Haleigh's Grandma: Misty Is Lying

Shadow Of Doubt Has Been Cast Over Misty Cummings Since Girl Disappeared

Published On: Oct 13 2011 03:26:23 PM EDT  Updated On: Aug 18 2010 09:06:31 AM EDT
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -

Less than 24 hours after learning Misty Cummings claimed to know what happened to missing Satsuma girl Haleigh Cummings, the girl's family has spoken out.

Haleigh's grandmother, Teresa Neves, told Channel 4 Wednesday morning that she does not know what to believe.

On Tuesday, Misty's attorney, Robert Fields, said Haleigh's former stepmother has told investigators that her cousin, Joe Overstreet, put Haleigh in a black bag and took her away. Fields said Overstreet took Haleigh while Misty was lying in bed and covered herself up with a blanket. He said Misty heard Haleigh scream.

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"Why would you hide with a little 5-year-old screaming like that?" Neves said. "How can the neighbors not hear her? Things just don't add up."

Neves said she thinks Misty is lying.

"I still believe she's alive," Neves said of Haleigh. "I don't believe anything Misty says until somebody can prove it. The thing doesn't even make sense. How can you be under the covers and also see her in the bag? None of it makes sense.

"She's told so many stories, and to just pick and choose which one you want to believe, I don't believe it's right," Neves said. "Whatever it is, it needs to be proven."

Neves said if this version of Misty's story is true, "they should hang her, like an old-fashioned hanging in the square kind of thing."

There's always been a shadow of doubt over Misty Cummings' account of what happened to Haleigh the night she vanished in February 2009.

"I just want everybody to know that I didn't do anything with that little girl," Misty said while crying the day after Haleigh disappeared. "I loved her like she's my own, and I'll do anything to get her back. And if people think that I have something to do with it -- if I have something to do with it or I knew where she was we wouldn't be sitting here today."

From the start, Misty claimed she knew nothing, a story that changed over time.

When asked on NBC's "Today" show why her story keeps changing, Misty, after a long silence, replied, "I don't know."

It wasn't until she ended up in the Putnam County Jail on drug charges that she started talking to family members, who would later be incarcerated, too.

"Do you think she can come home?" Misty's father, Hank Croslin Sr., asked her in a jailhouse call.

"Of course, dad," Misty said.

"I hope and pray to God she does," Croslin said.

"Me too. I mean, I can't tell anybody definitely because I can't say 100 percent, but God hasn't gave me that sign," Misty said.

"I think she's come to realize she's in trouble," Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy said of Misty in April after investigators searched the St. Johns River for Haleigh. "People are starting to cooperate. That's why I've told people it's going to be just a matter of time, and we're going to accept any cooperation that we can get. So again, it's a good thing. People are starting to talk."

Haleigh's family said they only want the truth.


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