Sandra Cantu Murdered
Tracy California
Original Story of Missing girl
Sandra Cantu was last seen March 27, when she came home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend. A short time later she left that home to visit with another friend at the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy, CA. She never made it home.
The children at the park would often play at one another's homes and also in the park's open spaces, including a basketball court and a pool.
Sandra was last seen wearing a pink pink "Hello Kitty" shirt and black leggings. She is Hispanic, four feet” tall and weights approximately 45 pounds. She has light brown or brown hair and brown eyes.
On April 1st, volunteers going through trash found a Hello Kitty T-shirt, Tracy police said. But Sandra Cantu's mother said the shirt isn't her daughter's.
Meanwhile, the reward for information on the 8-year-old's whereabouts increased to $22,125.
Sandra lives with her mother, Maria Chavez, grandparents and three older siblings.
Chavez’s father had recently installed surveillance cameras on the home, even though he stated that he had felt the area was safe. One of them captured the last image of Sandra walking away from the home around 4 Friday afternoon, four hours before her worried mother reported her missing.
It was at that pool in the summer of 2007 that the Chavezes placed a call to police that is now being looked at more carefully. A man, Frank Wohler, Chavez said, made an inappropriate move with the little girl in plain sight.
"My mother-in-law saw him march over, sweep her hair off her face and give her a kiss on the lips," Chavez said, adding that the man was an Orchard Estates resident who still lives in the park.
Sheneman said he found out about the neighbor's kiss on Saturday. Wohler is a man in his 60s who is still a resident of the park.
He stated in a KCRA news report that he kissed Sandra "to be nice" when she was 6 years old. Police did search his home and seized items.
The girl's father, Daniel Cantu, was interviewed in Tracy by police Thursday. He said he took a polygraph test. Cantu, who lives in Mexico, was also interviewed, Wednesday, by police.
Police have searched four mobile homes in the park, another address in Tracy and property in Oakdale. Four cars have also been impounded.
Two people named in earlier search warrants are not considered "persons of interest" or suspects, Watney said during a news conference on Thursday morning.
JurorThirteen will be following this investigation.
Read Resource details...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=7210841&page=2
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7210841&page=1
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/02/california.missing.girl/
http://www.kcra.com/video/19059893/index.html
http://www.counton2.com/cbd/news/national/article/dad_of_missing_8-year-old_california_girl_to_undergo_polygraph/23045/
UPDATES
To comment on this story Click Here!
09-12-08
Melissa Huckaby Faces the Death Penalty
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Melissa Huckaby, the former Sunday school teacher accused of murdering her 8-year-old neighbor, the San Joaquin Country district attorney's office announced Thursday.
Huckaby – who was charged with kidnapping and murder in April – allegedly killed Sandra Cantu, one of her daughter's friends, on March 27 in Tracy, Calif., stuffed her body in a suitcase and dumped it in a lagoon.
Huckaby, 28, pleaded not guilty June 12 but was indicted by a grand jury on charges she kidnapped, rapped and murdered Cantu. A trial date has not been set.
Resource...
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20303965,00.html
08-17-09
Huckaby Indicted
A San Joaquin County grand jury has returned a five-count indictment against Melissa Huckaby, accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu of Tracy.
The indictment was read in court this afternoon where Huckaby, who appeared with several fresh scratches on her forehead, appeared with her attorney.
Huckaby, 28, was indicted for murder with three enhancements: kidnapping, lewd and lascivious acts on a child and rape with a foreign object — all related to the death of Sandra Cantu.
The girl's body was found April 6 in a black suitcase in an irrigation pond near the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where the Huckaby and Cantu families live.
Huckaby was also indicted on two counts of furnishing a harmful substance and one count of child endangerment. Those counts relate to the alleged drugging of a Hayward man and of another Tracy girl in the months before Sandra went missing. Those cases are unrelated to Sandra's death.
Deputy DA Thomas Testa said the cuts on Huckaby's forehead stemmed from an incident at San Joaquin County Jail this morning. He said he could not discuss it further.
