BLUE VAN:Investigation**REVISITED**

[Lavanda Dolce]

The van belonged to Lindsy (who lives on Tyler St.) Chelsea had borrowed the van because her vehicle had been hit by a drunk driver. Cousin Joe stayed at Chelsea's home the night in question. Misty phoned Chelsea to tell them that Haleigh was missing. When Chelsea went out to get in the van she noticed it was parked differently. (She didn't notice the scratch.) Later Chelsea returned the van to Lindsy. Lindsy noticed the scratch and phoned Chelsea and said please tell me that you're the one who scratched my van....and Chelsea said she had not. That's when they surmised that cousin Joe had taken the van at Chelsea's house during the night.

Yup. That makes sense. I think Matt misunderstood Chelsea when he stated "Misty".

 

[mck16]

I had suspected that the delay was because whatever they wanted which was on the door had been placed there AFTER they released the trailer. This could be someone's fingerprints or to do touch dna testing. ?? My thoughts were that perhaps someone in or close to the family (or landlord) hadn't been tested or they couldn't get (or didn't want to get as to not tip their hand) a subpoena for a particular person??

Did they come back for the door right after the van was released? If so maybe they were looking for prints on the door that they found in the van and they were not of the immediate family.

 

[fortytwo]

CLARIFICATION FROM MATT, THE REPORTER:

Chelsea said to me Misty was the one who called her the night Haleigh was taken and said, "Please tell me you're the one that put the scratches in my van". So it was Misty, not Lindsey.

You know that makes absolutely no sense since it was Lindseys van and Misty was with LE, reporters, family and I am sure LE had already taken both Ron and Misty's phones.

I wish Lindsey or Chelsea would/could confirm who called who and if it was Misty why would she refer to the van as "hers".

Thanks for your hard work on this Lavanda.

Personally, I believe Matt misunderstood and that Chelsea meant that Lindsey phoned her and said "please tell me that you're the one that put the scratch in my van"........... sigh. At least that is what I'm pretty sure occured.

I'd like to say that I remain totally confused about this, but I can't, since I continue to become even more confused.

Lavanda Dolce,

Do you think that you might be able to trouble your accommodating journalist (with our thanks) for one more clarification.

I think it would be helpful to isolate for certain whether or not it was Misty who called about the damage to the van, since if not it would suggest no prior knowledge on her part, and might (easy now, I said might) even indicate that the whole van discussion is irrelevant.

It's troublesome that just this one account of events is so difficult to pin down with accuracy. The entire general discussion of this case is rife with this sort of imprecision and multiple versions. And I'm not talking about inconsistencies or changing stories. I'm just talking about poor transcription and presentation, 'telephone game' effect, and the faulty renditions of parties whose main priorities may not be the successful recovery of a missing child.

 

[orb4me]

I thought she washed the blanket because Haleigh had wet the bed?
main question:::ive looked all over,but I would swear there is a picture with the blue van in the back ground of that picture.

 

[txsvicki]

It would sure be interesting to know if cousin Joe admits to taking the van that night, where he went, and if there are alibis and if he has a cell phone record of calls. Of course there is a possibility that someone else came and used the van for a bit then brought it back. Does anyone know if LE would go as far in investigating all this if there's not enough reason to suspect him?

 

[titanfan62702]

It would sure be interesting to know if cousin Joe admits to taking the van that night, where he went, and if there are alibis and if he has a cell phone record of calls. Of course there is a possibility that someone else came and used the van for a bit then brought it back. Does anyone know if LE would go as far in investigating all this if there's not enough reason to suspect him?

I'm not even sure cousin Joe was in Florida that night. Ron said he wasn't "there" and Ron was at work.

 

[txsleuth]

I'm not even sure cousin Joe was in Florida that night. Ron said he wasn't "there" and Ron was at work.

My interpretation of what Ronald Cummings said - was that cousin Joe wasn't visiting at *his* home the night Haleigh vanished (that he was aware of.) Joe was definitely in Fl that night though, at Chelsea & Tim's home.

 

[titanfan62702]

My interpretation of what Ronald Cummings said - was that cousin Joe wasn't visiting at *his* home the night Haleigh vanished (that he was aware of.) Joe was definitely in Fl that night though, at Chelsea & Tim's home.

I'm not going to argue with you. I wasn't there. It just seems odd that Chelsea said "relative" when Joe had already been identified.

 

[txsleuth]

from this article it says that cousin Joe had stayed in Crescent City for about a month

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/crime/2009-02-16/story/search_for_haleigh_scales_back

That means Joe had a lot of time to familiarize himself with the area there...

In the latest news reports about the search that stretched south down Hwy 17, it said police searched to Paradise Shores at Crescent City. Look how close that is to Crescent Lake:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....489181,-81.554561&spn=0.058275,0.108662&z=13

It was reported today that volunteers are organizing another large search....and I hope they focus more on Crescent City than Satsuma.

