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Nancy Grace
Haleigh`s Baby-Sitter`s Father Arrested
Aired November 25, 2009 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAT LALAMA, GUEST HOST: Breaking news tonight in the case of a 5- year-old Florida girl reportedly snatched from her own bed in the middle of the night, little Haleigh Cummings vanishing without a trace. Major developments as we go to air, Baby-sitter Misty Croslin`s father arrested, Hank Croslin accused of doctor shopping to the tune of over 300 pills of the dangerous painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone from three different doctors.
And now authorities working the Haleigh investigation say they plan to question the elder Croslin about Haleigh`s disappearance. What does he know? Cops again reiterate former stepmom/baby-sitter Misty Croslin is not giving them the whole story, Misty now back home with the family after having a protective order against her own brother dropped last week. And now that the whole family is under one roof, will Misty finally reveal she knows about Haleigh`s disappearance?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MISTY CROSLIN, HALEIGH`S BABY-SITTER: When I went to sleep, she was there. And when I woke up, she was gone!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news in the case of 5-year-old Florida girl Haleigh Cummings, vanishing from her own home in the middle of the night. Investigators working the Haleigh case say they plan to question Misty Croslin`s father, Hank Croslin, about the toddler`s disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To me, it`s a very dysfunctional family, and that`s the best way I can describe that.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: We save jail beds for child molesters, murderers, rapists, arsonists, drug lords. Is this a police attempt to get the truth?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hank Croslin is currently behind bars after being arrested Tuesday, charged with fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs. Investigators allege Hank Croslin received over 300 pills of narcotics from three different doctors.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is such a travesty and such a circus that I`m waiting for the acrobats to come in. It`s one ridiculous story on top of another. It`s all very ludicrous. And what about Haleigh? Isn`t she supposed to be the focus?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops maintain baby-sitter Misty Croslin has not been consistent in her story and knows more than she`ll telling them. Croslin recently moved back home with her family after having a protective order against her brother dropped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think what we`re dealing with here are some pretty shallow people who don`t really think much before they speak and they pretty much blurt out anything that comes to mind. They are focused on each other. Nobody seems to be focused on the little girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LALAMA: Good evening. I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. Baby- sitter Misty Croslin`s father, Hank Croslin, accused of doctor shopping, allegedly receiving over 300 pills of oxycodone and hydrocodone from three different doctors. Authorities working the Haleigh investigation say now they plan to question Hank Croslin about Haleigh`s disappearance. What does he know?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would love to have a break in this case and we really would not care who it implicates.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New details emerge in the case of 5-year-old Florida girl Haleigh Cummings. Misty`s dad arrested, Hank Croslin, Sr., arrested Tuesday, accused of doctor shopping for dangerous narcotics, allegedly over 300 pills from three different doctors. Now investigators working the Haleigh case say they will question Hank Croslin about the night Haleigh went missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If this family is willing to betray each other over something like getting a "get out of jail free" card, what does that say about her and who she`s willing to betray? Is she betraying Ron? Is she betraying Haleigh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say his daughter, Misty Croslin, the last person to see Haleigh alive, is not telling them everything she knows and is holding something back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If this girl keeps doing what she`s doing, it`s only a question of time before she`s charged with something having to do with this kid`s disappearance. She just repeatedly, repeatedly contradicts herself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Croslin moved back in with her parents just last week after an order of protection against her brother, Tommy Croslin, was dropped at her request.
GRACE: Ronald Cummings, did it ever disturb you that Misty Croslin`s story actually changed?
RONALD CUMMINGS, HALEIGH`S FATHER: Yes, ma`am, it did.
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, HALEIGH`S MOTHER: She`s the last one to see our daughter, and her stories just don`t add up. Everything she says is crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LALAMA: Yet another Croslin family member in trouble -- pills, pills and -- Art Harris, investigative journalist, Artharris.com -- more pills.
ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Pat, I`ll tell you, this is the latest in a very dysfunctional family. And it shows that the police are no longer keeping their strategy close to the vest. They`re not just targeting Misty but her whole family. And if they can keep them in jail long enough, they`re hoping that somebody will point something out against the other.
LALAMA: Marlaina Schiavo, NANCY GRACE producer, we do know the strategy may have worked once before. Tell us how and why.
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, that`s right, Pat. A while ago, Tommy Croslin, Jr., Misty`s brother, was arrested. And during that time, they set a really high bond for him and they started to interrogate him. And then he gave new information about the case. He told police that he went to the house the night Haleigh went missing, and he started banging on the door and no one answered. That was another hole in Misty`s story at that point, something we had never heard before in this investigation.
