PUTNAM COUNTY, FL -- The search for 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings expanded on Friday (special report).
At a news conference, Sheriff Jeff Hardy said helicopters and search teams on horseback were scouring rugged, dense terrain not easily accessible on foot.
He said there are no limits to the search. "We have actively investigated and pursued over 350 leads that have come in to date. So we are not just going to limit this search to Putnam County. We'll go where ever it takes us," Hardy said.
Hardy added that all 44 known sexual predators living within a five mile radius of the girl's Satsuma home had been interviewed and their homes searched.
About 100 officers and volunteers were actively looking for Haleigh on Friday.
Haliegh went missing early Tuesday morning. Her father's girlfriend, 17-year-old Misty Croslin, was in the home at the time. She said she discovered Haleigh missing around 3 a.m. Haleigh's father, Ronald Cummings, arrived home around the time of the discovery, and both called 911.
Investigators are treating the disappearance as an abduction.
Sheriff Hardy would not discuss media reports of inconsistencies given by Croslin. She reportedly said she was sleeping in the same bed as Haleigh. On Thursday, Croslin told reporters that Haleigh was sleeping alone near a TV before she discovered the child was gone.
“When I went to sleep she was there...When I woke up she was gone,” Croslin said.
“I don’t care what people are saying about me because I didn’t do it,” she told the Florida Times-Union Thursday.
