Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods

MISSING: 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings

'Picked the lock'

Haleigh Cummings (left) and her younger brother Ronald Jr.
Haleigh Cummings (left) and her younger
brother Ronald Jr.

Misty Croslin told the deputies she put Haleigh and Ronald Jr. to bed around 8:00, and that she went to bed about 10:30, in the same bed as both children. Croslin said she got up at 3:00 a.m. to get a glass of water. She said as soon as she got up, she noticed Haleigh was not in bed with her anymore, although 4-year-old Ronald Jr. was.

Ronald Sr. got home five minutes later, according to Croslin's initial statement to the deputies. He insisted she call 911.

Deputies searched the neighborhood but found no trace of Haleigh. However, they did discover that the back door of the trailer was propped open with a cinderblock. The door showed no signs of having been forced open.

Both Ronald and Misty say they are sure the back door was locked the night Haleigh disappeared; however they vacillate on whether they ever use the back door.

Haleigh Cummings and her father Ronald Cummings Sr.
Haleigh Cummings (right) and her father
Ronald Cummings Sr.

"The back door is always locked," Croslin said during an interview with Fox News's Greta Van Susteren. "We really don't use the back door."

During the same interview, Cummings said: "I check it every afternoon before I leave for work. It's always locked — always."

Misty then said she and Ronald sometimes take the garbage out through the back door, and that other times they open it when they vacuum their cars.

Both insist it was locked that night.

"Somebody had to pick the lock," Croslin told Fox News. "That's the only way anybody could get in our back door, is if they picked the lock."

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