LALAMA: But Marlaina, hang on. Why did he wait so long to tell cops something so obviously pertinent?
SCHIAVO: I know! And you know, and -- you know, people have questioned his motives. Even Misty questioned his motives, saying, you know, he just wanted to lower his bond. And his bond was, in fact, lowered. However, some of the things he said that night sort of corroborated with some other things that they knew about phone calls that were made to him from Ronald. And he says as a result of those phone calls, that`s why he went to the house. So you know, they definitely took it into consideration, and you know, so they`re just looking to see if they can get another nugget of information like that.
LALAMA: All right, very quickly, back to today`s discovery. Doctor Zhongxue Hua, medical doctor, Union County, New Jersey, medical examiner -- how serious is this drug issue, these kind of pills?
DR. ZHONGXUE HUA, MEDICAL EXAMINER, UNION COUNTY, NJ: (INAUDIBLE) commonly referred to a class of drug as narcotics. The lay term is painkiller. It`s mainly used for people with cancer, people with just after surgery, for short-time uses, purposes only. And unfortunate it`s being commonly abused because addictive nature of the medication and also because highly profitable in the street market. I mean, a pill can sell for $20, $25.
LALAMA: Whoa. Ellie Jostad, NANCY GRACE producer, give me a brief synopsis of the family -- let`s just put it this way. This is the poster family for domestic dysfunction. We`ve got a lot of criminality going on here. Brief description of who and what.
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, in addition to her father being arrested, as we explained, her brother, Tommy, also arrested just a week ago for a domestic incident. He apparently got into a fistfight with his father. Now, shortly before that, this same brother, Tommy Croslin, was arrested for drug possession. He was found asleep in his car. When they searched his car, they found drugs. And prior to that, he was arrested for the theft of a handgun from a neighbor. Now, Misty Croslin`s mother also arrested, also for stealing from that same neighbor. She allegedly stole checks from that neighbor, wrote them to herself and cashed them.
LALAMA: Sheryl McCollum, crime analyst, director of cold case squad, Pine Lake, PD -- you know, I`m not convinced the cops are making up these allegations. They people get in trouble.
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: Yes, they`re not making up anything. This guy has been arrested because he`s a drug addict. And what the police are going to be looking for is whether or not he`s fixing to suffer from withdrawals or what`s fixing to happen to him while he`s in jail, and then they`re going to go after him and find out what he knows.
LALAMA: Doug Burns, defense attorney, you would argue they`re piling on, I bet.
DOUG BURNS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, yes and no. I mean, I can`t really argue in good faith, Pat, that, you know, they`re just going out and arresting people to create leverage. But what I would argue is that it`s a separate crime. It`s got nothing to do with the disappearance, and they shouldn`t question him about it, basically.
LALAMA: But Hugo Rodriguez, defense attorney, former FBI agent, this is a serious environment this child lived in.
HUGO RODRIGUEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s a serious environment. We -- my question is, is he going to be -- is he distributing the pills or is he consuming the pills? If he`s an addict, as someone has said, then it`s not as serious as you may think and it`ll be disposed of probably in a drug court, unless he has some significant priors. If he`s distributing, in the state of Florida, there`s a minimum mandatory sentence and he`ll do jail time possibly.
LALAMA: Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, author, "Deal Breakers," just looking at this little girl and looking at the people surrounding her -- you know, don`t want to make judgments, but it had to be a tough life for a 5-year-old.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Oh, it had to be. There`s so much neglect. The drug abuse is rampant in this family. Remember, Misty recently called 911 because she was roughed up while she was trying to procure drugs. And I think this family`s -- their raison d`etre is using drugs. Their whole life is organized around Oxycontin, around -- around chasing that next high. And when the high -- the cheap, temporary high of drug abuse -- is that important, you don`t care about the law. You don`t care about going to school. You don`t care about the third generation when you`re the grandparents. You don`t care about your grandchildren and what happens to a child when that child is interfering with your high.
LALAMA: You know, you brought up that 911 call. I`m hoping -- and I`m going to hear in my ear we have time to hear it. This is Misty calling 911 when she was accosted.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: I need you to stay on the phone with me, OK?
CROSLIN: Oh, my God! My leg and my arm hurt so bad!
911 OPERATOR: Do you need an ambulance?
CROSLIN: Yes, I think so. Oh, my God! (INAUDIBLE) My purse is ripped (INAUDIBLE) I can`t move it. I can`t move it.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Stay on the phone with me, OK?
