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Mothers of very small boys report their children were raped by a pastor in New York – and – the man that raped the children was involved in the HaLeigh Cummings case.

Wayanne Kruger, the former advocate for HaLeigh Cummings’ mother, Crystal Sheffield, decided to tell all – or at least tell a lot.

Kruger is the author of the book “Life in Prison for Child Sex Predators” and was once featured on the ABC television news magazine 20/20, People magazine, and elsewhere

Wayanne Kruger

In a series of interviews I conducted with Kruger between 2009 and 2011, she revealed enough information to me, that I could alert the public to the truth about what was going on during the national profile search for HaLeigh Cummings.

Kruger told me several mothers of little boys that had been raped by a man on the East Coast, recognized the perpetrator to be a man that I had written about while independently covering the HaLeigh Cummings disappearance as a journalist and author.

“There’s eight women all together that still talk about it,” Kruger said. The man that molested their kids was the same man that used the name “John Regan” during the HaLeigh Cummings case.

John Regan reportedly switched his name often over the years, typically using a biblical name. Although the women would often refer to him using a different name, all the women said he had a prosthetic leg.

I confirmed John Regan did in fact have a prosthetic leg during a contentious interview with his son, Jeremiah Regan in 2009.

I instantly knew something was very odd when Kruger was able to tell me the names of child molestation victims from New York. I already knew Kruger had worked alongside John Regan during the HaLeigh Cummings case; and I was about to have a real bombshell dropped on me.

Kruger told me John Regan was also an active participant in a baby-selling ring in Florida, of which she also had intimate detailed knowledge.

This meant Kruger had detailed knowledge of John Regan’s behavior, associations, and movements regarding a missing child, molested children, and human trafficking.  

Kruger described how the trafficking of infants was accomplished. She explained that young parents were coerced and threatened into giving their baby up for adoption. The process involved deception, false paperwork, un-certified home studies, as well as strong- arm tactics and threats to force the biological father into capitulation.

Children are more valuable than drugs because it easier to move a human around than narcotics, Kruger explained.

Kruger said one participant “worked for the social service department doing volunteer work – she was working for the social service department in the home study field…along with the dossiers”.

The fact that a member of a ‘Kidnapping Inc.’ had infiltrated Florida’s social services system is a bone-chilling thought.

In 2000, the plight of a four year-old named Riyla Wilson swept the headlines after she disappeared under the watch of Florida DCF, but was not reported missing for two years.

What Kruger was telling me was not an isolated incident and was well organized. “Thirty kids that I know of,” she said, providing a number for the amount babies she knew were illegally sold.  

The chart of missing children in Florida demands the question – is this where those kids are going?

Kruger said corrupt attorneys play a very significant role in the trafficking operation. “In the 80’s and 90’s, all the woman had to do was claim molestation. And there were these aggressive attorneys – they just [go] crazy on them – and intimidate them,” she said.  

A good example of how rampant baby-brokering may be in Florida would be the arrest of a Jacksonville attorney in 2011.

Amy Newby was arrested for forging the signature of a staffer on adoption documents in a case her firm was handling. What was particularly interesting was Newby had a clean record – ten years of no discipline. It is hard to imagine any criminal gets caught the very first time they break the law – Newby was probably doing this for years.

“They were funding fake adoptions,” Kruger said. She pointed out that the group did not only sell infants, but also “kids”. 

“This was just crazy shit,” she said. 

Kruger said the scam utilized the church, which is where “Pastor Regan” came into the picture.  She said John Regan took possession of the infant for a period of time while the transaction and arrangements to move the child through the U.S. Embassy were completed. “They were moving them out of the country,” she said.

“Any church that you are a member of, they can draft a legal vital record for a birth certificate. You don’t have to go through the state,” she said.

Kruger marveled at the ingenuity.

“What a perfect way to do this is; to go through the church and to have them adopted out with the dossier,” she said.

Nothing was left to chance.

“All the kids were declared disabled, so that way they could be moved in and out of the country on a doctor’s note … you can move them anywhere if you have a doctor’s note,” she explained.  

Kruger’s detailed account of child rape and human trafficking was a disturbing journey into the rabbit hole of the underworld. But Kruger’s assertion that much of the activity had been occurring in the 80’s and 90’s was particularly chilling.