The case is under a judicial gag order, and the grand jury transcripts are temporarily sealed. Huckaby did not enter a plea. She returns to court Sept. 10.
Testa said the District Attorney's office is treating the case as if it will be a death penalty case, but no decision is expected on that for one or two months.
Huckaby had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing in September, where a judge would have determined if there was enough evidence for trial after hearing testimony from witnesses during several public hearings.
Instead the grand jury, which met in secret, heard that testimony last month. The grand jury's indictment makes the public preliminary hearings no longer necessary.
Tracy police arrested Huckaby April 10, two weeks after Sandra was reported missing March 27.
Sandra was last seen near her home at the mobile home park. An intense search involving police, the FBI, friends and neighbors took place and garnered national attention. The second grader's body was found April 6.
Huckaby is being held without bail at San Joaquin County Jail.
Today's resource choice by Sophia Kazmi... Check it out!!!
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13145568
More...
http://cbs13.com/breakingnews/melissa.huckaby.indicted.2.1132335.html
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Sobbing-Melissa-Huckaby-Indicted-53500142.html
http://cbs2chicago.com/national/melissa.huckaby.indicted.2.1132360.html
07-09-09
Dad Gets Custody
The ex-husband of Melissa Huckaby, the suspected killer of 8-year-old Tracy girl Sandra Cantu, was, on Monday, granted sole custody of the couple’s daughter, court records show.
Johnny Huckaby reached a settlement with his former mother-in-law, Judy Lawless, which allows her to visit 5-year-old Madison Huckaby as long as the little girl has no contact with her mother, according to papers filed in Orange County Superior Court.
Melissa Huckaby has been held in solitary confinement in the San Joaquin County Jail since her April 10 arrest. Johnny Huckaby lives in Arkansas and Lawlesses in the Southern California city of Cypress.
A hearing brief filed Monday by Johnny Huckaby’s attorney says Madison has been “flourishing” under her father’s care. The couple married in 2004 and divorced in 2005.
The brief says Judy Lawless has been unable to prove that it would be detrimental to the girl’s well-being to be in her father’s custody.
“Madison has been doing exceptionally well in her father’s custody,” wrote Johnny Huckaby’s attorney, Ann Thompson, in the brief.
The week after Tracy police arrested Melissa Huckaby on suspicion of kidnapping, raping and killing Sandra, her ex-husband asked a judge to grant him custody of his daughter.
He included in his petition a copy of the criminal charges against Melissa Huckaby and accused her of having tried to commit suicide by swallowing razor blades.
Read resource details...
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Father+gets+custody
06-15-09
Not Guilty Plea
The woman accused of kidnapping and killing Sandra Cantu, the 8-year-old Tracy girl, went back to court on Friday. But unlike the previous three visits, this time, she entered a plea -- not guilty to all charges.
Unlike her first court appearance, this time Melissa Huckaby showed little emotion, even smiled a couple of times, as her attorney entered a plea of not guilty to all counts in the kidnap and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.
Huckaby also denied all special circumstances, including allegations she raped the girl with a foreign object.
Huckaby's preliminary hearing is now set for September. Prosecutors expect it will last about a week. That is, unless the district attorney decides to send this case to a grand jury before then.
Read Resource Details...
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=6862483
05-27-09
Strange Evidence Found On Computer
Investigators have found disturbing information on the computer of Melissa Huckaby, the Sunday school teacher accused of the abduction, rape, and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.
According to authorities, Huckaby’s hard drive contained multiple Internet searches about a murdered child in Israel.
The child, 4-year-old Rose Pisam disappeared about a year ago and was missing for months. Later, the girl’s grandfather was arrested and confessed to stuffing Rose’s body in a suitcase, which he dumped in a local river.
The similarities between the Sandra Cantu murder and the Rose Pisam case are startling:
Huckaby lived with her grandparents in the same mobile home park as the Cantu family—Rose’s mother, Marie Pisam, 23, was living with Ronnie Ron, 45, the girl’s grandfather.
