Even though it is a holiday weekend we will be running our regular Sunday 3pm Central radio show. Our panel is a little up in the air but we are hoping that it will be the Barrett’s, Denny Griffin, Cobra Staubs, Art Harris, and TJ Hart. To listen in just go to Blog Talk Radio a couple of minutes before 3pm Central, you will see the link to the live show on the front page. As always we will be taking your questions and comments live on the air.

We are expanding our coverage this week and I have invited Paul Scharff to join us to give us an update on his fathers case, for those of you not familiar with the case, it is a 30 year old double murder that had remained a cold case up until last year.

Our own Panelist Denny Griffin co-authored a book with ex mobster Frank Cullotta, a biography. Frank actually describes the events that occurred 30 years ago in McHenry county. The police though have still not closed the file. This article will give you a little background.

The Haleigh Cummings task force continue to be very tight lipped about what is happening in the investigation. This has fueled a number of unlikely theories that thankfully have not made their way into the real media. The last significant event was the search of Marie Griffis’ (Haleigh Cummings’ grand mother) property. The search found nothing, and interestingly the police themselves readily admitted that they had not expected to find anything. Offline I have had a number of discussions with other members of the press, and there are various explanations floating around, some, while plausible still give me reservations. The leading theory is that the investigators were merely following an established protocol when dealing with missing children. You always look close to home first, the Griffis residence is 90 miles away from Satsuma and there was no compelling evidence that the little girl was there. While I agree that protocol was followed, I am disturbed that it took over four months to make the search.

The next anticipated event should be occurring in the next few days, the reconvening of the multi agency task force to discuss progress. The last meeting had the press reeling in horror, four months had passed and some evidence taken at the time of the disappearance had still not been processed!

At the center of the mystery is Misty Cummings nee Croslin, the teenage bride of Ronald Cummings, Haleigh’s father and custodial parent. Misty was the last person to see the little girl alive, but apparently has been very inconsistent with the time line of events. At the last count she has been interviewed more than 10 times. Unfortunately we the press are not privy to the content of these interviews. As no one has been charged this is an ongoing investigation which means that the ‘Sunshine Laws’ permitting release of discovery material do not apply.

While everyone is hoping and praying that this little girl is still alive, you also have to face the fact that the clock is ticking, and statistics show that the likelihood of her being found alive are diminishing.

BNN has followed this story from the day TJ Hart at Sky 97.3 broke it. And I have to say that looking back I have a number of nagging questions. I by no means want to disparage the local investigators, everyone I have talked to hold them in high esteem, yet they seem to have rebuked offers of help. Tim Miller, a man I have great respect for took his Texas Equusearch expertise to Satsuma but pulled out quickly after the investigators basically told him he was not welcome. Last week we also heard an anecdotal story form a family that happened to be in the area for a funeral. They drove to the area and asked a police officer if they could help in the search, they too were rebuked and it was suggested that the best way they could help was to go home.

I can understand the help sometimes can be a hindrance, sometimes help is not what you want. But to rebuff these offers in a case like Haleigh Cummings was in my mind a mistake. What was wrong with Tim Miller conducting ground searches? He has the people, he has the experience, and he has the equipment. Tim is a man of honor, and when it was made plain that his services were not required he graciously bowed out and moved on to where he was wanted. I believe that the investigators made a poor decision, but we can not undo the past.

Our good friend Cobra decided to take up the quest, using his own resources he went to Satsuma to do his own investigation. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that he was an unwelcome guest, and professionally it has had some very serious ramifications for him.

In fact I could write a book about the events that have occurred to everyone I know that has tried to move this case forward, including us here at BNN. It is akin to the movie ‘The Curse Of The Mummy’, touch this case and wait for the trouble to start! The Haleigh Cummings story has been a real eye opener to my wife Jan and I, it is like a minefield, the dynamics behind the scenes are like something out of a Hollywood disaster movie.

Please join us tomorrow for the next episode.

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Simon and Jan Barrett