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Nancy Grace

NANCY GRACE for February 12, 2009

Aired February 12, 2009 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, Satsuma, Florida. A 5- year-old little girl tucked into bed, five hours later, she vanishes into thin air, gone, the kitchen light on, the back door propped wide open. The father comes home from the night shift to find not a single trace of little Haleigh. How could a 5-year-old girl vanish from her own bed, a bed she apparently was sharing that night with her baby-sitter and 4-year-old brother?

The girlfriend/babysitter said she`s taken not one but two polygraphs and tells us she passed. Bloodhounds pick up the scent near a nearby river, but an intense sonar scan turns up nothing. The house turned upside down with police fingerprinting, searching and processing the scene. Tonight, the search by land, by air, by water. Where is 5-year-old Haleigh?

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: What`s her date of birth?

RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER: Y`all are (DELETED) playing games, man! I`m going to (DELETED) kill somebody!

911 OPERATOR: OK, tell him we understand. We need to get her date of birth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What`s her date of birth?

CUMMINGS: (DELETED) her birthday! We need to find her! (DELETED) her date of birth!

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A frantic search is under way right now for Haleigh Cummings. She was last seen Monday night with her 2-year-old brother in her bedroom.

CUMMINGS: I don`t know what happened to my daughter, came up missing out of my house in the middle of the night. Besides that, no, I don`t know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Detectives don`t know, either. Today they officially ruled Haleigh Cummings`s disappearance an abduction. Police believe someone snatched the 5-year-old from her Satsuma home. They say, at this point, everyone`s a suspect.

CUMMINGS: Yes, I have taken a polygraph. Yes, did I pass it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know where she is or who has her! I just want her home!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities say the back door was wide open, propped open with a cinderblock, but they don`t know whether it was left unlocked.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I put her to bed about 8:00 o`clock. I woke up and she was gone, and the back door was wide open! That`s the last I seen her is when I put her to bed!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators have ruled out the possibility the child may have wandered off in the middle of the night because she`s afraid of the dark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you`ve done something with, her tell us where she`s at, if she`s OK, something. We just -- I want my daughter back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. How could a 5-year-old Florida girl just vanish from her own bed, a bed she was sharing that night with her baby-sitter and 4-year-old brother? But has that story changed in just 24 hours? Tonight, where is 5-year-old Haleigh?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s been no sign of Haleigh Cummings in three days. And as you can imagine, emotions are running really high in that family.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: I just got home from work, my 5-year-old daughter is gone. I need somebody to be here now, I`m telling you.

911 OPERATOR: Listen to me. Listen to me. We`ve got two officers...

CUMMINGS: If I find whoever has my daughter before y`all do, I`m killing him. I don`t care. I`ll spend the rest of my life in prison, I`m telling you.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Florida police and the FBI launched a massive search from both the ground and the air. Detectives say they found no evidence that Haleigh wandered away from her dad`s mobile home.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: OK. It`s OK, sir. We`ve got them on the way. OK, can you give me any -- what kind of description of her pajamas that she was wearing?

CUMMINGS: I don`t (DELETED) know! I was at work!

911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, we`ve got them coming, OK?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not stopped our search. We had several different bloodhounds that were brought to the area with the helicopter and the ground forces.

CUMMINGS: I just want my daughter home safe.

We want her back. That`s all we want. We don`t want revenge. I just want my daughter back. That`s it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to Joy Purdy with WTLV at the command center. Also joining us tonight, the mother of the missing 5-year-old girl, Crystal Sheffield. Joy, what`s the latest? Has the story shifted?

JOY PURDY, WTLV: This is very interesting, Nancy. We`ll talk about the search in just a moment, which has been called off for tonight. It`s going to continue tomorrow into a much bigger event.

But you were talking about the father, the father of Haleigh Cummings, his girlfriend, she was the last one to see the little girl. She told us today on camera just a few hours ago that no, Haleigh was not in the bed with her. Haleigh was actually sleeping in her own bed when she disappeared. Whether or not that bed is situated in the same room as the father`s girlfriend, we don`t know. But we have learned -- she has told us that they weren`t sleeping in the same bed, so that opens up all kinds of new questions here.

GRACE: Joy, it certainly does. Let`s take a listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I put her to bed about 8:00 o`clock, and I woke up and she was gone and the back door was wide open! That was the last time I seen her, was when I put her to bed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you all in the same bed?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. She was in her bed in front of the TV, and me and junior were in my bed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That is contrary to what we were told last night. We were told last night the 5-year-old girl was in the bed with the girlfriend/baby-sitter and the 4-year-old brother. Now, if they were in the same room, fine, I understand that. But even a slight change in story is highly significant.