Huckaby’s grandfather was the pastor at a church in Washington State during the 1980s where allegations of abuse were raised—Rose’s grandfather and mother were in a romantic relationship (Rose’s mother was married to Ron’s son Benjamin at the time).
Sandra’s body was found inside a suitcase in a drained irrigation ditch—Rose’s body was stuffed inside a suitcase placed in a river.
Huckaby hasn't entered a plea, yet, in the case. The next scheduled hearing is on June 12.
Read resource details...
http://www.examiner.com/x-1168-Crime-Examiner~y2009m5d26-Disturbing-evidence-found-on-computer-of-alleged-killer-of-Sandra-Cantu
MORE...
Poisoning Charges Added In Huckaby Case
Last Thursday, prosecutors added poisoning and child endangerment charges against Melissa Huckaby, the 28-year-old former Sunday school teacher accused of killing Sandra Cantu, 8.
Prosecutors allege Huckaby on Jan. 17 mixed a “harmful substance” into the food or drink of a 7-year-old girl.
They also accuse her doing the same thing on March 2 to a man named Daniel Plowman, who has no criminal history in this county and could not be found for comment.
A 7-year-old girl’s mother, Lora Polk, accused Huckaby in January of drugging her daughter after Huckaby took the girl without Polk’s permission to a park for four hours from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where they all lived.
When Huckaby, her own 5-year-old daughter Madison and Polk’s daughter returned, Polk said her daughter slurred her words, and couldn’t walk or sit up straight, so Polk rushed her to the hospital, where doctors found a muscle relaxant in her system.
Police investigated then but said they had too little evidence to make charges against Huckaby stick.
But now prosecutors added a felony child endangerment charge against Huckaby, and two felony counts of “furnishing a harmful substance.” A gag order prevents prosecutors, investigators, or potential witnesses from discussing the case.
Read resource details...
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?article-Prosecutors%20add%20poisoning%20charges%20against%20Huckaby%20=&page_label=home&id=2606686-Prosecutors+add+poisoning+charges+against+Huckaby&widget=push&instance=home_most_popular&open=&
05-09-09
Farmer-worker Rewarded For Finding Body
Jose Luis Franco is the farm-worker who found the suitcase containing Sandra Cantu's body. He said the day he found her, it was the worst day in his life.
Franco declined the reward money, offered in this case, and wanted it to go to the Cantu family. However, because of the foundation's bylaws, the money must go directly to him.
One man's decision to make the right choice brought closure to a grieving family," said Scott Webb, executive director of the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation.
The Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation presented Franco with the $21,643 reward in a private ceremony Thursday. Tracy police said Franco was uncomfortable with the public presentation that had been planned.
Of the reward, $5,000 came from the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation; the rest was from private donations that came pouring in from across the country during the highly publicized search for the Jacobson Elementary School second-grader.
Franco plans to use the money for his children's education.
Read Resource details...
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12317724
http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?storyid=58996&catid=2
04-25-09
Fridays Court Hearing in Huckaby Trial
After a lottery for the limited number of courtroom seats, more than two dozen members of the media crammed into the courtroom, while about 50 members of the public were allowed in. Family members of Melissa Huckaby, defendant, and Sandra Cantu, victim, each had their own row of seats.
Among the spectators in the gallery Friday were Sandra's aunt and uncle, Angie and Joe Chavez, who wore T-shirts with pictures of the girl, and two rows of relatives. Susan Levy of Modesto, the mother of slain Washington, D.C., intern Chandra Levy, sat behind the family.
On the opposite side of the courtroom sat Huckaby's father, Brian Lawless, grandmother Connie Lawless and several other relatives.
Huckaby did not enter a plea during her second court appearance, and Judge Linda Lofthus of San Joaquin County Superior Court ordered Huckaby to return May 22 for further proceedings.
Unlike her first appearance April 14, when she cried as the charges were read against her, Huckaby was dry-eyed during Friday's hearing. She nodded when the judge asked her if the May 22 date was acceptable, but said nothing during the 10-minute session. She did not look at her family.