CROSLIN: (INAUDIBLE) OK. Oh, my God!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
LALAMA: Art Harris, was that 911 event after the disappearance of Misty -- excuse me, of Haleigh?
HARRIS: It sure was. That was several weeks ago, Pat, when she was with two other young women and they were cruising a very bad neighborhood. One went in purportedly to find a dealer and came back with a couple of guys who roughed up Misty and yanked her purse. And she was very, very distraught. She was hurt. She went to the hospital and was treated for minor injuries and released. But you can hear the tone, the actual -- the anguish in her voice, which some have said is far more genuine than the 911 call on the night that she reported Haleigh missing.
LALAMA: And Ellie Jostad, NANCY GRACE producer, there are a couple of other 911s. Clearly, the night the child went missing is one of them, but then there`s a third relative to her, correct?
JOSTAD: I`m not sure which one you`re talking about. Are you talking about the...
LALAMA: The road rage incident?
JOSTAD: Oh, yes, of course! There`s the road rage incident. She is with a friend of hers. They are in the Orlando area. A woman claimed -- she called 911 claiming that Misty and this friend driving her car were menacing her, waving at her. She thought they had a gun. Turned out they didn`t, but she called 911 to report it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: She didn`t make no noise that night. I would have woke up if I heard any noise. I didn`t hear anything at all. I mean, I was really exhausted that day, you know, really exhausted. And when I lay down, I guess, you know, I just was out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
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!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: At 3:00 o`clock in the morning, I got up. And 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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right beside me on my left is the bed where Misty Croslin was sleeping. And here on the right, we have the bed where little Haleigh was sleeping. And you can see it is all but about three- and-a-half feet from each other. And this is right where Misty said she got up and she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to leave the investigative part of this to law enforcement because, you know, if I go with every whim and every accusation, then I`m going to be flipping back and forth in my life. And you know, what we stand -- you know, we`re just standing for Haleigh here. We just want Haleigh to come home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, let me talk to your wife. Let me get some information from her.
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Can I talk to her?
CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK.
CUMMINGS: How the (DELETED) can you let my daughter get stole (DELETED)!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. And again, our latest development today is that the father of Misty arrested on drug charges.
I want to go to our patiently waiting callers, starting with Linda in Texas. Good evening, Linda.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good evening. How are you?
LALAMA: Well, thank you. Your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. I`ve got a question. Cops are able to arrest every character that are in this picture, but they can`t find Haleigh. I mean, Misty does not score high on the IQ list, I assume, and nor do the people surrounding Haleigh. I mean, it`s...
LALAMA: Good question. And Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation, it`s so heartbreaking. We`ve got every kind of arrest except for getting this little girl back home.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION (via telephone): Yes, that`s absolutely true, Pat. It is heartbreaking. I think what -- just to extend on something that Dr. Marshall was mentioning -- you know, the Shaniya Davis case has demonstrated to us the extremes that chronic drug users will go to chase that next high. And we`ve seen in this case that almost everybody associated with it, not just Misty`s family but their friends, their neighbors, their associates, are, in fact, chronic drug users.
LALAMA: Right. And you know what...
KLAAS: And you know, they become stripped of their own moral bearing and they are willing to go to extremes to achieve instant self- gratification. And it wouldn`t surprise me at all if this case did find itself in the realm of human trafficking.
LALAMA: Very interesting. And you know, I think it`s really important for us to, you know, restate the case. And I`m going to allow Marlaina to kind of give a brief synopsis of what allegedly went down, according to Misty, that night.
SCHIAVO: According to Misty, Pat, the night before Haleigh went missing, Misty allegedly put her down for bed at 10:00 PM. Ronald was at work. Misty claims that she was in the big bed with Junior, Ronald`s son. And she said she got up at around 3:00 AM and she was going to go to the bathroom, but she noticed the kitchen light was on, so she went to go investigate. Then she comes back, she noticed Haleigh was gone. She said she started turning over the entire trailer. She was looking under beds. As you can see, there are -- there`s nothing to look under because the beds are on the floor. But anyway, she also said that she was looking around. Finally, Ronald comes home about 25 minutes later, and that`s when she calls 911.
LALAMA: OK, now, Art Harris, investigative journalist, she waits a half hour. Police say she`s inconsistent in what she has to say. Quickly, what are those inconsistencies?
HARRIS: Well, she keeps changing aspects of her story, Pat, from what the kids were watching in the way of movies, where the movie changer was. Could Misty -- could -- you know, could Haleigh have changed it herself by climbing high up on this dresser, which would have been impossible. There are -- there are a number of -- did she wash, you know, a blanket that she said Haleigh had possibly soiled?