With me right now, a very special guest, the mother of missing Haleigh. Crystal Sheffield is joining us there at the Satsuma command center. Ms. Sheffield, thank you for being with us.

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, MOTHER: You`re welcome.

GRACE: Ms. Sheffield, where were you at the time little Haleigh went missing?

SHEFFIELD: I was in Baker County, at my house.

GRACE: How did you learn she was gone?

SHEFFIELD: Ronald`s mother, Teresa Nieves (ph), called me at 3:49 AM in the morning and told me that Haleigh was gone.

GRACE: And what did you do?

SHEFFIELD: At first, I thought it was a prank, kind of. And then she was, like, The police are there, and I heard them in the background and then it hit me that it was not a prank.

GRACE: OK. Now, what time did you say they called you?

SHEFFIELD: It was 3:49 AM.

GRACE: And who called you?

SHEFFIELD: Teresa Nieves, Ronald`s mother.

GRACE: When was the last time you saw Haleigh?

SHEFFIELD: Two weeks ago.

GRACE: Was there any problem? Were there any tensions in the home that you knew of?

SHEFFIELD: No.

GRACE: When they called to tell you little Haleigh was missing, Ms. Sheffield, did they have a theory about what had happened to her?

SHEFFIELD: They just said that someone come in there and took her, is what they told me.

GRACE: Ms. Sheffield, were you -- with me, everyone, is little Haleigh`s mother. Crystal Sheffield is joining us. She lives many miles away from the little girl but sees her on a regular basis. Ms. Sheffield, when you were first told about the circumstances of Haleigh`s disappearance, were you told she was asleep in the bed with the girlfriend/baby-sitter and the little brother?

SHEFFIELD: Yes, I was. I was told they was all three in the same bed.

GRACE: You`re sure?

SHEFFIELD: I`m sure.

GRACE: Is there any doubt in your mind that they represented they were all in the same bed together?

SHEFFIELD: That`s what they said, that -- I was told they was all three in the same bed.

GRACE: And now what have you learned?

SHEFFIELD: I`ve heard that Junior was in another room, and it was just her and Haleigh in the bed. And now I`m hearing that they were both in the other room and she was in the bed by herself. Haleigh and Junior was in their own room.

GRACE: OK. Hold on, Ms. Sheffield. Rosy (ph), can you play me back that sound we just heard from the girlfriend? OK, Ms. Sheffield, please go through that with me one more time. First you thought they were all three in the bed together sleeping, waiting on the father to get home. He was at work. Then you were told what?

SHEFFIELD: At first, I was told they was all three in the same bed.

GRACE: Right.

SHEFFIELD: Then it was Junior was in the kids` room in his bed, and it was Haleigh and Misty in their bed, in the big bed.

GRACE: Yes?

SHEFFIELD: And then I heard that Haleigh and Junior were both in their room, in their own room, not Misty`s room.

GRACE: Ms. Sheffield, I know this may sound crazy to you, but let me ask you about this change in story. When you heard the second version, that Junior was in the kids` room and Haleigh and Misty were together, who told you that?

SHEFFIELD: Where did I hear it? I don`t remember where I heard it. My mind`s just...

GRACE: All right. When you heard that Haleigh and Junior were both in the children`s room, who told you that?

SHEFFIELD: Who told me that?

MARIE GRIFFIS, MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: I don`t remember that. That`s the first story that we heard.

GRACE: Everybody, also, you`re hearing the voice of the maternal grandmother of Haleigh. That`s Marie Griffis. She`s also with us there at the command center, everyone converging there at Satsuma, Florida, to find this little girl.

Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Eleanor Dixon out of Atlanta, Peter Odom, veteran defense attorney out of Atlanta, and Gwen Lindsay-Jackson, defense attorney out of New York.

But first to Mark Lunsford joining us out of Homosassa, Florida, the father of little Jessie Lunsford, who disappeared under extremely similar circumstances. Mark, what do you make of it?

MARK LUNSFORD, FATHER OF MURDERED JESSICA: Well, I mean, to start off with, I mean, I`d have to say with the work that I`ve been involved with and the things that I`ve done, you know, there`s going to be a lot of things flying through the air...

GRACE: Right.

