In the disappearance of his 5-year-old daughter Haleigh, Ronald Cummings was never a suspect.
On Wednesday, Ronald Cummings, the father of Haleigh Cummings, will be released from prison.
A year after his 5-year-old daughter disappeared, he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
It is considered an unsolved homicide by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. As he was working that night, Ronald Cummings was not a suspect.
The investigation that began before HaLeigh Cummings’ disappearance resulted in Ronald Cummings, Misty Croslin, Hank Croslin, and Donna Brock being charged with drug trafficking.
Their sentences ranged from 15 to 25 years after they pleaded guilty or no contest. A release from prison was announced on Monday for Brock. Hank Croslin is scheduled for release in March. In 2031, Misty Croslin will be released.
According to News4JAX, Ronald Cummings’ mother will pick up her son from prison on Tuesday.
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children founder Jay Howell hopes the development will raise awareness of the case.
“He’s (Ronald Cummings) always said he wanted to resume the search for his daughter and any attention to the case is helpful,” Howell said.
HaLeigh Cummings Missing Case
On Feb 9, 2009, Hailey disappeared from her Satsuma home. Her babysitter, Misty Croslin, was the last person to see her.
Hank Croslin, Misty Croslin’s cousin, Joe Overstreet, and maybe two other people were at the house that night when the 5-year-old girl disappeared while Ronald Cummings worked.
The investigators could not get consistent statements from Misty Croslin and others from the beginning.
Because bloodhounds brought in the next morning headed straight to the river, the St. Johns River was repeatedly searched. There was also a search for nearby ponds; one pond was drained.
The Sheriff’s Office brought Misty Croslin and the others for questioning for months, but the child was never found. The case was handled as a homicide by Sheriff Jeff Hardy on April 15, 2010.
A Sheriff’s Office statement on the two-year anniversary of HaLeigh’s disappearance says the investigation has “minimized the likelihood that HaLeigh’s disappearance is the work of a stranger,”.
This case was also investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI.
It was an undercover operation that had been carried on for months before Misty Croslin, Ronald Cummings, Hank Croslin, and Brock were arrested in January 2010. Joe Overstreet was questioned but never charged.
It is still believed by Haleigh Cummings’ grandmother, Teresa Neves, and her great-grandmother, Annette Sykes, that the girl is alive somewhere, despite the Sheriff’s Office’s statements.
HaLeigh Cummings’ mother, Crystal Sheffield, and her younger brother were last known to live in Baker County.
Investigators in Putnam County acknowledged that HaLeigh Cummings’ body was disposed of in the river on the anniversary of her disappearance ten years ago.
In 2019, News4JAX launched a podcast that chronicles the cold case of HaLeigh Cummings 10 years after her disappearance. The true-crime series “Into Thin Airtraces events from the night the child disappeared to the seemingly endless search for answers that followed.