 

[txsvicki]

I'm not going to argue with you. I wasn't there. It just seems odd that Chelsea said "relative" when Joe had already been identified.

This is probably something many have already thought of, but I hope LE thoroughly searched their home, Joe's sleeping area, laundry, and the area all around Chelsea's home.

 

[MADJGNLAW]

Sorry if this is a repeat, it said that this station is the only one that has this interview with Misty's cousin about the van.
http://wherearethesechildren.blogspot.com/2009/03/misty-cummings-croslin-sister-in-law.html

 

[Skully]

Bern, definitely some different things to consider and mull over. The two snags for me are the dispatch tape confuses the heck out of me, because there is no timestamps of the various transmissions so we have no clue when the 1 to 1 1/2 hour comment was made and I can't help but think if Haleigh had last been seen around 2 - 2:30 LE would of stated that and the timeline would be different. The other snag I can see is the van was not at Tyler - the van was with Chelsea in a different city so no way for Misty to get the van back to her and back home.

Busy help me out with the van... I thought that I read that the van was parked in a different place than she remembered it being parked. I was under the impression that it was at Tyler Street. I remember reading that SIL got a call from Misty saying "I hope it was you that put that scratch in the van" I will have to go look. We have the article on the van thread...

 

[Skully]

Busy, I found the link to the article but it doesn't work. It is post #469 on this thread. Part of it is in the post... Chelsea is being interviewed and her comment about Misty was in that article. You will see that I am confused as to who owns the van because of her quote. But I am sure the van was still at Tyler street because LE took it and there was discussion about the blanket being in it, the scratch and it being parked in a different place.

 

[Busylady]

I will do some digging, but the van was definitely with Chelsea. There was massive discussions downstairs about this article, and how confusing it was. There is a video with Chelsea talking that explains it better and I will look for that. Chelsea is called, she notices the van parked different when she goes out to head to RCs, she didnt notice the scratch at that time. Later that night Lindsey notices the damage and calls Chelsea and ask about it - Chelsea doesnt know about the damage and they call LE - LE takes the van.

Busy help me out with the van... I thought that I read that the van was parked in a different place than she remembered it being parked. I was under the impression that it was at Tyler Street. I remember reading that SIL got a call from Misty saying "I hope it was you that put that scratch in the van" I will have to go look. We have the article on the van thread...

 

[Busylady]

YouTube - Haleigh Cummings: Croslin's Van Released 03/18/09

This is Chelsea talking about her having the van and about the relative staying with them. The van is owned by Lindsy. Chelsea had been borrowing it because her vehicle was damaged in an accident. In listening to the video Chelsea says she got a call and they said tell me you didnt make the scratch in MY van. It caused mass confusion at the time. The reported messed this up big time, I will find the other link that talks about the error in the article and about who called Chelsea.

 

[Busylady]

Here is cache link to article that makes it clear the van was parked at Chelsea not on Tyler.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache...van+parked+different&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

If need be I can continue search for a cache version of the article clearing up that it was Lindsy that called and not Misty, but I think the important thing is the van was parked at Chelseas and this clears that up. Let me know if you need me to spend time looking for the other article about Misty vs Lindsy calling.

 

[Skully]

So why are they implying it was Joe who took the van? She says he is staying with them. I also don't understand why Misty said she left the blanket in the back of the van, is this another one we are talking about? Police only took one van, the blue one. She says she woke up and it was parked in a different spot, so how far away does she live from Ron's do you know?

 

[Busylady]

IIRC Chelsea lives in Crescent City. JO was staying with Chelsea while he was in town, he had access to the keys. IMO Chelsea is saying I didn't park it that way, my hub didn't take it out in the middle of the night, that leaves JO with access to the keys.

I don't know how the blanket got in the van. It could of been placed their during the day and Misty just forgot to take it out and thats what prompted her washing the blankets so Haleigh would have a blanket that night. There is only one van I believe.

So why are they implying it was Joe who took the van? She says he is staying with them. I also don't understand why Misty said she left the blanket in the back of the van, is this another one we are talking about? Police only took one van, the blue one. She says she woke up and it was parked in a different spot, so how far away does she live from Ron's do you know?

 

[Donjeta]

I thought it was Misty's blanket in the van and Haleigh's had to be washed because it smelled of pee.

The van story is very confusing but I bet they could clear it up in a second if they wanted to. I'm still on the fence whether or not it's a distraction or not.

 

[Busylady]

Yes it was Haleighs blanket that smelled, sorry if my wording was confusing. I was trying to state that they were one blanket short, therefore she couldnt just cover up Haleigh with her (Misty) blanket, she had to wash Haleighs and the one off the window.

I thought it was Misty's blanket in the van and Haleigh's had to be washed because it smelled of pee.

The van story is very confusing but I bet they could clear it up in a second if they wanted to. I'm still on the fence whether or not it's a distraction or not.