LUNSFORD: ... miscommunications (INAUDIBLE)

GRACE: So this may be nothing. This may just be a blip on the screen.

LUNSFORD: It could be. But you bring up a good point by bringing it up. And what the family should do is to rely on your victim advocate. They will answer any question, any doubts, any rumors flying. These are the people to get the correct answers.

GRACE: You know, everybody, Mark Lunsford, the father of Jessie Lunsford -- and he is now with Survivingparentscoalition.org.

Back to Eleanor, Peter, and Gwen Lindsay-Jackson. Eleanor, he`s got a point. This could either be an extremely significant change in the story - - because when you`re talking about a missing 5-year-old, where she was the last time she was seen alive is highly probative, and if a story changes even subtly, that casts doubt on who`s telling the story. But on the other hand, I went back tonight before I came to air and re-read all of the wires and all of the notes, and what she said at the beginning, the baby- sitter/girlfriend was, I was sleeping next to her. Did that mean in the next room? Did that mean in the next bed?

Maybe Mark Lunsford is right that this is just a miscommunication. What do you think?

ELEANOR DIXON, PROSECUTOR: I think that could be a possibility, that it`s a miscommunication, and in being so upset and frantic for this missing child, she could have said that. But I think the police are also keeping things very close to the vest.

GRACE: Peter?

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A migrating story can be a sign of guilt, but you`ve got to make sure that it really is inconsistent, as you suggested.

GRACE: Gwen?

GWEN LINDSAY-JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think that it could be considered an excited utterance. I mean, certainly, she knew where she was when this child was asleep. It`s not a hard question.

GRACE: I`ve got a problem with it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got up because I had to use the bathroom, but I didn`t make it to the bathroom. I seen the kitchen light on, and I walked in the kitchen and the back door`s wide open. And I didn`t notice about Haleigh then, until I seen the back door open. Then I (INAUDIBLE) and she`s gone! And that`s all I know!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s no longer any reason to believe that the child simply wandered outside, so we are treating this absolutely like an abduction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) any one of us and our children. Anyone. Nobody knows whether it`s a psycho or sicko. Nobody knows. Anyone. Anyone. You don`t know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the world`s a suspect right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I put her to bed around 8:00 o`clock. And I woke up and she was gone and the back door was wide open. The last time I seen her was when I put her to bed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you all in the same bed?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. She was in her bed in front of the TV, and me and Junior were in my bed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Where is 5-year-old little Haleigh? Out to Michelle Sigona with "America`s Most Wanted" why did the girlfriend/baby-sitter take two polys?

MICHELLE SIGONA, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Well, at this point, investigators, you know, wanted to re-question and question her again. And she has been cooperating, from what they tell me. She`s not a suspect at this time, Nancy. Neither is the father of the children.

So I have spoken to the father. I just got off the phone with him about an hour ago, and from what he tells me, is that there were evidently two beds inside of one of the rooms, and from what he says, is that Haleigh was in the smaller bed, and that his son, who they call Junior, who`s 3 years old -- he`ll be 4 on Sunday -- was actually in the bed with his girlfriend.

GRACE: OK. That can clarify some of the inconsistencies, I believe.

Out to the lines. Anne in New Hampshire. Hi, Anne.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. First of all, our prayers are with the family. And this is so scary because it is so like the Jessica Lunsford case, where the father worked a third shift, you know, and in the trailer park. And the fact that there were 44 registered sex offenders in the area -- my first question is, I want to know if, like in the Jessica Lunsford case, they went around in the immediate area where the people lived and checked all the trailers, although Jessica, they believe, was in Couey`s trailer`s closet and they missed her and she was probably still alive. Have they done this really thorough check of all of the trailers in the area where the child lives?

GRACE: To Joy Purdy with WTLV. What do you know, Joy?

PURDY: Well, we talked with the sheriff about that. He was asked that specifically today, the sheriff of the Putnam County sheriff`s office. He said yes, they are checking with every sex offender. They are going into homes and checking. They`re very aware of what happened in that case, so they don`t want that to happen again. So they are tracing their steps again and again and again, and even checking other people`s homes, residents who are allowing them to come in two, three times. So they`re being very thorough.

GRACE: Michelle Sigona, do you know any more?

SIGONA: I can tell you that all 44 sex offenders within a five-mile radius, Nancy, have all been located and questioned. And from what the lead detective on this case told me about three hours ago was that, at this point, all of them have checked out from the time that Haleigh was last seen up until the time she allegedly disappeared around 3:30 in the morning.