San Joaquin County Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau said he's not sure if Huckaby will enter a plea during her next court appearance.
"Thirty days is necessary to get the rest of the information we have from the police agencies so we can turn it over to the defense so they can read the reports and have a better understanding of what's going on,'' he said. "We've already turned over 500 pages of discovery, and we'll turn over more."
Prosecutors have not decided whether to pursue the death penalty.
Attorneys from both sides were in favor of sealing Sandra's autopsy results, and the judge agreed. The judge said releasing the information about a "heinous" crime might invade the privacy rights of the girl's family and could lead to a "great danger of public outrage."
"We haven't seen anything like this in San Joaquin County," Loftus said. "A lot of courts have never seen this kind of case."
After the proceedings, Huckaby's family was escorted from the courtroom, followed by members of Sandra Cantu's family, who were ushered out a side door. Both were whisked away, accompanied by armed guards in plain clothes from the district attorney's office.
Resources...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/24/BARH178FCT.DTL
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_12218843
04-23-09
Huckaby Linked To Arson Fires
A LaPalma police Captain, Jim Enright, said that Melissa Huckaby was considered a person of interest in two fires set at a home where she lived in 2007. Citing a gag order placed on the murder case by San Joaquin County Judge Linda Lofthus, Enright declined to comment further.
According to an article in the Tracy Press, Huckaby’s roommate for eight months, Evelyn Lloyd, 47, said that police should look more closely at Huckaby’s involvement in the two fires that damaged the four-bedroom house they shared in La Palma.
Orange County Superior Court records show that Lloyd, 47, was charged with a felony count of arson on July 19, 2007. She spent 10 days in jail and was placed on suicide watch. The case against her was later dismissed.
The first fire broke out on July 19 and the other was eight days later — while Lloyd was in jail.
Lloyd said she suspected Huckaby and also their landlord, Judy Minchey.
Read full resource details...
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090423/A_NEWS/904230329/-1/A_NEWS02
http://www.kcbs.com/pages/4252988.php?contentType=4&contentId=3873246
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/state&id=6776452
04-22-09
Defense withdraws request to exhume the remains of Sandra Cantu
The public defender for murder suspect Melissa Huckaby withdrew his request to exhume the remains of Sandra Cantu for a second autopsy. Public Defender Peter Fox said that the request to perform a second autopsy on Sandra was being withdrawn because his office learned that there were preserved samples that could be examined instead. “It will not be necessary to disturb the child’s remains,” Fox said. “From a human point of view, certainly, it’s nice not to have to do that.”
Shortly after, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Loftus shut down all communication involving the case. The judge directed "parties and counsel" not to "release information or opinions concerning this case or any issue likely involved in this case."
Lofthus has taken over from San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss, who recused himself this week.
Huckaby will appear at a second arraignment at 12:45 p.m. Friday in Stockton. She is charged with one count of murder with three special circumstances: kidnapping, rape with a foreign object and lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14.
Resources...
Tracy Press
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_12193151
04-21-09
Did Melissa Huckaby Abduct Another Little Girl?
The Tracy Press reports that in January, a woman allegedly led a 7-year-old girl from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park to a nearby park, kept her there for four hours and gave her drugs
The incident was reported on January 17 by a family in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park. Huckaby lived in the same complex as did 8-year-old Sandra Cantu before police found her dead body on April 10.
The report alleges that someone took a 45-pound blue-eyed dark-haired girl to a park. The woman and the child were gone for four hours. The woman who took the girl drove a purple Kia Sportage.
Police towed a purple Kia Sportage registered to Huckaby the day after farmworkers found Sandra’s body.
When the woman returned the girl, the family took her to the hospital. A doctor found benzodiazepines in the girl’s bloodstream, the police log noted.
The FBI has asked the family of the girl not to talk about the case.
Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said he can say nothing about the reported abduction in January because it’s part of the ongoing murder investigation.
Resources...