It was chilling, because HaLeigh Cummings did not disappear until 2009, and Kruger was talking a baby selling operation, that involved many of the same people that she worked with on the HaLeigh Cummings case.

Essentially – Kruger knew of John Regan molesting kids in New York during the 80’s and 90’s, and that he assisted in a baby-selling operation in Florida as well. Then – in 2009, she was riding around with John Regan in a car in Satsuma, Florida as law enforcement searched for HaLeigh Cummings.

John Regan was the father of Jeremiah Regan, the young man that spoke to Florida news teams in 2009 about a roadside hangout he helped set up called the HaLeigh Bug Center, where people were encouraged to provide investigative tips and donate money.

Kruger told me Jeremiah Regan moved from New York to Florida in January of 2009, shortly before HaLeigh vanished. He told local news teams that HaLeigh Bug may be a good “career path” for HaLeigh’s mother, Crystal Sheffield.

Nothing about this father and son team seemed right.

Jeremiah Regan directed Florida news teams to focus on a local man, Daniel Snodgrass, who was free on bond for charges he sexually assaulted a child under 12, despite the fact the local sheriff’s office had already cleared Snodgrass.

Jeremiah Regan was also captured by a hidden microphone, approaching a female case witness and telling her he is working with police investigators. He tells the young girl he has been given authority to promise immunity to anyone that would sign a sworn statement that implicated a young girl named Misty Croslin.

The involvement of John and Jeremiah Regan in the HaLeigh Cummings investigation is beyond disturbing.

Kruger told me she attempted to go to the police to report what really happened with HaLeigh, but John and Jeremiah Regan prevented her. She said John Regan told her he worked undercover as a pedophile for the FBI. She said he told her the FBI already had HaLeigh but wanted it kept quiet for the time being.

Kruger said John Regan offered to take her to the “intake house” where they process the young girls.

Kruger said John Regan advised her that local police, prominent public figures, and ranking local officials were running a prostitution ring, and warned her that nobody was going to act upon her information.

Kruger’s bizarre saga, in particular, the assertion that local officials were involved in human trafficking, gave me goose bumps because of something else I had been told. 

William Staubs – a.k.a. ‘Cobra the Bounty Hunter,’ Case Closed, Inc. is a private investigator and bail bondsman out of Weston, Florida. In 2009, Staubs too appeared out of nowhere to search for HaLeigh Cummings.

Staubs told Jessica Clark at First Coast News he was sent into the case by Rev. Richard Grund – a former potential witness for the prosecution in the Casey Anthony murder trial. Staubs told Clark he was being funded by a former drug dealer from Miami.

Suffice to say – Staubs had no good explanation for why he was there.

Staubs was working alongside Jeremiah Regan, John Regan, Kruger, and others. He told Dana Treen, reporter, Florida Times-Union, that he was originally told the HaLeigh Bug operation was supposed to be an international child search firm – for which he (Staubs) was to be a staff detective.

An unemployed drifter with no driver’s license renovated an old building into a roadside hangout in the name of a missing little girl, and based upon that, Staubs thought they were all going to launch an international child search firm?

Perhaps Staubs’ negotiations with Discovery and Spike TV for his own Bounty Hunter show had something to do it?

Staubs told me a member of Crystal Sheffield’s Team advised him there were ten more cases, just like HaLeigh’s, already lined up for him. That statement alone would seem worthy of an FBI investigation.

But one story Staubs told me was particularly disturbing.

Staubs said that HaLeigh’ grandfather, Johnny Sheffield, advised him that HaLeigh’s biological father was actually a man named Robbie Middleton. This is significant because Robbie Middleton’s brother is Chris Middleton – an investigator for the State’s Attorney Office in Putnam County, Florida.

Staubs said he telephoned Chris Middleton at the State’s Attorney’s Office and advised he was investigating a lead that Chris’s brother Robbie might be HaLeigh’s father. Staubs said Chris Middleton flew into a rage of expletives and said “I don’t give a fuck who you’re investigating.” Staubs said Chris Middleton advised him he had already been “called on the carpet” about this and warned him that if he brought it up again he was going to terminate the call.

Staubs made this ominous call to the State’s Attorney at a time he (Staubs) was under investigation by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and State’s Attorney for felony false imprisonment (of Daniel Snodgrass).

