Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Haleigh Cummings Ground Search Halted

It’s been a week since 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings disappeared from her home.

The massive, 5-mile area ground search by hundreds of volunteers, including Tim Miller of Texas EqquSearch, has been suspended and the volunteers have pulled out.

"It's frustrating," Chief Deputy Rick Ryan of the Putnam County Sheriff's Department said. Police encouraged the family to remain hopeful little Haleigh will be found alive.

On Monday, the family pleaded for search teams to stay and continue to search for their missing daughter.

"I encourage anyone who wants to help me to look for my daughter to come back and help me look," said Cummings.

Authorities stress they haven’t given up searching for Haleigh. They have received more than 500 tips to follow-up on and that is why the command center has been moved from a trailer in Satsuma to the county offices in Palatka. The move gives investigators greater access to computers, phone lines, and resources.

Many of the leads have been have been investigated, but so far, authorities have come up empty handed.

Haleigh's mother, father, his girlfriend, and extended family members have been re-interviewed.

Authorities are now focusing on reviewing and confirming witness statements as well as establishing a timeline around Haleigh’s disappearance.

Sources

firstcoastnews.com

MSNBC

jacksonville.com

3 comments:

katfish said...

OMG, this is heartbreaking to read this:

On Monday, the family pleaded for search teams to stay and continue to search for their missing daughter.
"I encourage anyone who wants to help me to look for my daughter to come back and help me look," said Cummings.

I imagine that when they could physically see people looking for Haleigh it gave them some measure of comfort. Perhaps they can organize some "civilian" searches.

Anonymous said...

44 molesters in a 5 mile radius. No problems here. Seems the courts are doing their job. How absolutely horrifying. Maybe they can get together and rent a hall, have meetings. They might as well, they're probably on the same web site. Having been molested my entire childhood, and seeing the rise of abuse, I'm afraid I'm not optimistic, my souls to damaged to see to much good happenening.

Anonymous said...

Duh! The girlfriend did something to her. They all slept in the same bed!