Key facts
- Name: Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings
- Born: August 17, 2003
- Age at disappearance: 5
- Last seen: February 10, 2009
- Location: Her father’s mobile home, Satsuma, Putnam County, Florida
- Height / build: 3’0″–3’3″, 39 lbs, blonde/strawberry hair, brown eyes; 4-inch round birthmark on lower left back; birthmarks on left cheek and right jawline
- Status: Still missing — classified as a homicide; one of Florida’s seven unsolved AMBER Alerts; NCMEC #1115793; NamUs MP3903
- Reward: $15,000 (Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida)
- Investigating agency: Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, 1-888-277-8477 or (386) 329-0800
The cinder block
In the early morning hours of February 10, 2009, Ronald Cummings came home from work to his double-wide mobile home in Satsuma, Florida, and found his babysitter awake and his five-year-old daughter gone.
The babysitter was Misty Croslin — seventeen years old, Ronald’s girlfriend. She said she’d put Haleigh and her little brother, Ronald Jr., to sleep around 8 p.m. When she woke in the early morning hours, Haleigh wasn’t in her bed. The back door was propped open — with a dirty cinder block Ronald had never seen before.
Ronald called 911, frantic. “Somebody stole my child out of my bed,” he told reporters days later. “I come home from work and my child was not there.”
There was no sign of forced entry. The door, Ronald and Misty insisted, had been locked. Haleigh — a kindergartner at Browning-Pearce Elementary, three feet tall, thirty-nine pounds — had vanished from her bed while the teenager watching her slept four feet away.
Her little brother said a man dressed in black had come into the home that night and taken her. Investigators weren’t sure what to make of it; he was very young.
The search
What followed was one of the largest searches in Putnam County history. Law enforcement agencies, hundreds of volunteers, divers, helicopters, bloodhounds and cadaver dogs combed the woods, waterways, and rural terrain around Satsuma. The St. Johns River was searched repeatedly. The FBI joined in. Thousands of tips poured in.
At one point, a dumpster search triggered three separate cadaver-dog alerts. A registered sex offender who lived nearby was cleared by his own GPS ankle monitor. None of it led to Haleigh.
Over time, the investigation’s center of gravity shifted from stranger abduction to the people inside the trailer. Misty Croslin’s accounts changed and contradicted themselves; years later she made a disputed claim about a boat ramp. Ronald Cummings’s frantic 911 call played on national television. Neither was ever charged in Haleigh’s disappearance — but both were arrested on drug trafficking charges in 2010 and went to prison. Ronald was released in October 2022. Misty is not expected to be released until June 2031. They married and divorced in the years after Haleigh vanished.
The case is classified as a homicide. Her NCMEC listing and NamUs file remain open. Age-progression images — at 12, at 21 — have been released over the years, most recently displayed at Florida Missing Children’s Day in Tallahassee. In 2022, the sheriff’s office wrote: “We do not forget… She would be in college, technical school or possibly starting a job. Those opportunities such as graduating high school surrounded by family and friends was stolen from her.”
Theories: what might have happened
An intruder took her. The propped-open door, the unfamiliar cinder block, the brother’s “man in black” — the scene reads like someone came in and carried a sleeping five-year-old out. What undercuts it: no forced entry, no witness, no forensic evidence of an intruder ever produced, and the only other person awake in the house was the babysitter whose story kept changing.
Someone in the household was involved. Misty Croslin was the last person to see Haleigh alive, and her shifting accounts made her the focus of public suspicion for years. The drug-trafficking convictions that followed painted a grim picture of the household. What must be said plainly: neither Croslin nor Ronald Cummings was ever charged in Haleigh’s disappearance, and suspicion — even widespread, long-running suspicion — is not evidence. The presumption of innocence applies.
She wandered off. A five-year-old, a propped door, rural Florida at night — but nothing about the scene supports it: the cinder block nobody recognized, the scale of the immediate search that found nothing, and a child that small doesn’t get far alone. Investigators classified it a homicide, not a lost-child case.
Seventeen years later, the AMBER Alert is still technically unsolved — one of seven in Florida. Haleigh’s mother, Crystal Sheffield, her father, her brother — all still waiting. Somewhere there is a woman in her twenties with a four-inch birthmark on her back who has never been found, or a grave that has never been dug up. The cinder block is still the whole case: a door propped open in the dark, and a little girl gone.
Have information?
Contact the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office at 1-888-277-8477 or (386) 329-0800, or NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678. A $15,000 reward is offered. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- August 17, 2003 — Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings is born.
- February 9, 2009, ~8:00 p.m. — Misty Croslin, 17, puts Haleigh and her brother to sleep in the Satsuma mobile home.
- February 10, 2009, early morning — Ronald Cummings returns from work; Haleigh is gone; the door is propped open with an unfamiliar cinder block. 911 call.
- February 2009 — Massive multi-agency search: divers, helicopters, K-9s, FBI; St. Johns River searched repeatedly.
- 2009–2010 — Investigation shifts focus; Croslin’s accounts change; dumpster search triggers cadaver-dog alerts.
- 2010 — Ronald Cummings and Misty Croslin arrested on drug trafficking charges; both imprisoned. Neither charged in Haleigh’s disappearance.
- 2020 — Haleigh’s great-grandmother, dying of stage 4 cancer, pleads publicly for clues.
- October 2022 — Ronald Cummings released from prison.
- 2022 — Sheriff’s office: “We do not forget”; age-progression image at 12 released.
- 2024 — Age-progression image at 21 displayed at Florida Missing Children’s Day.
- Today — Still missing; one of Florida’s seven unsolved AMBER Alerts.
FAQ
Is Haleigh Cummings still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Haleigh Cummings has been missing for more than 17 years. Her case is classified as a homicide and remains one of Florida’s seven unsolved AMBER Alerts.
Was Haleigh Cummings ever found?
No. Despite one of the largest searches in Putnam County history, FBI involvement, and thousands of tips, no trace of Haleigh has ever been found.
How old would Haleigh Cummings be today?
Haleigh was born August 17, 2003 — she turned 23 in August 2026.
What was the cinder block in Haleigh Cummings’ case?
When Ronald Cummings came home on February 10, 2009, the mobile home’s door was propped open with a dirty cinder block he said he had never seen before. It remains one of the case’s most cited details.
Were Haleigh Cummings’ father or babysitter charged?
Neither Ronald Cummings nor Misty Croslin was ever charged in Haleigh’s disappearance. Both were convicted on unrelated drug trafficking charges in 2010; Ronald was released in October 2022, and Croslin is expected to be released in June 2031.
Is there a reward in the Haleigh Cummings case?
Yes — Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida offers $15,000 for information.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, 1-888-277-8477; NCMEC case #1115793; NamUs MP3903; FDLE.
- News: Action News Jax (News4Jax), “New age progression photo shows what missing Haleigh Cummings would look like at age 21”; “‘We do not forget:’ 14 years since Haleigh Cummings’ disappearance” ; CBS/NBC/Fox News archives.
- Reference: Uncovered, “Missing: Haleigh Cummings | Satsuma, FL.”
- Media: Detective Perspective podcast, “MISSING: HaLeigh Cummings” (ep. 129, March 2026).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.