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When HaLeigh Cummings was reported missing in 2009, the spine-chilling images of a little girl disappearing without a trace from her own bed became a bitter reality. But as days passed and information continued to surface, a strange hint of make-believe began to appear and then linger.

Something didn’t seem right.

For some it was the child’s paternal grandmother claming she was in bed in a neighboring town when she received a call in the middle of the night; yet arrived to the scene ahead of a sheriff’s deputy, having brought an 8 x 10 photograph of HaLeigh just in case they needed it. For others it was the mother going back to sleep after receiving a telephone call from the paternal grandmother that HaLeigh was missing.  

One month after the child vanished, the child’s father married the teenager that was supposedly sleeping beside HaLeigh when she mysteriously fell off the face of the planet – that did it for many – something wasn’t right.

The mainstream media covered HaLeigh’s disappearance as mounted search teams scoured woods, teams walked roadside ditches, and police drained swamps. Footage of law enforcement emptying a dumpster after a five year-old has been missing for weeks has the potential to make a normal person physically sick.

On occasion – online rumors would start that HaLeigh’s body had been found.  

When a highly dramatic criminal event suddenly explodes into a high media situation, the emotional chaos often creates conditions that are rife for mix-ups and confusion, as news reporters rush to be the first to break news.

However - there is a tremendous difference between accidental mis-reporting of news, and the strategic creation of deliberate disinformation intended to mislead law enforcement and the public.  

An example of a recent high media event that swept the nation and quickly spun out of control was the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012.

As the nightmare scenario unfolded, news reports were generated as fast as reporters could conduct interviews, and within a short period of time a press conference was held by the Medical Examiner and State Police.

But – much as it was in the HaLeigh Cummings disappearance – the average citizen began to feel a strange sense of incongruity in the storyline – an un-natural feel to people and things - an undercurrent of sub-dialogue continuously emerged and caused constant confusion and uncertainty.

Many believe this foggy haze of uncertainty is the unfortunate by-product of accidental mis-reporting and general confusion amidst horrific events.

But that’s not true.

The disinformation has an origin, as much as accurate information has an origin. Bologna doesn't create itself; the guts and goo is thrown into a grinder and mixed together until you have bologna.

I am going to show you.

As news reporters descended upon Newtown, they immediately begin to monitor the situation for individuals that appeared to have unique information about the event. Amidst the interviews conducted, a reporter for a local station, Channel 9, spoke with Sally Cox - the school nurse at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Having just spoken with Sally Cox – the reporter spoke to the camera – reporting what Cox had just told her.

The reporter said, “…she described the gun-man coming into her office, they met eyes, she jumped under her desk, and he inexplicably just walked out just absolutely chilling, horrifying details that emerging in Newtown tonight…”

The reporter continued, “…she was fairly traumatized, but I did ask if it was known around the school that this young man, apparently a kindergartener teacher’s son was an issue – whether he had any problems – she said not at all - I asked if she knew the suspect’s mother and she said that she did, and that she was an absolutely loving person and a very caring experienced kindergartner teacher – just the kind of person you would want with your five year-old.”

Sally Cox had looked right into the gun-man’s eyes (thus, she looked into the eyes of accused shooter Adam Lanza) and, attested to the fact that the shooter’s mother (Nancy Lanza) was a teacher at the school. Cox claimed to personally know Nancy Lanza and gave a very descriptive and glowing review of her.

The problem is – everything she said turned out to be false.   

In a later interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Cox backed completely away from her claim to have looked in the shooter’s eyes. She changed her story and said she hid under her desk and only saw his legs.

News sources, including the New York Times, as well as the Authorities, reported Adam Lanza’s mother, Nancy Lanza, was never a teacher at the school.

It might seem strange Cox made such statements to the media – but she wasn’t the only one advancing that false dialogue.

While authorities confirmed Nancy Lanza had no connection to the school, a very talkative young man named Joshua Flashman, 25, was busy providing piles of information to Fox News. He told Fox that Nancy Lanza was filing papers to have her son Adam committed to a psychiatric hospital.

“Adam Lanza attended the Sandy Hook School as a boy, according to Flashman, who said Nancy Lanza had volunteered there for several years. Two law enforcement sources said they believed Nancy Lanza had been volunteering with kindergartners at the school. Most of Lanza's victims were first graders sources believe Nancy Lanza may have worked with last year,” Fox News reported.

“Flashman said Nancy Lanza was also good friends with the school’s principal and psychologist—both of whom were killed in the shooting rampage” Fox News continued.

Now – Flashman brings it home.

"Adam Lanza believed she (his mother) cared more for the children (at Sandy Hook Elementary) than she did for him, and the reason he probably thought this [was the fact that] she was petitioning for conservatorship and wanted to have him committed," Flashman said. "I could understand how he might perceive that—that his mom loved him less than she loved the kids, loved the school. But she did love him. But he was a troubled kid and she probably just couldn’t take care of him by herself anymore."

Flashman did not simply provide a fact that turned out to be wrong – he provided an entire dialogue – he explained the entire shooting and the motive of the crazed mentally deranged gun-man.

And again - the story turned out to be completely bogus.

When HaLeigh was reported missing, her story and Amber Alert was covered by Fox News, ABC, CBS, CNN, HLN, and more.

But HaLeigh’s kidnapping was a hoax.

Crystal Sheffield, HaLeigh’s mother, acquired the services of a bounty hunter and media troll to prepare and publish disinformation to obfuscate, disrupt, and confuse the authorities and public.

Sheffield used William ‘Cobra the Bounty Hunter’ Staubs and Art Harris (fired from CNN) to obfuscate the fact she was hiding HaLeigh.

Sheffield and her team erected a fundraising foundation that, according to Cobra, brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars that was never reported to the IRS. A website was created and Americans donated money they believed would be used to search for HaLeigh – it disappeared.

The HaLeigh Cummings hoax can be used as a basic blueprint for those who desire to understand how events such as the Sandy Hook school shooting could become so convoluted and messy with disinformation, false leads, and half-truths.

Art Harris is a con-man that was featured night after night on the Nancy Grace show and introduced as an investigative journalist on the HaLeigh Cummings case – when in fact he was paid thousands of dollars. Nancy Grace spoon-fed the American public bull-shit about a five year-old girl with Turner’s syndrome and they ate every bite.  

The recording you will hear (in video below) was captured in the field as Staubs, his son, Matthew Staubs, and Harris, proofread a piece of propaganda Harris has written.  You will hear about an “underground pen” that looked like it could have been used as a jail to keep HaLeigh Cummings as a prisoner.

One of the most compelling segments of the audio comes from young Matthew Staubs, 21. He is clearly excited about what he is involved in doing – one can sense his awareness as he is beginning to understand how it all works.

The name of the game is to create confusion, doubt, and chaos; and Matthew Staubs realizes it. He says, “It makes everybody out here look like everybody’s lying – everybody lies.”