Now, that`s not saying that they may not go back and check those particular sex offenders again and also other people in the area. Right now, they`re focussing a lot on the ground searches and also by air, by ground, in the water. They`re bringing in cadaver dogs from Georgia. They have five in from Georgia right now and are expecting 10 more by tomorrow morning. So these investigators are going on day four tomorrow, Nancy, and they`re just not giving up.

GRACE: Last night, the father, Ronald Cummings, was with us for our whole program, and I found him to be extremely sincere.

Out to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author of "Dealbreakers." I know you have studied his interviews. What do you think, Bethany?

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: He was sincere, distraught. He immediately offered to take a polygraph. I believe that he is a victim and not a perpetrator in this situation. The 17-year-old -- I have some questions about her. Not to victimize the victim here, but why was she a caretaker of these little children? Was she a willing caretaker? How did she feel about them? Were there other people in and out of the home? Yes, you can pick up a 5-year-old and lug them from one place to another and they will stay asleep. Yes, because she was not the bio mom, it would make sense that she didn`t wake up.

But what doesn`t make sense is that whoever came into this home anticipated that she wouldn`t wake up. So what kind of activity was there in and out of the house? Was there drug activity, I would wonder?

And then finally, those 44 sex offenders -- sex offenders offend on average for 17 years before they`re caught. So these are known sex offenders. What about people in the community who are sex offenders but who have not come to the attention of law enforcement? There are just so many questions in this situation.

GRACE: Back to the mother of 5-year-old little Haleigh. Crystal, Ms. Sheffield, what are the police theories right now? What are they telling you?

SHEFFIELD: They haven`t really told us nothing. Like, they`re just - - they just said they`re going to keep searching. They haven`t found anything or -- so...

GRACE: To Marie Griffis, Ms. Griffis, what do you make of the story about the back door being propped open? And I believe it`s been verified that Ronald Cummings was, in fact, at work.

GRIFFIS: Well, the back door being propped open -- who is going to take time to prop open a back door if you`re going to abduct a child? It don`t make sense.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: OK, was your back door locked, do you know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, the back door always stays locked.

CUMMINGS: I need somebody to get here now!

911 OPERATOR: OK, let me speak to (INAUDIBLE).

CUMMINGS: I just got home from work. My 5-year-old daughter is gone. I need somebody to be here now. I`m telling you...

911 OPERATOR: Listen to me. Listen to me. We`ve got two officers...

CUMMINGS: If I find whoever has my daughter before y`all do, I`m killing him. I don`t care. I`ll spend the rest of my life in prison, I`m telling you. You can put it on the report, and I don`t care.

911 OPERATOR: OK. It`s OK, sir. We`ve got them on the way. OK, can you give me any -- what kind of description of her pajamas that she was wearing?

CUMMINGS: I don`t (DELETED) know! I was at work!

911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, we`ve got them coming, OK?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: What`s her date of birth?

RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER: Y`all are (DELETED) playing games, man! I`m going to (DELETED) kill somebody!

911 OPERATOR: OK, tell him we understand. We need to get her date of birth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What`s her date of birth?

CUMMINGS: (DELETED) her birthday! We need to find her! (DELETED) her date of birth!

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: The officers are going to come out there and do what they can. We can`t have him screaming and yelling at the officers whenever they get there, OK?

CUMMINGS: Give me my (DELETED) phone! I got better people to talk to than a (DELETED) that ain`t coming!

(END AUDIO CLIP)

GRACE: That is the father, hysterical. His daughter is gone when he gets home from the night shift.

Out to the lines. To Adrena in West Virginia. Hi, dear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, I was wondering if, like, the abductor might watch them for, like, weeks, and got their, like, schedule (INAUDIBLE) What if he propped open the door and then, like, he knew that, like, the girl -- he knocked on the door and she might have thought it was her dad and, like, he -- she opened the door, and he, like, snatched her. He thought it would be quicker if he propped open the door.

GRACE: That`s an entirely possible scenario. I want to go back to Haleigh`s grandmother, Marie Griffis, tonight joining us along with the mother of little Haleigh, Crystal Sheffield.

Ms. Griffis, you were mentioning, who would take the time to prop open the door during a kidnapping. What do you mean by that?

GRIFFIS: It would take -- anybody that was going to take a child out of a house, it seems like they would want to get in and out as quick as possible. So who would want to take the time to prop open a door?

GRACE: And -- and...

GRIFFIS: They would want to open it and go through...

