I have been following the Haleigh Cummings case since the girl disappeared from her Satsuma, Florida home on February 10. Six months later Haleigh is still missing; and as far as is known publicly there have been no major developments in the investigation of late.
With the police remaining tight-lipped, where can people go to get credible information? To be honest, I find the options to be limited. The case has gone cold in the national media; and I understand there is a lack of interest by the local news reporters as well.
Thankfully there are still a few outlets that remain attentive to Haleigh’s situation. Among them is Simon Barrett’s reporting on Blogger News Network and on his Blog Talk Radio show. And the reporting of TJ Hart, News Director for Florida station The Sky, at 97.3 FM.
However, in addition to the apparent lack of progress in the investigation itself, I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the circus atmosphere surrounding this case. A fiction writer would be hard pressed to create the number of unique characters, egos, sub-plots and hidden agendas that exist here.
Although I was aware that Internet blogs are rife with unsubstantiated rumors and outright lies, I didn’t truly appreciate the depth of the side issues until I listened to Simon Barrett’s show yesterday. Not only are some bloggers running amok, but some of the key players are involved in vendettas against one another and using Haleigh’s disappearance as a vehicle to get their revenge or accomplish their goals.
As an example, let’s take a look at what happened to bail bondsman and bounty hunter William “Cobra†Staubs. Mr. Staubs arrived in the Satsuma area with the honorable intention of helping to find Haleigh. However, his efforts were cut short when he ran afoul of attorney Kim Picazio. Staubs suddenly found himself under arrest and his business license suspended. He is currently thousands of dollars in debt due to the mounting legal fees required to fight what he says are bogus charges.
It appears that many of Staubs’ legal problems can be placed at the feet of Ms. Picazio. Her brother-in-law was on the program yesterday and said that Picazio stated in his presence that she planned to destroy Staubs professionally and financially.
But she isn’t the only source of grief for the bondsman. Staubs himself disclosed yesterday that there is an active effort to run Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy out of office. According to Staubs, there are several factions within and outside of the department that want Hardy gone for various reasons. He said he was even offered a cash payment to set Hardy up to take a fall. It was a situation Staubs refused to be drawn into. But one has to wonder what effect – if any – his decision had on how he has been treated in Putnam County.
All these things might make for an exciting novel. But are they doing anything to further the effort to find Haleigh Cummings? In my opinion, no. In fact, I believe they are doing just the opposite.
It’s time to put egos and personal agendas aside; and use those energies to find Haleigh.    Â
18 users commented in " Thoughts on the Haleigh Cummings case "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackDenny, for a former LEO, it is amazing you choose to swallow one side of these sorid stories for fact, without even bothering to ask the other side for their version. I doubt you gave Kim or the Sheriff’s Office an opportunity to respond. Instead, you took and reported as fact, all the words of two men who have been rejected or prosecuted by them.
It doesn’t strike you as relevant that Cobra and Don Knop both have one thing in common? They were both terminated by Kim. And you are taking their revenge tainted statements as fact? As a Journalist myself, this is categorically the biggest no-no in the book, and can have repercussions for BNN, who chooses to print one sided allegations as fact.
I have followed the Haleigh case since day one. After Kim fired Don Knop, he chose to give confidential information about his work tenure with Kim to Tim H. Of course, as he was recently fired, he had nothing nice to say, as would be expected. He is also the individual who whose vindictive tell-all emails to Tim H serve as attachments entitled “Hiding Haleigh” to several comical Investigatory Reports written by the fingerprintless wonder. And his allegations you take as gospel?
Funny how people crawl out of the wood work in this case only AFTER they have been fired, dumped, or rejected. Where were all of these allegations when these people were working for Crystal’s team and being paid by Kim?
As a journalist, the last person’s view you lend any credence to is the one who has an ax to grind. At least not without lots of unbiased accounts of the same story.
Before any journalist begins reporting what people did or did not do in this case, maybe the journalist should interview both sides. That is called responsible journalism. You can’t gather a person’s enemies together and report their stories against him or her as fact. BNN and Denny, I’d like to know if anyone has gotten a statement from the Sheriff or Kim’s side of this mess. If not, this is simply a credibility lacking free for all, with people taking pop shots at those who cannot defend themselves, or who may easily widen our eyes to the truth.
