Flora, let me say again for the record I applaud you for immediately reporting this tip to police, even though your own family is at stake in all of this.
HOLLARS: Thank you.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Great to have you here.
Last night you said you believe Misty, Tommy, Joe and Haleigh`s father, Ronald Cummings, were all involved in a conspiracy to cover up Haleigh`s murder. Flo, we did some research. We found that cops have cleared Ronald Cummings, Haleigh`s dad. So why do you think he knows something more?
HOLLARS: Well, really what it boiled down to is the fact that him and her had been arguing all day where she`d been out on that drug spree. And then he made her keep those babies -- those two babies that night. And there`s -- it takes him 50 minutes to get from home and work, back and forth. And what did he do in that ten minutes?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. So you`re saying that there`s a time discrepancy?
HOLLARS: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But he went to work.
HOLLARS: Uh-huh.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: My understanding was he was -- he`s working the night shift, he`s informed at work that little Haleigh is missing by Misty. He rushes back, can`t find her and then called police. He calls police. Where is the time discrepancy there?
HOLLARS: The -- getting to work is 25 minutes, getting back from -- getting home from work is 25 minutes. That -- that makes 50 minutes. There`s ten minutes to spare there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I want to stress again that law enforcement has said that Ron Cummings is not a suspect. They have investigated. They`ve cleared him. They`ve said they`ve checked his phone records, they`ve checked everything, and they really believe he has absolutely nothing to do with this.
We`ve also reached out to attorneys for all -- Tommy, Joe, Misty and Ron -- and we have not heard back today.
But I want to ask you about this, Flo. After Ron leaves for work, somehow we have now Misty who`s in the trailer, she said she just went to sleep with the two kids and woke up -- initially she said this -- and they were missing. But it emerged that perhaps she had been visited by Tommy and Joe.
So set the stage for us. What was going on inside that trailer, do you believe? Do you believe all three were there, and were they partying?
HOLLARS: I know they were al three there, because Joe and Tommy was looking for the machine gun that Ronald had.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And what were they doing? Were they partying? Were they drugging, do you think?
HOLLARS: They didn`t say that, but I`m pretty such if they had any they were.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why do...
HOLLARS: Yes, ma`am.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why do these three grandchildren have troubles? Why are they so troubled? Now, two of the three are behind bars. Joe is clear at this point. Investigators have not charged him with anything. But why do you think Misty and Tommy have such a troubled history and now they`re behind bars on drug conspiracy charges?
Did they have trouble as kids? Did any of these three of your grandchildren that we`re looking at now have violent streaks when they were kids growing up?
HOLLARS: Not that I know of. But they never really had parents that stayed straight enough to take care of them anyways.
HOLLARS: I`ve heard two different details. I heard that she got a hold of one of Ron`s pills and swallowed it and O.D.`d on it, and then I heard that Misty supposedly hit her in the back of the head, and Joe supposedly raped her and then got rid of the body.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Flo, those are three very different scenarios. Where did you hear each of those stories, and which one do you believe?
HOLLARS: I believe the one that Misty told me, that they tied her up in a rope and dropped her in the river. I just don`t know whether they raped her or not. But I sort of believe that they did. I just hope and pray that the child was already dead before she hit that water.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But how do you know that, based on what Tommy told you on the phone? I mean, did Tommy tell you how the child -- if, in fact, this is what happened, got from the trailer to the river and what happened in between the time that the child left the trailer and got to the river, and who took the child from the trailer to the river?
HOLLARS: No, ma`am. All Tommy told me was that Joe did it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And you didn`t ask any follow-up questions?
HOLLARS: Yes, I asked follow-up questions, but he didn`t answer any of the rest of them. He was crying too hard, so he started talking about his kids and his wife.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So how do you know that Misty, in your opinion, Misty, Tommy and Joe were all there at the river that night with little Haleigh? How do you make that leap, when all Tommy said was Joe did it, and then all Misty said was they tied a rope around her and, with cement, threw her in the water?
HOLLARS: Well, in my opinion, the way that I feel that -- knowing that is that she knew she was throwed in the St. John`s River.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you`re saying how would she know that without having witnessed it?
HOLLARS: If she hadn`t have witnessed it or -- see, Joe left the next day after this happened. Now, maybe Tommy carried her over there and showed her where they had dropped her at. I don`t know.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Well, let me ask a related question, then. Why do you think Misty waited so long? If, in fact, she was going to spill this, why wait until 15 minutes after Tommy calls?
Have you ever considered the possibility that somehow they managed to coordinate their stories and that none of this is true, that maybe there`s nothing down there at the river, that -- that basically this is just another story made up out of whole cloth, the way Misty initially said she woke up and Haleigh was simply gone?
HOLLARS: No, ma`am, because 15 minutes after Tommy called me, Misty called me. I told her what he said and she was crying and all she could say is, "Nanny, I`ve told them this all along." Misty didn`t tell me until the following Monday about the rope and the bricks in the St. John`s River.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Investigators did an intense underwater search over several days using divers, cadaver dogs, underwater sonar devices, focusing in n this area, a dock along the river bank of the St. John`s River.
Flo, after you called in your tip to investigators, telling them what Tommy and Misty told you, have investigators been in contact with you? Have they updated you at all as to whether they believe the story, what they found down at the river, anything?
HOLLARS: No, ma`am. I keep leaving them messages.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Really?
HOLLARS: Different things that I hear, I leave them messages, but they`ve not bothered to call me back.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: How do you feel about that?
HOLLARS: I think it`s dirty. At least they should pick the phone up and call me back and answer my questions.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: How has your extended family reacted to your going forward and calling police, even though it could jeopardize your three grandchildren?
HOLLARS: None of them like it, but it`s like I said, if it was me, I would want somebody to be doing the same thing that I`m doing sitting here right now.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What do you want more than anything else?
HOLLARS: I want that little girl to be put to rest.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Closure.
Word dude.
