Teacher Arrested in Cantu Murder
By
TERRY COLLINS
AP
April
11, 2009
This is so heinous, so
disgusting, and so ungodly words can not begin to express the state of evil
that could be in the heart of this mother to have acted in such a way to cover-up
the rape and murder of this little girl
in her house.
TRACY, Calif.
(April 11) – A
(Baptist) Sunday school teacher was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping
and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found in a suitcase in an
irrigation pond.
Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested at 11:55 p.m. Friday, about five
hours after she drove herself to the local police station at the request of
officers, said police Sgt. Tony Sheneman.
"She gave
enough information to us during the course of the interview that probable cause
was there to arrest her," said Sheneman. No
other arrests were made.
Police did not
say how Sandra died or give a possible motive.
Huckaby was being
held without bail at the San Joaquin County Jail, with arraignment set for
Tuesday, according to the county sheriff's Web site.
Sandra disappeared on March 27 and hundreds of volunteers and law
enforcement officials turned out to search for her. Pictures of the girl with
dark brown eyes and light brown hair were posted all over
On April 6, farmworkers draining an irrigation pond found the suitcase.
The slain girl's
aunt, Angie Chavez, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press early
Saturday that she was happy to learn of the arrest.
"I want to
know why she did it, if she did it," Chavez said.
At an early
morning news conference, Tracy Police Chief Janet Thiessen
said investigators had worked on the case tirelessly.
"We have
information that Sandra, by the time she was reported missing to us, that she
probably had already been murdered," said Thiessen.
"It has
helped us to bring Sandra home, again not in the way that we would've hoped,
but that was out of our hands shortly after she went missing."
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. Huckaby also said she had
left her suitcase in the driveway that day, and that
it was missing.
The Tracy Press
reported that Huckaby was released Thursday from
Huckaby is a granddaughter of Pastor Clifford Lawless, whose
Lawless did not
immediately respond to a call seeking comment Saturday.
Huckaby's family
had been questioned at length during the investigation, and their home and
vehicles had been searched, Sheneman said.
Huckaby was
scheduled to appear in court on April 17 to check in with a county mental
health program as part of a three-year probation sentence for a petty theft she
pleaded no contest to. In an interview with the newspaper on Friday, Huckaby said someone else by the same name was facing
charges for the attempted November theft from Target.
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Mike Martinez
Bay Area News Group
04/14/2009
STOCKTON — Melissa Huckaby, 28, was charged today with murder with three
special circumstances: kidnapping, lewd or lascivious acts and rape by a
foreign object in the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, according to a complaint filed today in San Joaquin County
Superior Court,.
At her early afternoon arraignment, Huckaby was accused of
kidnapping, molesting and killing Sandra,
who was a playmate of Huckaby's daughter and a
neighbor in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in
Shackled at the waist and ankles, Huckaby cried through most of her court appearance,
especially when the charges were read.
She did not enter a plea and was assigned a public
defender.
Huckaby, wearing a red suit, looked worn down. Court officials
said she is getting a medical evaluation.
Her father, Brian Lawless of
Sandra, the daughter of Maria Chavez and Daniel
Cantu, was last seen alive in the mobile home park on March 27. Her
disappearance set off a major search that lasted until her body was found April
6 in a suitcase floating in a pond just two miles away from her home.