There are a number of questions here, including a letter that later surfaced from her good friend, a party pal she was with the weekend before she went missing, that raised the question that she went to a party with Haleigh and she accidentally overdosed on Oxycontin, and her body was tossed by someone else into the pond. This has not been corroborated. There`s no evidence of this, other than a letter by this party pal, who has since moved in with Misty and her family.
LALAMA: Oh!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROSLIN: They`ve been on me for six months. They haven`t left me alone for six months. I`ve been the one, the main focus. They just need to move on and look for the right person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: What is her story about what happened that night?
CUMMINGS: She went to bed -- she put Haleigh to bed, done some laundry and went to bed, and woke up to the door propped open.
CROSLIN: There was a brick, like, a cinderblock that was holding the screen door open. And that brick -- that door, that screen door is always closed, you know? That brick -- I`ve never seen the brick even around there. The cops said there was a whole bunch of bricks about 50 feet away, but I`ve never seen any bricks at all.
CUMMINGS: All I want is my daughter. It doesn`t matter. It doesn`t matter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you suspect she did anything?
CUMMINGS: I don`t have any suspicions of anybody. Anybody could have done anything. I don`t know what`s what.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. And I`m wondering, Sheryl McCollum, if this is an environment of heavy drug use and we know possibly that Misty was out partying for three days the weekend prior, she could have been in a coma and somebody could have snatched the kid.
MCCOLLUM: Oh, absolutely no question, and I think that`s one thing the police are looking at. And listen, the greatest investigative tool they`ve got right now is Tom. They don`t need to get in a hurry. At some point, a member of this family is going to want to help themselves.
LALAMA: Doug Burns, defense attorney, what -- this young woman, Misty, has apparently flunked all kinds of polygraph tests. Doesn`t mean anything, I understand, legally.
BURNS: Right.
LALAMA: But you know, what are you going to do with this, if this is your client?
BURNS: It`s tough because inconsistent statements lead to the conclusion that, you know, the person`s hiding something and has the intent. But I mean, another related point, which you started to touch on, and you`re right, is, you know, everybody`s criticizing her for inconsistencies, but the fact of the matter is, if she has these objective drug problems, she doesn`t remember half the time of what happened, and that could be a more innocent explanation for it.
LALAMA: And Hugo Rodriguez, your position? If this were your client -- you know, here`s a 17-year-old girl...
RODRIGUEZ: I`d tell her to keep her mouth shut!
LALAMA: Well, yes, but I mean, what`s amazing to me is that there`s all these arrests, and she was the last person with the child, and you know, cops call her key, they can`t call her a suspect. And if you`re an attorney, you`d be happy about that.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, whether she`s a suspect, a target, a point of interest or whatever, she`s the last person to see Haleigh. There`s obvious -- she`s the focus of the investigation. But as her lawyer, if I was representing her, she`d need to keep her mouth shut.
LALAMA: All right, I`ve got a short amount of time. I want to go to Joanne in Pennsylvania. Very quickly, you got to give me that question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Pat.
LALAMA: Hi. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is -- I`ve been watching this from the beginning. When you first see Misty, she`s wearing a red high school sports coat. Then when she goes and starts going all these interviews, all of a sudden, at the airport, I believe it was, she had a gorgeous coat, dressed gorgeous, her nails all done, beautiful make-up. Is she getting paid? I mean, I know she loves the attention, but is she also getting paid for the interviews?
LALAMA: We`ll answer when we come back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUMMINGS: And I hope that they -- they find my child alive, obviously, but one way or another, I want my daughter to come home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER OF 5-YR-OLD HALEIGH CUMMINGS: I pulled into the yard, the front door was wide open. She was standing in it. I asked her what she was doing up. She told me that the back door was wide open and Haleigh was gone. I turned the house upside down, told her to call 911.
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, SPENT TIME WITH MISSING HALEIGH`S FAMILY: Let me show you the back door and show you how both doors close automatically. So -- and I`m also going to show you the lock because the lock is about three feet from the floor. And we know that that`s about as tall as Haleigh stands.
MISTY CROSLIN-CUMMINGS, RONALD CUMMING`S WIFE, LAST SEEN HALEIGH: I did take a polygraph.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you passed it?
M. CUMMINGS: I mean, my understanding is I passed it.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: What is her story about what happened that night?
R. CUMMINGS: The same thing she`s telling police or whoever that she went to bed. She put Haleigh to bed, done some laundry, went to bed and woke up to the door propped open.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said your back door was wide open?
