FL- Somer Thompson was found -- but why not Haleigh Cummings?

10-31-2009 Florida:

Investigators quickly discovered Somer Thompson's body, but factors explain why Haleigh Cummings remains missing

ORANGE PARK - Across the street from where 7-year-old Somer Thompson lived in suburban Orange Park, a memorial grows in the shade of an old oak.

Friends, family and strangers leave candles, flowers, prayer cards, teddy bears, balloons and short, hopeful notes: "You're OK now. God got U Baby" and "You are my Sunshine" and "Justice for Somer."

Profound sadness surrounds the place, but so does a certain sense of closure: Somer Thompson lived here. She is gone now. Somebody did a horrible thing to her, but many others loved this girl.

Fifty miles south in rural Satsuma, there is no closure.

In February, 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings' disappearance captured national attention. Now a billboard along U.S. Highway 17 flashes Haleigh's face every few seconds at drivers passing through town and provides a number to call with tips.

But unlike Somer, whose body was discovered in a Georgia landfill two days after she disappeared, Haleigh has never been found.

Missing-children's experts involved in both cases say the cooperation of Somer's family and her community coupled with some creative and aggressive detective work by the Clay County Sheriff's Office led to the girl's discovery.

At the same time, some say inconsistencies in the account given by the last person thought to have seen Haleigh late Feb. 9 has hindered the efforts of investigators with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

The difference between the cases is one little girl being found and put to rest near her home — and a series of fruitless searches through woods, lakes and fields that have turned up no body after nearly nine months.

"In Clay County, they said, 'You know, we've got a little girl missing. Let's go to work,'" said Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, who is familiar with both cases. "They've got a family that's being honest. They've got a community that's being honest. They got right in on it, and they just did a tremendous job."

On Tuesday, Somer was buried at Jacksonville Memory Gardens near her home. The discovery of her body has the community frightened, but also confident her killer will be found.

But in Haleigh's case, investigators initially thought the child had been abducted from the Satsuma double-wide of her father, Ronald Cummings. By mid-August, about the time Haleigh would have turned 6, they were publicly expressing doubt that a stranger had taken Haleigh. And investigators noted that Misty Cummings "continues to hold important answers in the case." At the time of Haleigh's disappearance, Misty Cummings was Misty Croslin but later married Haleigh's father. They have since divorced.

Tests have shown Misty Cummings to be deceptive when answering questions about Haleigh's disappearance.

"From very, very early on, we stated publicly there were inconsistencies in Misty's story about what happened that evening," said Putnam Deputy Sheriff Hancel Woods, adding that investigators continue to work the case daily, as they have handled nearly 6,000 tips.

While praising the team investigating Somer's case in neighboring Clay County, Woods said the two cases have many differences, and nothing at this point suggests they might be related.

"Obviously there are similarities drawn due to geographic proximity and the girls' ages, but each case stands on its own," Woods said.


Crucial differences

Though Clay detectives have received widespread praise for finding Somer so soon, experts say Putnam officials have done their job well, too.

"Putnam County [investigators] did everything right," Miller said this week. "Unfortunately they didn't have a damn thing to work with."

Investigators working on the Somer Thompson case had the pressure of time slipping away with each hour Somer was missing. But they were prepared. Several months earlier, they had trained for just such a scenario: a child who went missing after school.

They had started searching Somer's neighborhood quickly, including the trash coming out of the Grove Park neighborhood, where the girl was last seen walking home from school early last week, according Clay Sheriff Rick Beseler.

But one detective, Bruce Owens, came to work early the morning after Somer was reported missing and noticed "dumpsters were being picked up" in the neighborhood, Beseler said.

"Bruce said to me that morning, 'We need to get on those dumpsters,'" Beseler said. "I said, 'I want a deputy on every garbage truck.'"

Orange Park's trash is brought to a local transfer station before being hauled up to a Georgia landfill, where the child was found. If Beseler's team had not tracked the trucks — and their contents — as soon as they did, he said it would have been much harder, perhaps impossible, to ever find Somer and valuable evidence.

"She might have been under too much debris," he said. "... In any abduction murder case, your crime scene is wherever the body is found. Time and the elements cause degradation of any forensic value."

Beseler, who is still awaiting forensic testing done in the wake of Somer's discovery, added, "It has had to unnerve the person who did this that we found her body so quickly."

By late this week, about 50 detectives from the Sheriff's Office, FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service were working the case.

The crucial discovery of Somer's body so soon may provide a wealth of "forensic evidence," including possible fingerprints, fibers and DNA samples, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"You have the ultimate evidence of the crime scene," Allen said. "... While it is a tragedy and an outrage, it does provide substantial evidence for a positive ending. You've got somewhere to start."

He called the sheriff's decision to rapidly follow the trucks "brilliant" and a tactic that will likely be followed by other law-enforcement agencies in the future.