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20273817,00.html
Tracy Press
04-17-09
Request For 2nd Autopsy Made By Huckaby Defense
While thousands of people attended a memorial service for 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, Melissa Huckaby's public defender was requesting that Sandra's body be removed from her Tracy mausoleum so the defense could conduct its own autopsy.
San Joaquin County Superior Court Presiding Judge William J. Murray Jr. said he would not make a final determination on Behar’s motion, because that decision rests with the judge assigned to the case.
Thousands Attend Memorial For Sandra Cantu
An estimated 6,000 people traveled across Northern California to pay their respects and mourn the loss of a small town community's little girl.
"Let us make this a sacred place, a place of peace to remember her life," said Don Higgins, chaplain of the Tracy Police Department, who officiated at the service and sat on the dais alongside U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and state Attorney General Jerry Brown. "This is the time to lay down your anger, your bitterness, your rage."
Why the girl's killing inspired so many people to spend their afternoon in a gym in this Central Valley farming town and bedroom community an hour northeast of San Jose, mourning a child most never met, was hard to explain.
After the memorial, a horse-drawn carriage carried Sandra Cantu's casket to the Tracy Mausoleum.
Read resource details...
http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_12160018
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090416/A_NEWS/90416015/-1/A_NEWS
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/state&id=6765683 Memorial Video
04-14-09
Rape and Molestation Charges Pending
Prosecutors said Monday they will likely include rape and molestation allegations in their murder charge against the woman suspected of killing an 8-year-old Northern California girl and putting her body in a suitcase.
Melissa Huckaby, a 28-year-old Sunday school teacher, was arrested Friday on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sandra Cantu.
Formal charges have not been filed, but San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himmelblau said Monday a murder charge against Huckaby would “likely” include the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and murder in the course of a kidnapping.
Read Resource details...
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?article-Rape
04-12-09
Woman Arrested For Sandra Cantu's Murder
Melissa Huckaby, 28, granddaughter of church pastor, Lane Lawless, from Clover Road Baptist Church, was arrested for the murder of Sandra Cantu, late Friday night. The arrest was announced at 2:00am Saturday morning, by Chief of Police, Janet Thiessen, and a news conference followed headed by Sgt. Tony Sheneman.
Huckaby is a Sunday school teacher at her grandfather's church in Tracy California, town of about 78,000 people and about 60 miles east of San Francisco.
"We have information that Sandra, by the time she was reported missing to us, that she probably had already been murdered," said Thiessen.
"I couldn't even begin to theorize what her motive was," Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said, during a 2:00am, Saturday morning, news conference.
"Sandra was very close friends with Melissa's daughter. They used to play together," Sheneman said.
Huckaby had previously told The Tracy Press that Sandra visited her home on the day of her disappearance to play with her 5-year-old daughter. But Huckaby said she'd turned Sandra away because her daughter needed to pick up her toys and Sandra went to another friend's home.
After Sandra left, her oldest sister, Miranda, went to Huckaby’s house, too. Huckaby asked Miranda if she could watch her daughter for her while she went down the street to the church. Connie Lawless was home, too.
Huckaby said that she had packed a suitcase full of things that she could use to redo the church classroom, that day. She said she set the suitcase in the driveway and realized she left her cell phone and keys in the house, so she went back in to search for them for about 15 minutes. When she couldn't find them, she got a spare key and left, accidentally leaving the suitcase in the driveway.
Huckaby got to the church and her grandmother called telling her she found the keys and cellphone. Huckaby, then, realized she had forgotten the $200 suitcase. She had her family go retrieve the suitcase, but, it was gone.
She called Tracy police, intending to file a report, but decided to do it online. She never got around to it.
Huckaby's grandmother had various things stolen from her and had heard of other theft and vandalism, at the park, so she wasn't surprised it was gone.
“I talked to the assistant manager at the mobile home park and asked him to keep an eye out for this suitcase; someone took it,” Huckaby said. “I also told some older kids to look out for it. I didn’t think much then, because, you know, kids were getting out of school, and I thought that maybe someone, maybe someone walking by, just took it.”
Huckaby's car was, also, searched by police.