M. CUMMINGS: Yes, there was a brick. Like there`s a brick on the floor. When I went asleep it was not like that.
GRACE: Why are you so sure Haleigh is still with us?
TERESA NEVES, GRANDMOTHER OF 5-YR-OLD, HALEIGH CUMMINGS: Because I stand on God`s promise that if you pray and believe that he will give you what you pray for.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They keep saying that you failed. Do you want people to know something about that?
M. CUMMINGS: They are going to know. They are going to know. I just got to wait until my lawyer is ready.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: OK.
M. CUMMINGS: And they -- that weekend was a lie.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: OK. I mean, would you -- so are you saying that you didn`t fail the polygraph like people and law enforcement are kind of claiming that you did?
M. CUMMINGS: No, I did not.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: OK. So bottom line, you don`t know where Haleigh is?
M. CUMMINGS: Bottom line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAT LALAMA, GUEST HOST: I`m Pat Lalama in for Nancy Grace.
Joan from Pennsylvania was asking prior to the break about all the nice clothes and the hair and the makeup and the nails and the whole thing, Art Harris, what about that?
ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, ARTHARRIS.COM, INTERVIEWED MISTY CROSLIN, HALEIGH`S NEW STEPMOM: Pat, I can tell you that this surfaced when Misty was taken from town -- to get out of town because Tim Miller of Texas EquuSearch was afraid that because Ronald had appeared to be very angry and possibly violent that the only source of information for what happened might disappear if they didn`t get Misty out of town.
He assigned a volunteer, Donna Brock, to take her to Orlando. They spent several days together. She had her hair done, her nails done. And was really pampered. I`ll call Donna her under cover momma. The idea was to have her get close to Misty and see if in this environment she might reveal something. She hadn`t at that point.
Remember she had, quote, "flunked" this polygraph that Tim Miller had set up. A voice stress analysis. Although she maintained she did not, this was something that even the police knew about and -- that they were, if not hopeful, open to hearing about. So.
LALAMA: OK. To Ellei Jostad, let me ask you. Who`s been cleared? I know there`s no real suspect. But cops have kind of sifted through the people they don`t think are involved at all.
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Well, right. I mean, police haven`t come out and said anybody is 100 percent clear, although they did say -- and you know, police have been very quiet for the most part during this entire investigation.
So when they do make a press release, it has a lot of impact. And one thing that they said on Haleigh`s birthday was that they believe that the biological parents, Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield, are not considered to be suspects.
But then they went on to say that they believe that Misty Cummings or Misty Croslin is the person who still has information that could be relevant.
LALAMA: OK. Now I think it`s really important that we talk about this case and where it stands right now. And so, Marlaina, just give us a brief synopsis where are the cops with this case, as we speak.
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Right now, they are still following up on 4,000 leads. They are not saying at all that they think Haleigh is dead. They are saying they are still looking for a live Haleigh with obviously the possibility that she might be dead.
And again, they are focusing on Misty because they still think that she holds the key to this investigation.
LALAMA: Dr. Hua, a lot of months. You know what -- I don`t want to think about her being deceased, but if she is, from an evidence standpoint, is that going to be compromised?
DR. ZHONGXUE HUA, UNION COUNTY, NJ, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Depends. If any bruises on his skin, on his muscles certainly would not be there for evaluation. If he had -- if she had a broken bone, the bone -- I mean the broken portion bone should be still there for evaluation.
LALAMA: OK. Now, Bethany Marshall, you know, just from a psychological standpoint, the person who somebody knows, somebody knows, what happened to the child. What is going through their brain right now? Or are they just so sociopathic they just go, got no guilt, got nothing to say?
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, what probably is happening is that the bigger the story gets the more frightened they are of becoming implicated because let`s say they were at a party last night. Let`s say they did know what happened and they didn`t come forward.
That would be a very frightening situation. But Pat, I`m very concerned about the fact that Hank Jr. was recently discovered by police passed out in his car with drugs in the car, and he had just dropped his little boy off at the school bus.
LALAMA: Well, you know.
MARSHALL: And tells me -- yes?
LALAMA: Well, I.
MARSHALL: In this family, it`s acceptable to have drugs around children, which in my mind increases the likelihood that perhaps Haleigh was subjected to drugs and the likelihood that she could have ingested some herself.
LALAMA: Well, you know what, though, Doug Burns, defense attorney, he`s the uncle and yes, he had dropped his child off at the bus stop and then, boom, he`s over the steering wheel and he gets arrested. I mean, it`s pathetic, but, you know, you can`t -- one doesn`t mean it leads you to number two, correct?
