for," Raulerson said.

Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson praised the bus drivers' for their work to help Haleigh and condemned any attempt to sabotage that effort.

"They thought well enough to help that family through bad times," Dobson said.


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Dad Gets Married Today As Haleigh Search Resumes

SATSUMA, Fla. - Investigators again are searching woods on Thursday morning looking for missing 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings - on the day her father plans to marry the teen-ager who was with Haleigh when she disappeared.

The Putnam County Sheriff's Office said it has about 100 deputies searching along U.S. Highway 17 north of Crescent City. The area has not been searched in the past, although an earlier news release said it had been.

The family told WESH 2 News that Ronald Cummings, 25, is scheduled to marry 17-year-old Misty Croslin at 4 p.m. The family earlier said the ceremony will be at the Dunn's Creek Baptist Church in the town of San Mateo, which is just north of Satsuma, but the church said that wasn't the case. Now the family says it will be at a "secret location."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29657260/

Still missing, Haleigh has a new stepmom

The last person to see a 5-year-old Florida girl before she went missing — who is also the new teenage bride of the child’s father — acknowledged that there are inconsistencies in the stories she’s told investigators, but was unable to say why her account has changed.

On Friday, TODAY’s Meredith Vieira asked 17-year-old Misty Cummings — nee Misty Croslin — if she knows that she changed the story of the night Haleigh Cummings disappeared.

“Yeah,” the young woman said.

Vieira asked why there are inconsistencies.

“I don’t know,” she replied.

Newlyweds in New York
Misty Cummings was joined in New York by Haleigh’s father, Ron Cummings. The couple, who have been together about six months, had gotten married on Thursday in a civil ceremony attended by some 20 people at his grandmother’s house in Florida, touching off a renewed flurry of media attention.

“Why come here?” Vieira asked both.

“To get the focus back on my daughter. My 5-year-old girl is gone and I want to find her,” Ron Cummings, 25, replied. He complained that his marriage to the former Misty Croslin has deflected attention away from his daughter, who has been missing since early in the morning of Feb. 10.

“I think they changed to my personal life and being married and everything else and they should be focusing on my 5-year-old daughter,” Ron Cummings told Vieira.

Despite massive searches and more than 2,000 tips phoned in to the Putnam County (Fla.) Sheriff, investigators have been frustrated in their efforts to find the little girl. Ron Cummings just shook his head “no” when Vieira asked him if investigators have any new leads.

Cummings and his bride say they’ve both taken and passed polygraph tests. NBC News’ Michelle Kosinski reported that Ron Cummings is not considered a suspect in the disappearance, and Cummings told Vieira that the lead detective in the case has told him that Misty is not a suspect either.

Nevertheless, detectives recently called Misty Cummings in for another interview. After being pressed about inconsistencies in her account, she stopped the interview and refused to answer further questions.

Inconsistent interviews
Vieira asked Misty why she ended the interview.

“There was a new guy that was new to the case and I didn’t feel comfortable with him. He was just being very rude to me … He was just like being rude, like yelling and pretty much telling me I was a liar,” she said, adding that she told the lead detective on the case, John Merchant, that she would talk to him, but not to the new investigator.

The main inconsistency involves where Haleigh was sleeping on the night she disappeared. Misty had originally said the girl was sleeping with her. Yet later she said that Haleigh’s 4-year-old brother, Ron Jr., was in her bed, but that Haleigh was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of Misty’s bedroom.

Both Misty and Ron Cummings also said that reports that Ron Jr. said he saw a man dressed in black are not true. Ron Cummings accused Haleigh’s mother, Crystal Sheffield, of making that story up.

Vieira asked Misty, who wore a T-shirt with Haleigh’s picture on it to the TODAY set, to revisit the events that led to her calling 911 shortly before 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 10.

“I put her to bed at 8 o’clock,” Misty Cummings said. “I was washing our blankets, and after that was done, I put her blanket over her. She was sleeping when I put her blanket on her. She was in her bed, and it was about 10 o’clock. I finally laid down and went to sleep. I woke up at 3. I got up to use the bathroom, and I noticed the kitchen light was on. I walked through the kitchen, and that’s when I noticed the back door was open. So I run back to my bedroom to get my phone to call Ronald. That’s when I noticed Haleigh was gone.”

Ron Cummings works a late shift and said he was just pulling in the driveway when Misty called him. When they couldn’t find Haleigh, they called 911. A massive search for the girl failed to find her.

‘Nobody’s business’
Vieira asked Ron Cummings why he would get married now, with so much attention on the couple and the missing girl.

“I think that my little girl would have wanted it,” he said before repeating his belief that his wedding shouldn’t be a story.

“That’s still drawing the focus off of Haleigh,” he said. “We need to be focused on Haleigh and not what I’m doing in my personal life … It’s nobody’s business what I do in my personal life. I go to work. I support my family. I don’t know what my personal life has to do with national TV. My daughter’s missing. That’s what has to do with national TV. We need to get her found.”

Vieira asked Ron Cummings if he had anything else he wanted to say.

“If you know something, please call the Crime Stoppers or any local sheriff’s office,” he said, his arms crossed tightly across his chest. “If my little girl is watching, baby, I love you.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29674827/

Not cleared as a suspect

Haleigh Cummings' new stepmother has not been cleared as a suspect in the 5-year-old's disappearance last month, a senior sheriff's official says.

Maj. Gary Bowling also said Misty Croslin's inability on national television Friday to clear up inconsistent answers was what detectives have faced for weeks.

"Our interviews with her have been pretty much like what you saw on the "Today Show," Bowling said. "We've confronted her with her inconsistencies and America got a sample of our interviews with her."

Bowling also disputed Croslin's assertion on TV that she wasn't a suspect.

"We have not ruled her out as a suspect," he said.

Haleigh's father, Ronald, 25, and Croslin 17, appeared Friday morning on NBC's "Today Show" as part of the program's exclusive coverage of the couple's wedding in Welaka on Thursday.

During the television interview, both said they had been cleared as suspects and had passed polygraph tests.

Bowling said authorities have not released results of the tests, which were given by FBI agents shortly after Haleigh vanished on Feb. 10.

Initially, Putnam County authorities said "the world is a suspect" in Haleigh's disappearance but Bowling narrowed the focus on Friday.

"We haven't eliminated anybody connected to it as a suspect," he said.

On Thursday, Bowling told the Daily News that Croslin's account of what happened was crucial to solving the case.

He also said Croslin walked out of the room while being questioned by detectives on Wednesday.

"Misty is the key to the investigation and we are trying to work through inconsistencies in her account of the critical time period," Bowling said.

Investigators also met Wednesday with Cummings, he said.

"We are satisfied with the interviews that we have had so far with Ronald, and his account of the eight hours in question," Bowling added.

Detectives are building a timeline including anyone who had contact with Haleigh during that time. Bowling described the repeated questioning sessions as a normal part of a major investigation.

"From the beginning, we have said that we will interview anyone, at anytime, as many times as need be, to get information that will help us find Haleigh," he said.

Croslin on Thursday rebuffed an attempt by the Daily News to give her an opportunity to respond to the issues raised about her.

"I would really appreciate it if you people would stop calling me," she said.

Haleigh was reported missing Feb. 10 from her home in Satsuma, south of Palatka.

The disappearance prompted a massive search and intensive criminal investigation involving local state and federal officials.

No trace of Haleigh has been found.

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