Police ended up questioning Huckaby at Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, as she had been in intensive care for several days, last week, for "internal bleeding," though she wouldn't say what she was admitted for. Huckaby said she was released Thursday morning, April 9.
Sheneman confirmed early Saturday that the suitcase Sandra was found in belonged to Huckaby.
Investigators said Huckaby drove herself to the Tracy police station Friday night and underwent nearly six hours of questioning. When they snapped the handcuffs on her and placed her under arrest just before midnight, she cried, they said.
"She revealed enough information that we had probable cause to arrest her for both kidnapping and murder," Sheneman said.
Earlier Friday afternoon, Tracy police responded to a local newspaper report that the granddaughter of Lawless, Melissa Huckaby, said she had a suitcase disappear the same day Sandra vanished. The woman didn't report the possible theft to police and Sgt. Tony Sheneman said a report of a stolen suitcase was never filed.
Sheneman said Huckaby was an uncharacteristic suspect.
Huckaby was also scheduled to appear in court, April 17, to check in with a county mental health program as part of a three-year probation sentence for petty theft.
CBS Phone Interview Is Curious
Before Huckaby's arrest, CBS news recorded a phone interview they had with her, early Friday morning.
Huckaby wanted to take the focus off her grandfather. she admitted that it was her suitcase, but said it was stolen from outside of her house.
She said she called the police department about her stolen suitcase but they told her she had to go online to make the report, but, she had no internet access.
Huckaby said that she didn't know if her suitcase was used in the murder, but police were going to send her pictures of it for identification purposes.
She was asked, by the reporter, about another incident. Huckaby and her daughter were out with one of the child's friends to the park, which she'd done for the third time that week. The little girl's grandmother allowed her to go to the park, but when the mother came home from work, she didn't know where she was and that she was with Huckaby.
Huckaby said the mother had her phone number but the mother said she'd lost it.
She said everything was fine and she brought the little girl back. But, the police were called out, at the time. She was called by her grandparents to phone (?) because her mother did not know that the little girl was with her (Huckaby).
Huckaby was about to say what happened at 2:00am and the recording stopped.
Are you as surprised as I was to find out a woman, Sunday school teacher, and mother did this??? I really was shocked.
The news kept coming out about all of the sexual preditors in the area, so I guess I just got my mind set up for something like that.
When I found out Sgt. Tony Sheneman said Huckaby was an uncharacteristic suspect, my guilt for thinking it HAD to be a MAN started lifting a little.
Then, I wondered if this woman was an ex's girlfriend who didn't want him to pay child support, but... nope!
We have no idea if this is motivated or a cover up to an accident. Owize1 and I were kind of thinking along those veins, but, after watching all of the antics in the Anthony case I've concluded that ANYTHING is possible.
Share your thoughts! CLICK HERE!
Read Resource Details and more...
http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?
http://tracypress.com/pages/full_story
http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=57640&provider=top
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=7313938&page=1
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/nationalbreaking/ci_12122595
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,514435,00.html
Phone interview from CBS news
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/11/earlyshow/main4936448.shtml
04-09-09
Autopsy Finished/Family Speaks Out
The autopsy of Sandra Cantu has been completed, but authorities say the results will not be available for several weeks.
While Tracy residents mourn the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, leaving balloons and flowers at a memorial near her home, some of the relatives spoke out asking the killer to turn himself in.
When Sandra's uncle, Joe Chavez, was interviewed he said a police chaplain informed the family of Sandra's death Monday.
"When that word came in, I heard screams that I'd never heard come out of human beings before," he said. "Primal screams of love and fear like the worst horror movie you could ever watch."
The uncle says this incident has tested his faith, “I’m Catholic, we’re supposed to forgive. But this, I cannot forgive. I’ll be going to confession a lot over this.”
"There's a monster out there," added Jose Chavez, Sandra's grandfather.
The grandfather took Sandra to school every morning and picked her up every afternoon. The day she went missing he says she left his car and said, “Bye grandpa.” He went to work and never saw her again.
Sandra's mother was taken to the hospital to have her blood pressure monitored but is now recovering at her home.