DOUG BURNS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, but working off Dr. Marshall`s point, I mean, the fact of the matter is it could be some just horrible tragic situation. They`re all at a party, they`re partying, passing out, et cetera. And something untoward happens, which is different, obviously, than an intentional killing, is the point.
And then the other thing, not to be a broken record is is that I would not be surprised at all if Misty was in such a state during the relevant time where she simply just has no idea, no recollection, like a black out pass out.
LALAMA: My heavens. Unbelievable to think of. Let`s see, who do we have for caller? How about Cathy in Pennsylvania, are you with us? Excuse me, Tina, Illinois first. Tina, Illinois.
TINA, CALLER FROM ILLINOIS: Yes. My question is, how come her family has got to be arrested before they want to offer any kind of information about this little girl?
LALAMA: Well, Hugo Rodriguez, defense attorney, it`s the whole strategy, correct?
HUGO RODRIGUEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FMR. FBI AGENT: That`s true. There has to be some leverage. They have to force them in essence. They have to have a position of an upper hand to leverage them into doing this. We see when the brother was arrested before in order to get bond, he provided some information. Whether it was valid or not, they had then allowed him to go out on bond.
We have to look at the case now of the father and see exactly where he`s at. He`s going to be lawyered up and he`s going to make some decisions as what`s in his best interest. But this is not unusual at all. At all. They need the break in this case. And the break will come with somebody talking to them. They need to make it happen.
LALAMA: Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids, I don`t like to ask this question, but what are the chances this beautiful little child is somewhere alive?
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION (via phone): I think the chances are 50/50. I mean, my goodness, we have seen more and more children that have been recovered, Jaycee Dugard after 18 years, Elizabeth Smart after nine months, Sean Hornbeck after four years.
So you always have to keep hope alive. You can never resign yourself in defeat because basically what happens then is the investigation halts. If they don`t think that they`re looking for a living little girl, I don`t think anybody is going to have the motivation to continue looking and to keeping this as high profile as it is now.
So I would encourage everybody to keep in mind all of these other cases and understand that the possibility of her being alive are good and until it`s proven one way or the other, hope has to remain alive.
LALAMA: Art Harris, where does the search issue stand at this point?
HARRIS: Well, I don`t know of any active searches. But I can tell you the kind of pressure they are putting on this family. I spoke with Lindsay Croslin, Tommy`s wife today. She said when the agent came to arrest her father-in-law, the female agent pulled her aside afterwards and said, Lindsay, we are not going away.
We`re going to keep arresting people. And once we`ve finished putting everybody in jail, we`re then going to take the children. This comes out of this Hank or this Tommy, you know, arrest from falling asleep at the -- you know, at the bus stop.
The local child welfare workers are now investigating him for that possible child endangerment. So they have a bit of leverage here, Pat, and they are going to keep using it until they get what they think people know.
LALAMA: Doug Burns, I have a feeling that you don`t like some sort of an agent taking people aside saying we`re going to go after you and everybody in your family and then we`re going to take your kids.
BURNS: Well, of course not. I mean -- but again a good defense lawyer is going to stress to the client that these are unrelated charges. They are not related to the disappearance.
LALAMA: But they`re legitimate.
BURNS: Right.
LALAMA: They`re legitimate.
BURNS: Oh, yes. Right. But they can`t force them to speak.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Is there any possibility that she left the home that evening and hasn`t told you?
R. CUMMINGS: If there is a possibility of it, I don`t know anything about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK, sir, let me talk to you wife. Let me get some information from her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man. (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. Can I talk to her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) can you let my daughter get stole, bitch.
Somebody stole my child out of my bed. I come home from work and my child was not there.
M. CUMMINGS: I put her to bed and -- about 8:00 and I woke up and she was gone. The back door was wide open.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you believe that Misty was home and that she`s been telling the truth?
R. CUMMINGS: Yes, I believe she`s telling the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we need is for Misty to come down here and tell us the truth.
M. CUMMINGS: I didn`t hear anything at all. I mean I was really exhausted that day, you know? I`m really exhausted. And when I laid, I guess, you know, I just -- I was out.
NEVES: I was told, you know, that she went to bed at 10:00. Being that exhausted, I think that maybe you could sleep through somebody banging on the door.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: 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?
M. CUMMINGS: OK.
R. CUMMINGS: Give me the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) phone. I`ve got better people to talk than a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LALAMA: Sheryl McCollum, I would have thought somebody would have cracked by now on this case.
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST, DIR. OF COLD CASE SQUAD AT PINE LAKE P.D.: Absolutely. But again, you got to keep in mind, Pat. These people, for their entire lives, have covered things up and they`ve lied for each other and lied to protect themselves.