Denny,
Thank you for your thoughts. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to the issues surrounding this case. Given your background, do you find similarities with this case and other situations you have investigated, especially in regards to both the internal and external influences?
People out here like me will never ever give up on finding Haleigh. She has our hearts totally. I pray daily that God will see this case thru in His time. Haleigh we all out here have great faith and great hope that you will be found.God is with you if no one else is!
Prof, Kim had them all sign confidentiality agreements. Now that she is gone, they can speak. From reading Kim’s own words, I have no doubt she is capable of all they said.
Hopefully the reporters/bloggers will try to get 2 sides of the story and not run with 1 side. This is a tangled mess about this beautiful child and somehow she has gotten lost, again, in the midst of name calling accusations, innuendo and assorted charges that are not related to finding her. That being said I sincerely hope that responsible bloggers/journalists will come to the forefront and work with LE and not against them..
Denny, you wrote: “some of the key players are involved in vendettas against one another and using Haleigh’s disappearance as a vehicle to get their revenge or accomplish their goals.”
I don’t think any of those people are responsible for Haleigh’s disappearance and I don’t think any of them know who is responsible or where Haleigh is now. If one of them does, then he/she better tell the FBI right now or be damned to heck for all eternity.
(I say “FBI” because personally I have no faith in the competence of local LE there).
So that’s why I don’t care a bit about these side issues or vendettas – as long as they do not get in the way of continuing to search for Haleigh. As far as I know they’re not getting in the way. And as long as that’s the case then they can squabble all they want between themselves because at least when that garbage gets publicity so does HALEIGH! If they weren’t having their stupid fights we’d have reason to hear her name a lot less often. What a shame but I think it’s true.
So it’s fine by me if they want to keep fighting – even if bloggers keep fighting between themselves. I don’t care as long as it keeps Haleigh’s name in the public’s mind! At least then there is less reason for her to join the thousands of other missing children who have been forgotten.
Just wondering …how many of us have lived in Mistys or Ronalds,or even in Crystal shoes.I can say I havent .I had a mom & dad who cared about what I did and who my friends were.My dad didnt drink maybe once a month if that.He didnt do drugs,he didnt have a police record and nither did my mom.
So who are we to say what we would do if we were in their shoes.Im sure Ronald loves Haleigh with all his heart and soul as misty & Crystal.But for some reason haleigh was taken ,weather they new the condition she lived in or it was some other reason.It will all come to light in time.We have people out here that doesnt even have children or has never walked in thoese shoes and alot of them dont even live in Flordia.We are suppose to be comming togeather to help find Haleigh,Not fight on here and sling mud as alot of us do.We are not here to judge ,your opion is your opion.and lets just leave it at that.If you cant say good things about haleighs family then you need to keep their name out of your mouth.Maybe they should open a room just for fighting on I believe this or I believe that.I listen to Jan & Simon every sunday
and its unreal what I see in chat room or some of the things that people call in on.Its suppose to be help Finding Haleigh.But some of us have lost insite.For the Love of haleigh and for the love of God people lets come together and bring haleigh home.I m sure a lot of us dont even know each other except by screen names.If you want to ask a question on the call in show thats fine but make it to the point…60 min.or even 90 is not longe enough to get to all the things we all are wanting to know WHERE IS HALEIGH.Thanks Jan & Simon and the rest of the panel God Bless.
I believe everyone wants to find Haleigh I noticed not alot of news coverage as been on her disapperance I live in florida. All I hear is on the casey anthony stuff and Micheal Jackson as well. I dont bother to watch tv any more every time you turn it on there is nothing but bad stuff parents murdering their children, children ends up missing…
Just keep the faith God will bring it all out when the time comes and when the truth comes out not alot of us wont be surprise or shocked by it. I will be releasing balloons for Haleigh in her honor. Happy earlier birthday sweet girl….
BTW – Regarding my 12:57 comment. The players I was talking about there are people NOT related to Haleigh.