Read resource details and video...
http://www.kcra.com/cnn-news/19125994/detail.html (Video also)
http://www.kron4.com/News/ArticleView/tabid/298/smid/1126/ArticleID/980/reftab/36/Default.aspx?t=Sandra-Cantu-Autopsy-Finished;-Results-Pending
http://www.fox40.com/pages/landing_sandra_cantu/?Sandra-Cantus-Family-Not-Watching-TV-Goi=1&blockID=261811&feedID=2674
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12098909?source=most_viewed
Story and video
http://www.kron4.com/News/ArticleView/tabid/298/smid/1126/ArticleID/979/reftab/36/t/Family-of-Sandra-Cantu-Visits-Growing-Memorial-Outside-Home/Default.aspx
04-08-09
Tuesday's Investigation
Police on Tuesday searched a local church and questioned neighbors of an 8-year-old girl whose body was stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in a pond, as residents were left wondering who would do such a thing in this quiet, working-class community.
The investigation has touched on everyone who lives in the complex, including a pastor who became a focus Tuesday. Investigators cordoned off Pastor Lane Lawless' home and Clover Road Baptist Church for a search after questioning him for three hours the night before.
Lawless and his wife, Connie, told reporters that they had been interviewed because they lived down the street from Sandra's family and their great-granddaughter often played with her. They said they had nothing to do with her disappearance.
"We're very open to them taking whatever they want today," Connie Lawless said. "We feel the more people they can eliminate, the quicker they will be able to get to the truth."
Police have not named any suspects in the case.
Read full resource details and more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/07/state/n004337D55.DTL
http://www.kcra.com/news/19121818/detail.html
http://www.kron4.com/News/ArticleView/tabid/298/smid/1126/ArticleID/961/reftab/36/t/Search-Warrants-Target-Church-Near-Mobile-Home-Park-Where-Sandra-Cantu-Lived/Default.aspx
4-07-09
Body Found
In a late evening news conference Monday, Chief of police Janet Thiessen announced that Sandra Cantu's body was recovered from a large rolling piece of luggage found floating in an irrigation pond just 2 miles north of her home in Tracy California. There were no identifying marks on the luggage.
Sandra was identified by the type of clothing she was wearing at the time of her disappearance. She was fully clothed in a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings according to Sgt. Tony Sheneman, during the news conference.
Sheneman said he couldn't comment on the investigation at this time except to say there were many footprints and tire tracks that they will be looking at.
The autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday morning to find out how Sandra died.
Sandra's family was notified just prior to the news conference.
Another news conference is scheduled for tomorrow at 3:30pm PDT. (NLH)
Other links...
http://www.fox40.com/pages/search_for_sandra
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/07/california.missing.girl.dead/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
04-06-09
Coroner's Van At Scene Where Container Is Found
A possibly black Garment bag or suitcase, with a red ribbon around it, was found earlier today at the bottom of a pond being routinely drained on a farm at the end of Bacchetti Road.
A coroner's van arrived at about 3 p.m. at the scene near Bacchetti Road, about two miles north of the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park where Sandra was living when she disappeared after returning home from school.
The container might shed some light on Sandra’s mysterious disappearance, said Tracy police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman. He declined to say how big the container is.
Workers found it when they were draining the irrigation ditch to water some fields, Sheneman said.
“This is the first time we’ve found something like this,” Sheneman told reporters this afternoon shortly before FBI crews showed up.
The container is of substantial size and will be transported to an undisclosed location where it will be opened.
The container will be transported to an undisclosed location where it will be opened.
Read Resource details...
http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_12083966?nclick_check=1
http://calfire.blogspot.com/2009/04/update-missing-sandra-cantu-sugar-cut.html
http://www.fox40.com/pages/search_for_sandra (3:40 pm Presser April 6)
Update 7:37pm PDT
A large black container found floating in a pond near Tracy has been taken to the San Joaquin County coroner's office, where it will likely be opened tonight by investigators looking for 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12083949?source=rss