GRACE: And turn on the kitchen light.

GRIFFIS: And get the child and leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIS: It`s never safe to say that someone in the family or an associate of the family is not a suspect. However, all the world`s a suspect right now. We have not excluded the world because we`re focusing on a couple of family members or...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

911 DISPATCHER: OK, was your, was your back door locked, do you know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, the back door always stays locked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need somebody to get here now.

911 DISPATCHER: OK, let me to speak to him so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got home from work, my 5-year-old daughter is gone.

911 DISPATCHER: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need somebody to be here now. I`m telling you.

911 DISPATCHER: Listen to me, listen to me. We got two officers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I find whoever has my daughter before you all do I`m killing him. I don`t care. I`ll spend the rest of my life in prison.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m telling you. You can put it on recording, I don`t care.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. It`s OK, sir. We`ve got them on the way. OK? Can you give me any -- what kind of description of her pajamas that she was wearing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t (EXPLETIVE DELETED) know. I was at work.

911 DISPATCHER: OK, sir. We got them coming, OK?

What`s her date of birth?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all are (EXPLETIVE DELETED) playing games, man, I`m going to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) kill somebody.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. Tell him we understand. We need to get her date of birth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What`s her date of birth?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) we need to find her. What`s her date of birth?

911 DISPATCHER: Tell him we got them coming. He needs to try to calm down a little bit, OK? The officers are going to come out there and do what they. We can`t have him screaming and yelling at the officers whenever they get there, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Uh-huh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) phone. I got better people to talk to than a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) mother that ain`t coming.

911 DISPATCHER: 911, what`s your emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just woke up and our back door was open and we can`t find our daughter.

911 DISPATCHER: You can`t find what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our daughter.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. What`s your address?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Green Lane. (INAUDIBLE).

911 DISPATCHER: What`s the numerical?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Numerical, what`s that?

911 DISPATCHER: The number, Green Lane?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. When did you last see her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just like, you know, it was about 10:00, (INAUDIBLE), she was sleeping.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. How old is your daughter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s 5.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. What was she last seen wearing? Ma`am?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was in her pajamas. We were sleeping.

911 DISPATCHER: What, what does she look like? How tall is she? Give me some description on her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has like, like long hair, curly, like curls.

911 DISPATCHER: Long curled, what color?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s white.

911 DISPATCHER: OK, what color hair? She`s got brown hair?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Oh my god.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. How tall is she about? Or how much does she weigh, do you know that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huh?

911 DISPATCHER: About how tall or how much does she weigh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like four something like, I don`t know, like she`s not that tall.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. Tell your husband we got them coming, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

911 DISPATCHER: How much does she weigh, do you know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huh?

911 DISPATCHER: How much does she weigh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Um, like, 40, 50 pounds, 60 pounds.

911 DISPATCHER: Forty to sixty pounds?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello?

911 DISPATCHER: OK, sir, let me talk to you wife. Let me get some information from her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man. (INAUDIBLE)

911 DISPATCHER: OK. Can I talk to her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

911 DISPATCHER: OK, listen to me. I need you to answer some questions. Does the door look like it was pried open?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I guess.

911 DISPATCHER: Does it look like -- does it look like you had some sort of someone try to enter into your house?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold on.

911 DISPATCHER: And another thing, make sure you and your husband don`t touch the door anymore. Don`t mess with the door or anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it doesn`t.

911 DISPATCHER: It doesn`t look like it is?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. Now listen, tell your husband not touch anything, make sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

911 DISPATCHER: Because we`re going to try and get a canine out there, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. She said don`t touch anything because they are bringing a canine out here.

911 DISPATCHER: OK, listen to me. I`m getting this information. I`m not the officer driving out there, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

911 DISPATCHER: They`re coming out there to handle that situation. I need to gather all information from you over the phone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

911 DISPATCHER: It has nothing to do with me driving out there. The officers are taking care of that, OK? They`re coming out there, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

911 DISPATCHER: OK. I`m going t stay on the phone with you, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

911 DISPATCHER: Until they get there, OK? Tell him we got them coming. He needs to try to calm down a little bit, OK? The officers are going to come out there and do what they can. We can`t have him screaming and yelling at the officers whenever they get there, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: That`s enough to make me leave the anchor desk and run, not walk, run home to check on the twins. The father gets off of the night shift, his little girl, 5 years old, gone out of the bed where she was sleeping.