How can anyone say they do not have any faith in the local law enforcement. Do you have any idea what they do, what they have done, or what they are doing. We all want the child brought home, but not finding her yet does not mean that the local police are inept. Come on there are many larger agency’s in this country that have missing children unrecovered. Statements are not fact, so be careful what you read and hear and don’t get caught up in reporting untrue information as facts
Lets all go to Satauma. That town would not hold us all. I am ready to go. Been ready a long time.I dont have no faith in any LE or any stystem. Why should I?
come on – it’s my understanding that Sheriff Hardy had that position for only two or three months before Haleigh’s disappearance. And that he fired the top detective and assistant detective among others of the most experienced people in the Sheriff’s department. In addition, his previous experience seems to have had little if anything to do with investigations or running them. He worked for the schools. And I think he’s had assigned three different people as lead detective on Haleigh’s case.
And, from what I’ve heard about some things that were and were not done the very night she disappeared I had my doubts about local LE’s competence from the beginning. I think it’s a perfectly legitimately thing to be concerned about.
m2c, i agree with ya.
Gotta love a blog that publishes “authors” that have swallowed their own propagangda. Always uplighting a man who only commited illegal acts,(as well as bonding out known tot killer Casey Anthony-good man, good man!!) ‘for the cause’ ‘to find a ‘poor little girl.’ Bloggers, writers, persons in the media love it when some big/bad event happens, because it draws attention to thier own careers, selves, & agenda. You notice this blogger site is the lonely in media outlet now still carrying on w/ reports- but the real media has done their job. There is no more evidence, no arrest, the case is shut down, nothing left to say.
What’s left, simon, but your own aganda. Go ahead uplift a criminal.
Frankly,I could careless about Ronald or Misty or how bad they feel at this point as really I don’t really think they do,or they would have kept the child’s story out in the News and stopped trying to be movie stars with the wedding,and the fighting.They should of kept their attention on the child not their selves.On then the one where poor broke Ron wants everyone to donate to him because he is unemployed,so is 80% of the country.But Ron needs attention and Misty wants to go out.So they have a free for all,go back in the news again.Sad thing is there is a Child Missing People,but you all want to yell about who said what to whom.Get a grip,I don’t care about who fired whom,or any of that crap.Can we please find the child,and as for the drug addicted Dad and is wife Misty,CPS pay attention,who was taking care of the little boy while these people were fighting,his Great Grandmother,get this child out of the middle of this mess,he would be better off at his REAL MOTHERS.And Lets give as much attention to this case as was given to the Anothony case,or is it because the Grandfather was an excop,and they had more money,lived in a block house and the Cummings are a poor family,druggies,partiers,welfare receivers,and just plan know bodies.Well the fact is there is a child missing,rich or poor,she needs to be found one way or another.Don’t know about the rest of you but even though I have never met Haleigh,I love her and want her found,so stop all the bull and think about her for a change.
TO: up lifting cobra
You are getting the cases mixed up between Caylee Anthony and Haleigh Cummings. The bail guy in Caylee’s case was Leonard Padilla. The guy who has been looking for Haleigh is William Staubs aka Cobra.
Yes we are still blogging about BOTH girls. We demand justice for Caylee and will NOT forget little Haleigh even though – as you pointed out so correctly – about everyone else has forgotten her (media, LE, her own town) and apparently you would like us to forget her too.
How very “uplifting” of you (not).
I agree with DKerr well said… God doesnt like ugly and it will come back. Lets bring this child home…… To give her back to her real Mother…
I agree, totally, with Gatorgirl about God doesn’t like ugly, and it will come back. Get Ron, Jr. out of that mess! This whole situation is a trainwreck, and anybody close to that train is going to get hurt! These people are out of control, and the little boy is in that mess. It is obvious that Granny Sykes can’t even control Ronald Cummings.
I don’t think LE is being fooled by anyone, but, I have lived in that area of Fl. before and know how easy it would be to dispose of a small child’s body there. I know the truth will come out; it almost always does. I am hoping and praying that she is still alive and, I think everyone else is also, and that is what is making us so impatient about this case. We are fearful that Haleigh is still alive, and she may be in harms way. LE is not letting anything out so we think they are doing nothing, but I think they are doing everything they can.
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