They do not trust anybody. So it`s going to be harder to crack them than it might be somebody that grew up in a home of full of trust, love and compassion.
LALAMA: But Bethany Marshall, you know, when you`re talking about, you know, the drug addiction, the criminality and, you know, the law is not for us, necessarily, it just seems eventually somebody is going to have to slip through the cracks.
MARSHALL: It`s so true. And you know families do have legacies. Some have drug legacies, some have suicide legacies, some have mental illness legacies. And when there`s a severe dysfunctional legacy, by the time you get to the third generation, either family members begin to die or to succumb to mental illness. Or finally someone has to be resilient enough to break the cycle.
And who is that person going to be in this family? I know that Hank`s wife, Hank Jr.`s wife is a nurse and putting herself through school. So maybe she can be the one who`s resilient enough to break the cycle so that more children don`t slip through the cracks.
LALAMA: Oh my goodness. Ellie Jostad, let`s talk about that night. You know we`re talking about whether Misty was home or Misty wasn`t home, or Misty was in a stupor. Is there evidence -- did anybody see foot traffic on in and out of that trailer that night? Some neighbor might have seen someone come over.
JOSTAD: Well, we don`t know of anything like that at this point. And police have said that Misty`s account does not match physical evidence that they found in the case. However, they.
LALAMA: How so?
JOSTAD: They haven`t revealed what that physical evidence might be.
LALAMA: There you go. OK.
JOSTAD: Yes.
LALAMA: All right, and Marlaina, you know, what about the jailhouse letter? I know Art had mentioned it earlier. But how significant was that in terms of a lead?
SCHIAVO: It was significant enough to have authorities questioned the person who wrote the letter and look into the story that was written in the letter about some sort of party and some drugs that Misty might have been involved with. But since that letter surfaced, nothing has come of it so.
LALAMA: But, Art Harris, certainly the cops would have gone and found out what party happened and who was there and questioned every one of those people.
HARRIS: They have. And Pat, they talked to people thinking at some point they found the party, they found the witnesses. And then it turns out that the memory isn`t right. As one detective told me, Pat, this is like interviewing a rock. People do not remember.
There`s so much drugs in this community that if they find someone who can testify, how will they hold up on the stand? Big problem.
LALAMA: We`ve got some other callers I want to get to. Kathy in Pennsylvania, good evening, and your question, please.
KATHY, CALLER FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Yes, doesn`t anyone find it odd that Misty just happened to wake up 20 minutes before Ron came home to find Haleigh missing?
LALAMA: Well, you know, Doug Burns, the issue is that she woke up to go to the bathroom and searched and searched, quote, "under the bed" even though there is no bed., there are mattresses, that`s a little dubious. How would you defend that?
BURNS: The caller makes a very, very good point because those are the little, tiny type of clues that you try to piece together. You know she`s tried to cover it. The reality is, as a defense lawyer in this case, basically, you separate out law and morals. From a criminal law standpoint, there`s no evidence that she did anything wrong other than nervously panicking and perhaps not recounting it correctly, which you follow up with having to front and admit her drug problems and say she simply does not remember what happened.
LALAMA: Hugo Rodriguez, a half hour it takes you to call 911? Come on.
RODRIGUEZ: You know, when you piece all - when you put all the pieces together, there`s quite a bit of circumstances there and circumstantial evidence. But it isn`t sufficient to charge her with anything dealing with this girl`s disappearance at this time.
LALAMA: But can you come up with any reason why a person would say, I think I`ll just wait a half hour until daddy comes home then I`ll call the cops?
RODRIGUEZ: Take into consideration the mentality and the background of these people, nothing surprises me.
LALAMA: Art Harris, what are the new leads? Any?
HARRIS: Well, not really, Pat. But I can tell you that that night -- you know, this is a 17-year-old girl with no real world experience. So, you know, she`s looking -- you know, assuming her story is true, she`s looking around the trailer. She`s freaked but gosh, the father is going to come home. She better find Haleigh. She goes outside. She looks around.
What did she do? I mean she`s obviously in a panic. I know she called her mother. I interviewed her mother. But this is a very, very dysfunctional family with very little education and you have to factor that in that their reactions are not the perfect reactions that we think people should have.
LALAMA: Ellie, very quickly, are cops tailing Misty?
JOSTAD: Not that we know of. But again, they`ve kept everything very quiet in this investigation. We don`t know exactly what they are doing or what people they may be surveilling.
LALAMA: And where is she right now, Misty?
