Custodial dad of missing child now divorcing child bride/babysitter; And child bride shows she's got a temper (Satsuma, Florida)

The stuff on custodial dad RON CUMMINGS and his underaged girlfriend/child bride NOW TO BE EX-WIFE just gets weirder all the time. This is the Florida custodial father who had a 5-year-old daughter "disappear" earlier in the year--a guy who has a history of domestic violence against the girl's mother. Now the dad and the step-person are getting a divorce--after being married for barely half a year. And she's "acting out." Maybe some answers will be coming out soon.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-haleigh-cummings-misty-orlando-100809,0,5665885.story

Misty Cummings makes a splash in Lake Mary and flies off to New York
The stepmother of missing 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings was questioned in a road-rage incident, then left town for CBS appearance

Sentinel Staff Writer

7:05 p.m. EDT, October 8, 2009

Eight months ago, Misty Croslin Cummings lived an obscure life in a double-wide in rural Satsuma, an isolated riverfront community near the Ocala National Forest.

But the disappearance of then 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings in February, when 17-year-old Misty was baby-sitting, has thrust her into the limelight -- and the exposure has been harsh.

She and Haleigh's father, Ronald Cummings, 25, married about a month after Haleigh vanished from their home in Putnam County -- a ceremony broadcast on national television.

Then this week, Ronald hit the airwaves with news of the couple's impending divorce, and Misty surfaced in Metro Orlando during an alleged road-rage incident on Interstate 4.

"Every place Misty Cummings goes, she takes destruction with her," Texas-based EquuSearch founder Tim Miller, who helped search for Haleigh, said Thursday.

Haleigh Cummings disappeared on the evening of Feb. 9, and she has not been found.

Authorities say the child was abducted, but no one has been charged or named as a suspect.

Misty Cummings was the last person to see her alive.

Investigators have accused her of giving a "sketchy account" of Haleigh's disappearance.

In the latest incident, deputies on Wednesday detained Cummings and one of Miller's volunteers for allegedly threatening a motorist in Seminole County.

Reports from the Seminole County Sheriff's Office show EquuSearch member Donna Michelle Brock, 43, of Georgia and Cummings chased and harassed a driver on I-4.

"These people are, like, seriously scaring me big time," Courtney Ballinger told a 911 dispatch operator at 11:16 a.m. Wednesday. A shaken Ballinger said the women threatened to beat her. Authorities questioned Brock and Cummings near the Lake Mary exit and later released both women.

Cummings told a reporter with WESH-Channel 2 that she and Brock never threatened anyone. She said Ballinger's vehicle almost hit their vehicle.

"We flicked her off and went about our business," Cummings said at Orlando International Airport on Thursday.

Cummings was headed to New York, where she will appear Friday on CBS' "Early Show." In the brief interview, she also denied allegations that she failed a polygraph test about Haleigh's disappearance.

Miller said Cummings failed a polygraph, faked a session with a hypnotist and asked for "truth serum" -- actions that suggest inconsistencies in her account of Haleigh's disappearance.

Miller said Misty Cummings took a lie-detector test in attorney Mark NeJame's office in Orlando in August and she "failed it with 99 percent deception." She also failed a voice-analysis test, Miller said.

After those two exams, Miller said she had asked if there was a "truth serum" she could take to help her pass.

"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Misty Cummings knows exactly what happened to Haleigh," Miller said. "She knows where [Haleigh] is and that she is not alive."

Misty Cummings' attorney, Robert Fields, did not return calls to the Orlando Sentinel.

Adding to Misty Cummings' family drama is her husband's announcement Wednesday night on Nancy Grace's television show that they are splitting up.

"Both agreed it's time to move on," said Brandon Beardsley, the attorney for Ronald Cummings. Beardsley said he has not yet filed the divorce in court, but it is an "amicable dissolution."

In her airport interview, Misty Cummings said she didn't want to get a divorce, but she didn't want to fight her husband.

Misty Cummings' problems mounted more than a week after Haleigh had disappeared from the trailer she and Ronald Cummings shared on Green Lane in Satsuma, a rural community about two hours north of Orlando.

Deputies had received a tip Feb. 18 that she was not at home, as she had previously testified, on the night of Haleigh's disappearance.

Beardsley said Misty probably needs some time to get away from all the problems surrounding her and Ronald Cummings.

"Their life together is miserable under all the media scrutiny," Beardsley said. "It's a strain, and it's become old."

Meanwhile, Ronald Cummings and his mother, Teresa Neves, taped an episode of Maury Povich's show today. The show will air at 1 p.m. Oct. 22 on WKCF-Channel 18.

The focus is on missing children, and several families took part, a show spokesman. Misty Cummings was not on the show, the spokesman said.