http://www.gainesville.com/article/...eigh-case-update-No-human-remains-in-St-Johns
Investigators recovered numerous items of a "biological nature" in the river search last week related to the homicide of Haleigh Cummings, but the items were not human, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office reported.
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Maj. Gary Bowling said many items considered biological were found during a search of the dark waters of the St. Johns River near Shell Harbour Road last week. However, he said, officials with the C.A. Pound Human Identification Lab at the University of Florida "identified everything that was biologic as not human."
"We found alligator toenails and teeth" and a variety of biological items, Bowling said.
What else was taken from the river for examination, which investigators have not elaborated on, could take weeks to analyze, according to the Sheriff's Office.
"We just took a bunch of things," Bowling said. "We took anything that could potentially be anything."
Public speculation on what may have been recovered in the waters about five miles south of Haleigh's Satsuma home has ranged from human remains to objects used to dispose of a body.
Following the river search, Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy announced that the case of the missing girl now was considered a homicide.
Haleigh was 5 when she reportedly vanished from her home while her father Ronald Cummings was at work and she was under the care of his ex-girlfriend Misty Croslin. The child was last seen Feb. 9, 2009.
Since then Croslin, her brother Hank "Tommy" Croslin Jr., and Haleigh's father have been arrested and remain jailed on unrelated drug-trafficking charges.
Investigators brought Misty Croslin to the search site last week. And James Weter, an attorney for Tommy Croslin, said his client took a polygraph earlier this month and met last week with representatives from several law enforcement agencies as well as private investigator Steven Brown. Information he provided after months of investigation led to the river search, Brown has said.
Asked how officers reached the decision that this was now a homicide case, Bowling said, "It's a lot of information over the last few weeks. None of us believe we are looking for an alive child anymore."
But, he said, officials also have not told family members to "prepare for a funeral."