Woods, in Putnam County, said investigators searched the landfill as part of Haleigh's investigation as well. Such searches are routine parts of missing-child and suspected-abduction cases.

"I personally was inside a dumpster, searching that morning," Woods said. The "meticulous" landfill search came a little later, but that's because trash pickup in the area did not occur immediately after Haleigh was reported missing as it did in Somer's case, he said.

'Somebody knows'

Allen emphasized that cases such as Haleigh's, in which the child is not found within days or months, should not be forgotten.

"The reality in each of these cases is: Somebody knows," Allen said. "Somebody knows where Haleigh Cummings is. It's really important that we not let the world forget."

"The key to this case is us getting that one tip, that one lead from someone who knows something," Woods said.

Meanwhile, back at the memorial for Somer at the corner of Debarry Avenue and Horton Drive in Orange Park, Kaliyah Allen, who lives near the Thompson home but does not know the family, said the investigators working the case appear to be handling it well.

"I think they're doing the best they can without exposing too much information and hurting their case," she said. "They're building a case. Honestly, I think they're doing a good job." ..Source.. by Anthony Colarossi Sentinel Staff Writer

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FL- Haleigh, Somer's cases are different

10-26-2009 Florida:

The discovery of a little girl's body in a Georgia landfill, which investigators have identified as that of missing Clay County second-grader Somer Thompson, comes as the search for another missing girl, Putnam County first-grader Haleigh Cummings, enters its ninth month.

Somer's body was discovered Wednesday in a landfill at the Chesser Island Landfill in Folkston, Ga., after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving the neighborhood where Somer was last seen on Monday. And while Putnam County officials say they also pored through garbage and visited the area's landfill, their efforts turned up no sign of Haleigh.

The cases involve young girls disappearing in adjacent counties, but Putnam authorities say it's unlikely Somer's kidnapping and murder are connected to Haleigh's disappearance.

"The only similarity was that these were two missing girls," Putnam County Sheriff's Lt. Johnny Greenwood said. "There's really no comparison between these cases - the scenarios are totally different. One girl (Haleigh) was at home in her bed before she disappeared, and one (Somer) was walking home from school."

Haleigh was 5 years old when she was last seen at her father's rented mobile home in Satsuma. Initial reports said the girl was at the home with her younger brother and her father's girlfriend, Misty Croslin, whom he later married before recently divorcing.

While the search for Somer has ended, the search for Haleigh remains a daily assignment for a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent assigned full time to the case and the six-member major crimes unit of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

"We still hope we can bring her home safe, but right now we just want to bring her home," Greenwood said.

Croslin told officers Haleigh went to bed at about 8 p.m. and that when Croslin woke up at about 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom, she noticed Haleigh was missing. The back screen door had been propped open with a cinder block, Croslin said. There were no signs of forced entry.

Early in the case, officers interviewed sex offenders living in the area to eliminate any as possible suspects. They have since searched repeatedly for Haleigh in the woods and water, including the St. Johns River and a pond off State Road 19.

Greenwood said that like Clay County investigators, officers in Putnam County organized a search of garbage picked up from the area where Haleigh was last seen and a landfill near the Clay County line used for household garbage.

The garbage, collected from south Putnam County, where the child's Satsuma home was located, was gathered as normal two days after the girl disappeared. But it then was brought to a specific area where volunteers from emergency and fire services sifted through it. The searches are considered part of the standard protocol in hunting for a missing child such as Haleigh, Greenwood said.

Statistics compiled by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provide both hopeful and discouraging data relative to Haleigh's case.

For example, the center has determined that more children now are being returned safely to their homes than at any other time in U.S. history, with the recovery rate rising from 62 percent in 1990 to 96 percent in 2008.

However, the center's staff also points to a study that showed while murders of abducted children are rare, about 100 incidents happen in the U.S. annually, and 76.2 percent of the abducted children who are killed are dead within three hours of being taken.



A recent study often referred to by the center also shows that children are 3.5 times more likely to be abducted by a family member than by a non-family member.

In recent months, the focus of the investigation into Haleigh's disappearance has shifted from a possible stranger abduction to questioning people related to or acquainted with Haleigh. Investigators have said the girl's biological parents are not suspects.

Investigators have begun taking a second look at everything in the case - double-checking to make certain nothing has been overlooked.

"We are still getting a few tips, but not many," Greenwood said. "The main thing we are getting as far as tips now are people's opinions, and there is not really much you can do with someone's opinions."

Greenwood said he also is getting what investigators refer to as psychic tips, tips that may begin with the phrase "I had a dream that Haleigh is ..." and then give a location.

Greenwood said investigators still believe what they believed the day Haleigh was reported missing. "There are people out there - at least one person out there - who knows what has happened to her," Greenwood said. "Now it's a matter of someone slipping up - or wanting to say what happened - that will help solve this case." ..Source.. by Lise Fisher & Karen Voyles

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