JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The father of Haleigh Cummings, the little girl whose disappearance made national headlines, was released from prison Wednesday.
The 5-year-old disappeared from her Satsuma home in the middle of the night in February 2009.
Haleigh’s father, Ronald Cummings and his girlfriend Misty Croslin were both at the center of the investigation, but were never charged with Haleigh’s disappearance. Instead, they were both arrested on drug charges.
At the time of Haleigh’s disappearance, deputies she was at home with her brother and Croslin.
When the father came home from work, Haleigh was gone and to this day has never been found
“Everybody in Putnam County and beyond, just like I said, fell in love with this little blonde headed big brown eyed loving little girl that was as innocent as innocent could be," said Chief Deputy Colonel Joe Wells with the Putnam County Sheriffs office.
Wells says out of his 25-year career this is the biggest case that he has ever seen.
“Throughout the years this case had developed more than four thousand tips," he explains. "We have sent detectives across the country to Tennessee to the West Coast. We interviewed folks that claim to have information on this some who are in prison."
Even after all these years, the sheriff’s office still has their eyes on Croslin. Wells says during the investigation her story changed and never added up.
Wells believes she knows more than she’s telling and very likely knows what happened to Haleigh.
“She is certainly the key to this case, she was certainly there when it happened, and she knows and in that respect she is definitely a person of interest," said Wells.
Wells says investigators plan on continuing discussions with Cummings since he's been released.
“Will he say something now that he has had every opportunity in the world to say in the past? I don’t know if that’s likely," said Wells. "We tried a lot in this case, and we will continue to try because maybe the information that solves this comes from an unlikely source."