On February 10, 2009 a little 5 year old child from Florida was reported as abducted in the middle of the night from her home in Satsuma. That night started a nightmare for lots of people.

Today, May 27, 2010 we still do not know where little Haleigh Cummings is nor do we know the truth about what happened to this precious little girl that has won the hearts of people from across the world.

This case seems to cover everything but what it should be covering from the beginning. What happened to Haleigh?

Along the line we have learned who is sleeping with who, who is spending money that they don’t have, who has a job, who doesn’t, who makes their money off the state and who has an honest job, or at least who is trying to get an honest job.

We have heard about who is addicted to pills and apparently who is dealing with drugs as well. We hear conversations between the people involved up to their ears in the case cutting each other’s throats. We all complain that listening to the jailhouse tapes aren’t helping us find Haleigh, yet we all want to hear the tapes anyway.

We hear so many different versions about what happened from the same ones. Has Misty Croslin told the truth in any of her versions? Has Tommy Croslin told the truth? Pick your favorite version and go along with it until a better one comes along that makes more sense. Has Crystal Sheffield told everything she knows? Has her mother, Marie Griffis told everything she knows?  Has Ronald Cummings or Teresa Neves or Annette Sykes told any truth?

The fact remains that we don’t know. None of this is helping us find Haleigh. We all bicker because someone says this or someone says that which is totally opposite from what we think happened. Does this help find Haleigh? NO it doesn’t.

Does destroying people’s life help? For instance, take Hank and Lisa Croslin. Neither of them had anything to do with Haleigh missing, yet they are paying a high price for it now just because of their children being involved. I am sure neither of them is very proud to admit that they are now broke, jobless and homeless as well. They are being forced to live in a homeless shelter because they can’t seem to get a job anywhere. They can’t leave the state because they are both on probation so they have no choice.

OK I admit Hank and Lisa may not have been parents that deserve “Parents of the Year” awards but at least Hank did seem to hold a job before all this came down and before his unfortunate auto accident. If you were to believe Misty’s story at one time, you would think Hank and Lisa were terrible parents. According to what she says it sounded as though they were abusive parents. They didn’t force her to go to school, they allowed her to live with a man that had three children already and then later allowed her to marry the man. Yet when they visit Misty all you hear is how much they love each other. Tell me, does this sound like a family that never got along before?

Personally I know how it is to be a rebellious child. I left home at 16 and there was nothing my parents could do to stop me other than to sit on top of me and hold me down to keep me from running away. My parents were good people and hard workers that were raising five kids and they did the best they could with us. I turned out OK once I finally came to my senses, but I learned the hard way as did my sister, who is no longer with us. It wasn’t because my parents didn’t care. It was because we didn’t care enough about them or anyone else but ourselves. I was never abused at home but I was determined to do what I wanted to do. Oh how I regret to this day putting my parents through the hell they went through because of my brothers and sister and I, but they still stand by us no matter what.

My point in all this is that as easy as it is to blame the parents for not being the best parents, we can’t always blame them. Hank and Lisa did not hit the cameras the minute their son and daughter got involved in all this. They haven’t done like George and Cindy Anthony have done. They refused to talk to the media. They didn’t want the publicity, but yet they were drawn into all this because of Tommy and Misty Croslin’s involvement in Haleigh’s disappearance.

Hank and Lisa appear to love their kids unconditionally. They both know their kids are going to have to do time for their part in this drug deal but until they know the truth they are not denying that Misty and Tommy know something about Haleigh being gone. They hold it in their hearts that neither of them could have possibly harmed Haleigh, but that is because they love their children regardless and no one wants to think their kids could do such a thing. At least they are not out there fighting with reporters over it. They are like us. They are sitting back waiting for the truth to come out no matter what that truth is. They are begging their children to please just tell the truth and put an end to all this.

Hank finally spoke out with Cindy Swirko, from Gainesville.com. I find it an interesting story and it will give you food for thought.

Will any of this help us find Haleigh? I think that the only way it will is if the one responsible finally confesses. To be honest how are we to believe Tommy after we hear him tell his wife and his father different version of what happened that night. Then we have Misty doing the same thing with her Dad not to mention the letters she supposedly wrote. Then we have Haleigh’s father, Ronald Cummings cutting a deal with the DA to get a lesser sentence if he testifies against Tommy and Misty. Why do they even need his testimony if they were clearly all caught on tape in the drug bust?

My question is who do we believe? Let’s pray that one day we will know the truth about what really happened, or at least I hope we will. We might never know.  Haleigh where ever you are America waits for you to be found or for at least the truth to come out and then you will be able to get the justice you so rightfully deserve.

Jan Barrett

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