WELAKA, Fla. -- Three years after little Haleigh Cummings disappeared her family is staying hopeful.
"We believe she's out there," step great-grandmother Barbie Squires said.
The 5-year-old up and vanished in the middle of the night. Soon after, police and volunteers scoured the woods and river around her house, but no Haleigh.
Squires says they won't rest until they find out what happened.
"There's too many questions. The whys, the how's, the where?" she asked.
There are two theories surrounding Haleigh's disappearance. Some believe she was kidnapped by her mom's family and hidden away somewhere.
The other theory is that someone killed her that night in her dad's trailer and disposed of her body.
Private investigator Kerry Brown believes the latter.
"I'm pretty convinced Haleigh died in that trailer that night," he said.
Brown started working the case pro bono several months after she vanished. He says Misty Croslin, Haleigh's father's girlfriend, at the time, was the last person to see the girl that night.
Police have been tight-lipped, but they do believe she is she the missing key to this puzzle.
Squires believes that too and will continue pressing the issue until someone says something.
"We keep the vigil for the hope and to let her know if she's watching out there that we're here, we're fighting for her, we want her back," she said.
The family held a candlelight vigil for Haleigh tonight in Welaka. There were lots of tears and emotional pictures. One picture showed Haleigh in the arms of her father, Ronald Cummings. He's in prison on drug charges. Action News has learned Ronald Cummings wrote a letter to the family's pastor. It read he's in good spirits and he wished he could've been at the vigil.