Joining me, Joy Purdy and Michelle Sigona there at the command center, Crystal Sheffield, Marie Griffis, the mother and grandmother of the little girl.

To Joy Purdy, who was the last person outside the family who saw her and when?

PURDY: Oh, goodness, outside the family we would have to imagine it was some of her schoolmates because it was early Tuesday morning that she disappeared and she does attend school here, but everyone has been focusing on the family because the father`s girlfriend was the last one to see her.

GRACE: Right. And her story is she was last seen around 10:00 with the girlfriend goes to bed, but who can verify the last time she was seen by somebody other than girlfriend, last seen alive? Was it that day when she got out of school at 3:00?

Did anybody else see her after 3 p.m., I guess, when she gets out of school? Do we have any idea? Did she go to school on Monday? I mean do we know that she went to school that day? What do we know, Joy?

PURDY: We don`t know about anything that happened that Monday. Everything has started from that Tuesday morning. You`re going have to ask the sheriff about that.

GRACE: Yes, and see.

PURDY: But we.

GRACE: Where I`m going with this is we have her word placing the girl alive and well at 10 p.m. I want to find out the last person to have seen her.

We are taking your calls live. To Sherry in Connecticut, hi, Sherry.

SHERRY, FROM CONNECTICUT: Hi, Nancy. How are you?

GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?

SHERRY: Good. I just want to start out by saying really quick that I just absolutely love you to death. I watch your show faithfully. I`m the mother of a 3-year-old and this really touches home.

My question is, real quick is, why is young Haleigh living with the father and not the mother? Does anybody know that? Is there some sort of family dispute going on?

GRACE: Well, I know that the two have been apart. With me is the mother.

How often, Crystal Sheffield, do you see her and why did she end up being with him?

CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, MOM OF MISSING 5-YR-OLD HALEIGH CUMMINGS: I see them every two weeks. I pick them up on Friday at 6:00 and return them on Sunday at 6:00.

When me and Ronald split up I had the children with me, and I didn`t have the heart to keep them from him, and I let him come get them and he was supposed to return them to me and he never did, and then he went to the courthouse and filed for temporary custody, and the first court date was sent out to an address in Jacksonville, and it was a bogus address.

I never lived there, so I missed that court date, and then when we went for the custody hearing, they just -- I feel like they just blew me off, but they said they gave him custody because it was the best interest for the children.

GRACE: Are you saying the court blew you off?

SHEFFIELD: I just felt like they was all on his side.

GRACE: Do you know if she was in school on Monday?

SHEFFIELD: I have no idea. I know she`s missed a bunch of days because he told me that if she -- I don`t remember what day it was, but he called and was talking -- I was supposed to pick them up and he said I didn`t want to take her out of school because if she missed any more school that they was going to put him in jail.

GRACE: Why was she missing so much school?

SHEFFIELD: I don`t know.

GRACE: Was she sick?

SHEFFIELD: She may have been, but honestly, I don`t know.

GRACE: Well, I`ll be right back. We`re taking your calls.

SHEFFIELD: She does get sick a lot.

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. As we go to break we ask for your prayers for Georgia friend of the show in the hospital, Jimmy Stokes.

Jimmy, please stay strong and get well.

And tonight, at your request, photos of the twins. They`ll be on the Web tonight. Here is John David in mommy`s closet. Lucy making mommy try on dress up shoes with her gym pants and Lucy trying them on herself. These are their pajamas. Yes, they just got these and they still don`t know how to go forward, just backwards.

There`s John David at music class. There`s his instructor Jess singing. Here they are playing on the floor. Oh, at Barnes & Noble, their favorite place in the world. Back in mommy`s closet with a flip-flop and a tennis shoe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEFFIELD: I just want whoever`s got her to bring her home. That`s all I want is my baby home.

RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER OF MISSING 5-YR-OLD HALEIGH CUMMINGS: I just want my daughter home safe. If you have my daughter and you`re watching this, drop her off somewhere safe, call 911, call the local authorities wherever you drop her off. Bring her back anonymous. Give her to someone else to bring back. However she`s back, we want her back safe. If you`ve done something with her, tell us where she`s at, if she`s OK. Something, we just -- I want my daughter back. That`s it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: To former NYPD detective, Michael Sapraicone -- Michael, I can understand confusion if two beds were in one bedroom, and she said we were all sleeping together and she was right beside me. I can understand if there were two beds like that. But according to the mother and grandmother one story was they were in another room, both the children were in another room.

