13 years later and unsolved: What to know about Haleigh Cummings' disappearance

On Christmas Day, Ronald Cummings Sr., out of prison two months after getting released from a 15-year drug trafficking sentence, was arrested again on a variety of charges including battery on a law enforcement officer, trafficking oxycodone, possession and resisting an officer with violence, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

Thirteen years ago, the nation was watching him plead for any news of the whereabouts of his 5-year-old daughter, Haleigh Cummings.

10 years later:Disappearance of Haleigh Cummings still a mystery

What happened:Timeline of Haleigh Cummings case

Who is Haleigh Cummings?

Haleigh was the 5-year-old daughter of Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield. In 2005 a court granted custody of Haleigh and Sheffield's son Ron "Junior" to Cummings after he accused her of cocaine use and of being an irresponsible parent.

Cummings and the two children lived in a rented mobile home on Green Lane in Satsuma.

Haleigh was born with Turner's Syndrome and needed to see a cardiologist and endocrinologist monthly, although she missed many of her appointments.

What happened to her?

In February 2009 Haleigh was reported missing by Cummings' then-girlfriend Misty Croslin, who was watching the children while Cummings worked at his night job. She and Cummings had been fighting and he had thrown her clothes into the yard of one of her friends, but she came home in time to babysit.

Cummings called Croslin repeatedly through the evening and asked her brother to check on them. Investigators say some credible witnesses, including Cummings' grandmother Annette Sykes, placed Croslin and the children at the mobile home in the late afternoon and early evening of Feb. 9.

According to Croslin, she put Haleigh to bed at 8:15 p.m. and joined her sometime after 10 p.m. She told investigators she woke up a little before 3 a.m. to use the bathroom although she used a guest bathroom and not the one in the room where she'd been sleeping.

Croslin told police she noticed a door by the washer and dryer propped open with a cinder block and Haleigh was gone.

The search for Haleigh grew from a local concern to a national news story. An Amber Alert was issued, posters and flyers and billboards blanketed the area and thousands of tips were investigated over the next months. True crime personalities such as Geraldo Rivera and Nancy Grace aired reports on the disappearance, the multiple suspects and on the drug arrests of nearly everyone involved. Bounty hunters took the case and national cable news interviewed family members.

No sign of her was found.

Who are Ronald Cummings and Misty Croslin?

Ronald Cummings Sr., 39, is the father of three children, two with Sheffield and another son with special needs. Haleigh was the oldest.

Cummings had been arrested in 2001 for threatening to kill someone. In 2002 and 2004 and 2005 he was arrested for drug possession. Cummings was mostly raised by his grandparents after coming to live with them when his mother, living in Atlanta at the time, could not secure a decent babysitter. After Cummings was lost in the woods when a babysitter failed to keep an eye on him, his grandmother Annette Sykes attained parental custody of him.

Police believe Cummings' alibi that he was at work when Haleigh was last seen. Sykes said her grandson may have made some mistakes, but he was a good and loving father to his children.

Cummings was arrested in 2010 after an undercover drug sting. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was released in October 2022 after he qualified for incentive gain time after serving 85% of his prison sentence under state law.

Misty Croslin, 31, is the last person known to investigators to see Haleigh alive on Feb. 9, 2009. She was 17 at the time.

Croslin had known Cummings for about six months after meeting him at Haleigh's bus stop. Croslin had been babysitting Cummings' youngest child who did not live with him. Croslin became Cummings' girlfriend and started babysitting his two children whom he was raising, Haleigh and Ron "Junior." Croslin and Cummings got married that March after Haleigh was reported missing.

Croslin left school in the sixth grade and could not read or write when Haleigh went missing, according to her father. Others describe Croslin as devoid of emotion, likely from some traumatic life experiences. Croslin told authorities she suffered sexual abuse. She told a judge she was pregnant as a young girl. When she was 15, Croslin purchased a bus ticket under an assumed name and ran away to New Jersey. Thanks to a social worker, she was found and returned back to Florida.

The lead investigator in Haleigh's case as well as the sheriff at the time both believe Croslin knows more about Haleigh's disappearance than she is letting on to, largely due to the number of times her story changed. Croslin and Cummings were briefly married.

Croslin was arrested in January 2010 on multiple drug charges. She had just turned 18 and was given a significant sentence considering her age and lack of record: 25 years. She is incarcerated at the Lowell Annex and scheduled to be released in April 2032. Her prison discipline report says she has been written up for spoken threats, possession of contraband, a sex act and possession of tobacco.

Others arrested with them in the drug-trafficking investigation were Croslin's brother Hank "Tommy" Croslin Jr., Donna Brock and Hope Sykes. Croslin Jr., 36, is scheduled to be released March 12, while Brock, 56, was released on Oct. 17 and Sykes, 31, on Nov. 12, according to the state.

Why was Ronald Cummings arrested again?

Cummings was found in a Hyundai Sonata, crashed into a road sign, sleeping or unconscious with the motor running and a bottle of Hennessy liquor in his lap, the arrest report said.

When roused, he appeared to be severely intoxicated, the report said. The deputy said Cummings ignored requests to stop trying to start the car again and said he was pushed by Cummings who tried to pull the deputy's gun from the holster and knocked his radio to the ground. Cummings was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, trafficking oxycodone, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, resisting an officer with violence, obstructing police by depriving means of communication and possession of marijuana and drug equipment possession, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

Is Haleigh Cummings still missing?

Haleigh has never been found. The Putnam County Sheriff's Office previously conceded she's likely dead.

Eileen Kelley and Scott Butler contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Haleigh Cummings: She disappeared in Florida, is feared dead