One almost felt Staubs was subtly reminding Chris Middleton of something they both knew.

Staubs said that he and Johnny Sheffield went to the home of Robbie Middleton several times because Staubs wanted to interview him. He said it was odd, because Johnny Sheffield would never get out of the vehicle and join him – rather he would watch from the vehicle. 

Staubs left the impression that a State’s Attorney in Putnam County, Florida knew something about the disappearance of HaLeigh Cummings. The story John Regan told Kruger about local officials became hard to ignore.

Kruger said she did eventually talk to the police, and produced a business card for Sgt. Ricky Lyle, Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.

She also said she telephoned the sheriff’s office and spoke with Capt. Dominic Piscitello. She said Piscitello became very angry and suggested that perhaps she (Kruger) needed to be investigated.

Ruby Kanger, Johnny Sheffield’s mother-in-law, told me she was going to need to be paid “big money” for her story, because she was going to have to leave town if she told what she knew.

Staubs’ involvement and activity in the missing child case creates many questions that always lead back to the story Kruger told. When Staubs’ activities are carefully examined, it does not really appear he was searching for a child.

Rather - it appears he is ‘involved’ with the missing child case somehow – not searching.

Many believe Staubs was creating false leads and planting items of evidence in various locations.

A recording of Staubs, Jeremiah Regan, and Matthew Staubs (William Staubs’ son) provides some unique insight into what might really have been going on during Staubs’ ‘search’ for HaLeigh. Matthew Staubs is heard boasting that the detective for the Sheriff’s Office is not going to find HaLeigh because he’s “too slow”.

Kruger talked about the trafficking ring, as an apparatus that receives media support that can be brought to bear against any un-cooperative witness.

“You’re talking about going up against … being on Art Harris or Levi [Page] or something,” Kruger said.

I personally understood exactly what Kruger was talking about.

Art Harris and Levi Page are bloggers that use the Web to harass and defame witnesses.

Harris was the media consultant for Sheffield’s team and produced Web stories for her and other team members. He coordinated with Staubs and Crystal Sheffield’s team about what information they should put on Nancy Grace.

Police records from the East Grand Forks Police Department in Minnesota reveal that Harris repeatedly emailed the ranking officer in 2009 – pressuring the police to arrest me. Harris lamented to the Minnesota police that the FBI had visited the workplace of his very good friend, Donna Wagoner, because of information I had given them about a Photoshopped picture of the missing child.

Interestingly, Donna Wagoner was an employee for Xentel, Inc. The company was once sued by the Iowa Attorney General for running a telephone scam on Iowa residents. It is commonly known to be of low repute. Donald Knop, staffer, Crystal Sheffield’s team, told me Donna Wagoner was in Satsuma, Florida working on the team.

Levi Page once telephoned me and hollered very loudly that HaLeigh Cummings is “dead” and told me to “shut the fuck up”.

Many find it very compelling that a blogger would telephone an author and insist that a missing child is dead. HaLeigh is classified as Missing and Endangered by the FBI and there is an Amber Alert issued for her.

On other occasions Page warned me I better be “very careful”. He was once joined on the telephone line by a private investigator from Indiana named Tina Church.

Tina Church once telephoned me with a former death row inmate, Ernie Willis, on a conference line. Willis, who was once convicted of arson and murder, advised me I needed to stop upsetting his friend.

And yet again – Kruger holds some very interesting information.

Kruger said that in 2009, Marie Griffis, HaLeigh’s maternal grandmother, advised her that an important guest was traveling a long distance to assist them. She said the guest’s name was “Christine Church”.

Church once telephoned the police department in East Grand Forks, Minnesota and falsely reported I had claimed to have HaLeigh Cummings in my apartment – this resulted in officers being dispatched to my home to clear the call.

Page and Church both told me I was going to lose my custody of my kids – Church said she was going to help make it happen. Likewise – Page hosted hour long Web radio programs declaring the HaLeigh Cummings book author is insane.

Is it possible Wayanne Kruger could know the details surrounding a human trafficking operation – and – know all these people involved in the HaLeigh Cummings case?

I don’t think so.

Because of ongoing investigations within the FBI organized crime task force, some names are being withheld from this article.