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Thursday, April 15, 2010
Another high profile case may be reaching a conclusion. For the past few days divers have been searching a river for the body of Haleigh Cummings, and it looks like they have brought a handcuffed Misty Croslin to the site.
Divers and a police boat searched a Florida river Thursday as the investigation continued into the disappearance of 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings more than a year ago. A police boat in the St. Johns River appeared to be monitoring boat traffic, and a handful of divers were in the water.
The Putnam County Sheriff's office did not return phone calls Thursday.
Police searched the area twice earlier this week.
"At this point, this search has failed to yield any items of evidentiary value in the case," the Putnam County Sheriff's office said Wednesday. The office said it was acting on a "lead" but did not elaborate.
Deputies from four counties and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began searching the St. Johns River south of Satsuma on Tuesday morning, CNN affiliate WJXT-TV in Jacksonville reported.
A helicopter videographer from CNN affiliate WKMG-TV in Orlando said he spotted witness Misty Croslin at a dock during Wednesday's search, motioning to investigators, who pointed to the murky water.
Croslin, who was Haleigh's stepmother, is in custody on drug charges. She was the last person to see Haleigh before she was reported missing.
Haleigh was 5 when she disappeared February 9, 2009, from the Satsuma mobile home where her father, Ronald Cummings, and Croslin lived. Cummings reported Haleigh missing when he returned from work at dawn.
Croslin told police she tucked Haleigh and the girl's 4-year-old brother into bed about 8 p.m. the previous night and went to sleep two hours later.
She said she awoke at 3 a.m. to find Haleigh missing and a cinder block propping open a back door.
An attorney representing Joe Overstreet, Croslin's cousin, said Florida officials questioned his client Tuesday.
Overstreet, who is from Nashville, Tennessee, was in the Satsuma area when Haleigh disappeared, said attorney Shawn Sigo. Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents flew to Nashville on Tuesday to question him, Sigo said.
Overstreet maintains he had nothing to do with Haleigh's disappearance, Sigo said, adding that he is "broken over this" and "knows he is being used by people whose story keeps changing."
Putnam County authorities said in August that "the evidence and investigatory effort has minimized the likelihood that Haleigh's disappearance is the work of a stranger." Police have said Cummings and Crystal Sheffield, the girl's mother, are not considered suspects.
Jail records show that Croslin was removed from the St. Johns County Jail, where she is being held on suspicion of drug trafficking, on Tuesday, WJXT has reported. The sheriff told the station she was brought to Putnam County for an interview.
Investigators have said they believe Croslin "continues to hold important answers in the case" but has not provided "any sort of detailed accounting of the hours during the late evening and early morning of Haleigh's disappearance." Authorities have previously said physical evidence contradicts Croslin's account of the events that night.
However, police have stopped short of naming Croslin a suspect in the case. In televised interviews, Croslin has said she does not know what happened to Haleigh but believes "the other side of the family" knows where she is.
Labels: Haleigh Cummings