JOSTAD: She is back in the house with her parents. She did have a restraining order against her brother or protective order. She had dropped a few days ago so she was able to move back into her parents` house.
LALAMA: All right. From a very, very sad story, let`s switch to something beautiful. Tonight`s "CNN Heroes."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Heroes.
CAMERON DIAZ, ACTRESS: Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to present this CNN Hero, Marie Da Silva.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Since becoming a CNN Hero last year, life for Marie Da Silva and her Jacaranda Foundation has changed completely. Thanks to nearly $100,000 in donations from CNN viewers, Da Silva was able to leave her job as a nanny and devote herself full time to her foundation which AIDS orphans in Malawi.
(On camera): How`s life at the school changed?
MARIE DA SILVA, JACARANDA FOUNDATION: A school has been built. Actually we built this school within six months after CNN nominated me as a hero.
COOPER (voice-over): Today the Jacaranda school has 320 students. Da Silva has been able to hire certified teachers, purchase textbooks, desks, blackboards, even toilets for her school.
(On camera): I understand you have had the first-class graduate from your school?
DA SILVA: Exactly.
COOPER: That must have been incredible.
DA SILVA: For six years we didn`t have the materials and the means. Sixteen children took the exams and seven passed.
COOPER (voice-over): All seven graduates are continuing on to college with their tuitions donated by CNN viewers.
DA SILVA: Until, you know, CNN happened I was scrounging for anything I could do to keep the school alive.
COOPER: Now it`s not only alive but thriving with more than 500,000 AIDS orphans in Malawi, Da Silva welcomes the opportunity to continue making a difference.
DA SILVA: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
R. CUMMINGS: Keep Haleigh`s face out there. And if you have any information leading to her disappearance to call it in. It don`t matter who it hurts. And I want to let everyone know that I am not hiding anything for anybody. Let`s bring Haleigh home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. Now as you know the breaking news today is that Misty`s father is in some trouble on the oxycodone, hydrocodone.
Hugo Rodriguez, how serious is that?
RODRIGUEZ: It could be very serious. We don`t know if he`s just consumer, he`s an addict or if he`s dispensing and selling. If he`s dispensing and selling it could be additional charges with a possible minimum mandatory sentence.
LALAMA: OK. Is that enough to make him talk if he knows anything?
RODRIGUEZ: It depends on the quality of the information because he could be looking at a minimum mandatory sentence of jail. Yes.
LALAMA: Sheryl McCollum, do you believe in your heart that somebody in this family knows what happened?
MCCOLLUM: I know absolutely they do. And I`ll tell you something else, I feel the exact opposite about why he`s going to talk. He`s going to talk because he is an addict and he is going to get so sick, he wants out, so he can get that next hit.
LALAMA: Wow.
MCCOLLUM: So he is going to give them information so that he can get out and continue his addiction.
LALAMA: Dr. Hua, very quickly, if he`s a severe addict and he needs that pill he might be influenced, correct?
HUA: He would be under the severe drug intoxication, under influence, I mean, whatever, his statement, how accurate, how much you can evaluate his statement is really into question.
LALAMA: Now, Haleigh had a syndrome called Turner`s syndrome, Dr. Hua, very quickly, what is that?
HUA: It`s -- simply stated, a genetic disease and people have this disease do have a tendency to have normal IQ, but very short stature and has a unique facial feature and the neck area has a unique feature.
LALAMA: Bless that little child. Ellie Jostad, very quickly, people need to stay alive and alert on this case.
JOSTAD: Right.
LALAMA: What can they do if they`ve got information?
JOSTAD: Well, the Putnam County Sheriff`s Office has set up a special e-mail so that they can get those tips quickly and process them. It`s haleigh@putnamsheriff.org. So if anyone knows anyone they`re asking send them an e-mail at that address.
LALAMA: Yes, it`s never too late, right, Elle?
JOSTAD: That`s right.
LALAMA: OK. Well, you know what, let`s hope against hope this little beautiful child will come home to some loving, healthy arms.
Tonight, let`s stop to remember Army Major Michael Mundell, 47, Brandenburg, Kentucky, killed in Iraq. Always dreamed of driving tanks. And after college was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Army. He had a voracious appetite for civil war history.
Remembered as a generous man, loving father, wonderful husband and loyal friend. Leaves behind wife Audrey and his children, Erica, Ryan, Zach, and Dale.
Michael Mundell, an American hero.
Thank you for all of our guests, our biggest thank you to you for being with us inviting us into your homes.
Nancy, thanks for the opportunity.
See you tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m. sharp. Have a wonderful and very safe Thanksgiving.
END