MICHAEL SAPRAICONE, FMR. NYPD DETECTIVE PRESIDENT OF SQUAD SECURITY INC.: Well, I understand your point about the beds in the bedroom, Nancy. But I`m really more concerned over the door. There`s more issues with the door here. I mean.

GRACE: Explain.

SAPRAICONE: You have this -- husband, the boyfriend goes to work every night. He works until 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, so this girl closes this door and locks that door because she`s the caretaker there, for this 3-year-old and this 5-year-old. How does that just so happen to be open that evening? And how does a predator just happen to come to that one particular trailer and find that door open?

I mean is there any indication that somebody tried other doors in the trail park? No, we don`t have that. So he just happens to wander into this one trailer, open that door and sure enough there`s a 5-year-old girl he can take out of that bedroom. That doesn`t add up.

I`d like to look at the inner circle a little bit. And then I`d like to look at the nature under the friends. Something`s going on in that house. As you said before, we don`t know what happens to her after she gets home from school on Monday. We do know the father picked her up at school at 3:00 or 3:30 on Monday. But then we don`t know what happened? What`s the timeline from 3:00 until 10:00 that night when this girl Misty says she put her to bed at 8:00?

GRACE: You know, that`s an interesting point.

Michelle Sigona with "America`s Most Wanted," aren`t police saying that they`re taking the timeline back 30 days now?

SIGONA: Yes, police are definitely taking their time. They`re going back through the timeline. They also have closed off the entire mobile home, Nancy, at this time just in case they need to go back in and secure more evidence. They have collected that cinder block that was allegedly propped -- that propped up the door open and a few other things that have been sent to the crime lab in Jacksonville right now.

And they do have a forensic rush on those materials at this time and if they need to go back into the home to pull more things out at least they have it there readily accessible. So they are looking at a timeline. They are looking at people.

GRACE: Where is the family staying?

SIGONA: Right now -- evidently according to the dad as of just a couple of hours ago, he`s staying in a tent nearby. He described it to me as something, I guess, it`s just sort of a tent out in the open that he and the girlfriend are staying at and they`re not staying at the home.

GRACE: To the Dr. Zhongxue Hua, he`s the Union County, New Jersey medical examiner. Dr. Hua, thank you for being with us.

Dr. Hua, I want to talk to you about the cinder block that apparently had the backdoor propped open. What kind of forensic evidence can you get from a cement block?

DR. ZHONGXUE HUA, UNION CO., N.J. MEDICAL EXAMINER: The first thing is any fingerprints down there, is there any DNA down there? I mean lots of things can be tested and obviously have to be examined very carefully and don`t forget -- I mean one thing is use a cinder block to prop the door open, (INAUDIBLE), you have to touch the door to open the door. I mean there are lots of things you can look at at this point.

GRACE: I want to go back to the mother of little Haleigh and the maternal grandmother. Crystal Sheffield, Marie Griffis is joining us tonight.

Crystal, you have a problem with the door as well. What are your thoughts?

SHEFFIELD: Yes. I just -- it`s just -- if the door was locked like they said it was.

GRIFFIS: By Ronald.

SHEFFIELD: Ronald said he locked that door when he left for work and it`s supposedly high up enough to where Haleigh could not reach it, I just don`t understand how somebody just got in there and nothing was broke on the door.

GRACE: Was it a padlock or a.

SHEFFIELD: Someone had to have a key.

GRACE: A dead bolt or a padlock?

SHEFFIELD: A dead bolt. A dead bolt.

GRACE: To.

SHEFFIELD: It was a dead bolt.

GRACE: To Joy Purdy with WTLV, was there sign of forced entry?

PURDY: That`s another interesting story because we`re getting conflicting reports. We`ve heard, at first, that there was a sign of forced entry. The police here tell us there was no sign of forced entry. So they`re still interviewing, trying to figure out what exactly is going on here.

GRACE: Joy, have you looked at the door even at a distance?

PURDY: We did look at a door. You can`t see -- you do have quite a bit of access. You can go right up to the home even though there`s police crime tape against it.

GRACE: Right.

PURDY: You can see three sides of the home, but you can`t see the fourth side on the back.

GRACE: Got it.

PURDY: You can see a door. You can see a screen door.

GRACE: To.

PURDY: So we don`t know if that`s the actual door.

GRACE: Back to Crystal and Marie. Crystal, have you been in the home since you`ve been there on Monday?

SHEFFIELD: Yes, I have not. No, I have not.

GRACE: You have not? Marie, have you?

