Traveling Miles

WUFT: Search for Haleigh Cummings Expanded (2/13)

This is the piece I filed for Friday's newscast:

Photos from Satsuma

CBS Radio News took a few cuts of sound I pulled from our interviews over the last couple of days. They used one of them in today's 3 p.m. hourly newscast.

One good thing about big stories like this is they attract lots of media attention, which means you're bound to run into some journo-friends. Friday I ran into my two favorite Orlando reporters, WFTV's Mark Boyle and WOFL's Valerie Boey. Here are a few snapshots from Thursday and Friday in Satsuma.

Standing by for press conference

The Putnam County Sheriff's Office will be holding a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Robert and I are getting set up for it now...

Another day of searching begins

The team from Texas EquuSearch has set up shop across the street from Haleigh's neighborhood. A few dozen volunteers with horses, dogs, and ATVs are gathering waiting for their orders. The plan today is to search the woods near Haleigh's home.

Quiet neighborhood rattled by girl's disappearance

Patrick and I arrived around 9 a.m. to find the neighborhood just waking up. Family members and  friends were gathered under a tent along Tyler Street, around the corner from the blue house at 202 Green Lane, where 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings went missing.

Yellow crime scene tape was still wrapped around the home, preventing us from getting too close to take pictures. A Putnam County Deputy Sheriff assigned to watch the house was parked nearby. He is one of two deputies who patrol the 124 square miles of this rural part of Putnam County.

Searchers are now going on almost three days of looking for for Haleigh, who went missing late Monday night. About 200 law enforcement officers are assisting with the search and about 30 different law enforcement agencies are here helping out. They’re using dogs to search the woods near the family’s home, helicopters are flying overhead, and boats are also patrolling the Seven Sisters Creek area of the St. Johns River, which borders Haleigh’s neighborhood, Hermit’s Cove.

I spoke with one of Haleigh's neighbors, Jim Batchelor, an older man who lives across the street. He said this has always been a quiet neighborhood. The night Haleigh went missing, deputies knocked on his door and searched his home and his sheds. He said other than asking Haley's father to slow down while driving through the neighborhood, he hasn't had much contact with the family -- who, he said, has only lived in the blue house for five or six months.

We started chatting with the deputy who was watching the house. He said he's been a deputy patrolling this part of town for 12 years. Rarely, he said, there's ever a problem in the neighborhood. When he does drive through this area, it's just to "show the colors" of the force, he said.

He got woken up Tuesday morning with a call from the dispatcher.

"How long will it take you to get out of your house?" they asked.

"Give me 15 minutes," he said.

Just arrived to Haleigh's neighborhood

Putnam County girl goes missing

On the day of Caylee Anthony's memorial in Orlando, we learned a 5-year-old Putnam County had gone missing. This story seems to be getting bigger by the day. Patrick and I are heading over there early tomorrow morning to turn something for ABC and/or WUFT. A press conference is scheduled for 9 a.m.

This is what the Gainesville Sun reported today:

"Absent any sign of a missing south Putnam County girl, investigators called her disappearance an abduction two days after she was last seen at her father’s home.

With no evidence of Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings near her residence in Satsuma, there is no longer any reason to believe the child wandered away, said Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Major Gary Bowling Wednesday afternoon.

“We just don’t believe that the child is here, so we assume abduction,” Bowling said."

This afternoon I spoke with the search coordinator for Texas EquuSearch, the search and recovery team that played a very visible role in the search for Caylee Anthony several months ago. Their director, Tim Miller is flying into town and will be meeting with law enforcement officials Thursday morning. Meanwhile, the search team will be driving their mobile command center from Texas to Satsuma, Fla. overnight. It's an 18-hour drive. We're hoping to meet up with them tomorrow.

It's shaping up to be a busy day...