Deputies Comb Fla. Town For Missing Girl

5-Year-Old Went Missing From Her Bed, Amber Alert Issued

(AP)  Sheriff's deputies searched house-to-house Wednesday and dive teams probed the St. Johns River for a 5-year-old north Florida girl who went missing from her bed.

A Florida Amber Alert was issued for Haleigh Cummings of Satsuma, about 70 miles north of Orlando. The girl was last seen Monday night when she went to bed.

Investigators with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said it was not clear if Haleigh was abducted or wandered out into the rural neighborhood that borders the river. They said the mobile home where she lives had no signs of forced entry, but a back door was open.

Haleigh's father told investigators the blond girl was missing when he returned home from work around 3 a.m. Tuesday. Ronald Cummings said his girlfriend was awake and frantic that Haleigh was missing from her bed.

"I just got home from work and my 5-year-old daughter is gone," Ronald Cummings told a dispatcher on a 911 call. "If I find whoever has my daughter before you all do, I'm killing them. I don't care if I spend the rest of my life in prison."

Officers from local, state and federal agencies and K-9 teams scoured the neighborhood. Check points were set up at the entrance to the neighborhood to search departing vehicles. Two dive teams explored the St. Johns River. Neighbors and family members also were being interviewed by detectives.

The girl's disappearance has not been classified as an abduction, although detectives were treating it as one to cover all their bases, said Lt. Johnny Greenwood, a spokesman for the sheriff's office.

"We're currently working both angles - did she wander off, we're working it that way with the searches," Greenwood said. "And investigators are doing interviews in case it is an abduction."

[rrozsa-2009]

If foul play was involved, it''ll probably be hard to prove it, if they find her drowned in the river.

[lena34-2009]

i am sorry but i think that the girlfriend did this, hell, she is young why should she have to look out for this kid

[rrozsa-2009]

I have a feeling the child wandered into the river in the darkness.

[rrozsa-2009]

My son got up in the pre-morning hours, while we were asleep, and left the house when he was about 4. Luckily for us, a he rang the neighbor''s doorbell and wanted to know if his friend could come out and play. She sent him home, and he went back to bed. We never even knew about it until she told us about it the next day. All sorts of weird things can happen when you have an energetic, fearless child. I hope this turns out well.

[floridasux3]

I feel for the family of this missing little girl...but there are too many strange things...NO ONE heard ANYONE eenter that room and take a child? How *** big was that bed? And, after watching the father and family on TV..talk about hicks. Not a grain of intelligence between them...Jesus...either way, that kid is doomed.

[ubrew12]

Is something going on with Florida??

[spinproof]

"I just got home from work and my 5-year-old daughter is gone," Ronald Cummings told a dispatcher on a 911 call. "If I find whoever has my daughter before you all do, I''m killing them. I don''t care if I spend the rest of my life in prison."

And that about sums that up!

[irisheyes555]

Jessica Lunsford was a stranger abduction out of her father''s mobile home where his parents also lived. It is NOT always parental murder. *** offenders eager to get their hands and other things on pretty little blonde girls live absolutely everywhere and are always stalking and scheming to get another one.

I dont want to speculate but I hope lessons where learned from previous cases in florida

[observer2020]

Man, I sure hope I''m wrong, but the last several times stories like this surfaced, it was murder by a relative...like the ones that are pleading and crying for her to come home. Too many times, the media is ''played'' into making the parents/guardians look like they''re desparate to get the child back, knowing that the child is dead. Please, please, please let me be wrong on this one.

[deathofusa]

I bet it was the stepmother. Why didn''t SHE call the police when she noticed the girl was missing?

[cheteunice]

Sad--hopefully she will turn up safe.