SHEFFIELD: No.

GRACE: Do you have any.

GRIFFIS: No, I haven`t been...

GRACE: Do you have any idea what kind of lock was on the backdoor?

GRIFFIS: No, we don`t. All we know is Ronald said there was a dead bolt on the backdoor on the inside that was up high enough that Haleigh couldn`t.

GRACE: OK.

GRIFFIS: . get to it and that he locked and secured that door before he went to work.

GRACE: Dead bolt. All right, back to the lawyers, Eleanor Dixon, Peter Odom, Gwen Lindsay-Jackson.

Eleanor, what do you make of it?

DIXON: Well, the door is important, but you know what else is important is the cell phone records, Nancy. Nobody has mentioned that. Did the mom call anyone that night? Did dad -- I mean the girlfriend, did the dad call anyone at night? Those could tell you a lot as well.

GRACE: What about it, Peter?

ODOM: Nancy, I think that the propped open door adds credence to Misty`s story. Anyone who is abducting this child would want to get out of the house quickly while carrying a child and they would want to prop open that door. So I`m falling on Misty`s side on -- that fact.

GRACE: And to Gwen Lindsay-Jackson, I know that there are inconsistencies right now with the girlfriend`s story. But you got to remember not far from this spot, almost the exact same scenario, Jesse Lunsford was taken out of the grandparent`s home. They were asleep feet away. She was taken out of her bed. Nobody heard a word.

LINDSAY-JACKSON: Yes, that`s certainly the case. But in here my gut feeling is we need to look a little more closely at this 17-year-old. I don`t like the fact that her statement apparently is changing. I sort of think that when she said originally that they were in the bed together, that`s what she said and that`s what we`re hearing, that she was under so much stress that she was making that excited utterance, and that`s what happened.

Now whether or not she left that child unattended after that husband or that boyfriend left and she`s afraid to tell the truth, that`s another story. We know that the child probably couldn`t have unlocked the door? Did she leave and then leave the house unsecure? Was there something else that happened in the home? Did somebody else come? Did she let somebody else into the house? Was there a fight? What happened?

I think they need to squeeze the 17-year-old, Nancy. I`m troubled with her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are offering opportunities to make free wide open statements, free-form statements. And we`re offering polygraphs to everybody, to give them the opportunity to eliminate themselves as suspects. All the world are suspects right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Now, last night when I spoke to the father, Ronald Cummings, he told me there was just a plastic lock on the door that it would not have been hard to break into.

To Danielle in Ohio, hi, Danielle.

DANIELLE, FROM OHIO: Hi, Nancy. First of all.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

DANIELLE: First of all, I want to tell you you`re great. Love the twins. I would like to know if the police are using any type of heat seeking technology on helicopters to search the woods.

GRACE: I believe they are using infrared. What about it, Joy Purdy?

PURDY: They definitely are. We`ve seen the helicopter from the floor.

GRACE: OK.

PURDY: . of Fisher Wildlife Commission all day. They have infrared on it.

GRACE: To Courtney in Colorado, hi, Courtney.

COURTNEY, FROM COLORADO: Hi, I just wanted to tell you that we love your show. We watch it all the time.

GRACE: Thank you.

COURTNEY: Well, the question on my mind is she`s 17 years old.

GRACE: Right.

COURTNEY: The dad is at work.

GRACE: Right.

COURTNEY: Isn`t it possible that she could have friends or, you know, someone else come over during that time and leave the door propped for them to come in and out without disturbing the kids while sleeping?

GRACE: OK. First of all, thank you for watching faithfully and for calling in.

What about that scenario, Michelle Sigona?

SIGONA: Here`s what we do know, Nancy. At this point, from what she has told investigators, no one else was in the home at the time. Whether that door was propped open after the father left for work at 4:00 p.m., he did not get home until 3:30 in the morning, it`s hard to tell. She did not -- the girlfriend did not go to bed until 10:00 at night. She alleged that the children went to bed around 8:00 p.m. at night. So did she have someone there between 10:00 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.? It`s possible but we`re not too sure.

GRACE: Well, we haven`t heard that scenario from any of the law enforcement.

Everyone, I want to give you a tip line, 386-329-0808. There`s $35,000 reward.

Let`s stop and remember, Army Private Jordan Thibeault, 22, South Jordan, Utah, killed Iraq on a second tour. Awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Loved airplanes, military history, math. Leaves behind parents John and Celeste, one sister.

Jordan Thibeault, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END