The Shocking and Tragic Murder of Sandra Cantu

May 04, 2009

When cute little 8-year-old Sandra Cantu disappeared without a trace from her Tracy, California home on March 27, 2009, a Friday, wearing black leggings, Hannah Montana flip-flops, and a pink "Hello Kitty" T-shirt, few people, if any, would have imagined such a horrible and tragic outcome to what started out as a missing person case.  Her body was found ten days later, however, stuffed inside a large black suitcase that had been discarded in a drainage pool on a nearby dairy farm.

Caught on a security camera, little Sandra was last seen skipping near her home in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, as any happy little second grade girl would do.  When she failed to return home, residents of this peaceful community of 78,000 located east of San Francisco at first thought that she had been abducted by a male sexual deviant, the type that prey on little kids.  Their shock and horror can only be imagined when police arrested 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher at the Clover Road Baptist Church.  Huckaby lived only five units away from Sandra and her family, and the shock only intensified when police revealed that Huckaby's own 5-year-old daughter had often played with Sandra.

Hundreds of searchers comprised of police officers and volunteers searched for Sandra in the days following her disappearance, but were unable to find any trace of the girl.  Then, on April 6, 2009, workers who were emptying a drainage pond on a dairy farm about two miles from Sandra's home found the large black suitcase that contained Sandra's remains.

The police did not focus on Huckaby as a suspect until after she had provided an unusual interview with the local newspaper in which she claimed that the suitcase that had been found belonged to her.  They also reportedly found inconsistencies in her story.  The police believe that Sandra was likely already dead by the time her parents had reported her missing, and some say that the girl may have been killed in the church where Huckaby taught Sunday school.
 
The police say that Sandra had been sexually molested before being killed - but a court ordered that the autopsy report detailing the horrific crimes committed against this innocent child be sealed, for the time being.  It is probably for the best, considering that the details likely would be difficult for most people to be able to handle.

"Everyone wished us luck in finding the guy, the monster that did this," Tracy police Sergeant Tony Sheneman said.  "Finding out, one, that it's a woman that is responsible for Sandra's kidnapping and murder, and then finding out that it's a member of the community, is another blow...to learn that it was someone Sandra's family knew is a double blow."

Many people who are acquainted with Huckaby are having difficulty believing that she is capable of committing such horrible acts, and have described her as loving and "great with kids."  Some people said that she possessed a wonderful personality, and had no history of violence.  She does, however, have a history of theft convictions.  She was living with her grandparents at the time of Sandra's disappearance, and taught Sunday school at the church where her grandfather serves as pastor.

Huckaby has been charged with murder, kidnapping, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and with the utilization of a foreign object during the commission of the crime.  If convicted, Huckaby faces either life without possibility of parole, or death.  Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.  Huckaby is currently being held without bail and is on a suicide watch after purportedly attempting to kill herself by swallowing three X-Acto knife razor blades.

Related Link:
Female Sex Killers: The Devious Predators

Photo Credits: Associated Press

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Comments

[Jade Montrose]

Another excellent, condensed article by King. How any mother, especially one with a small child herself, could perpetrate such a horrific crime on another young girl, can never be fully explained, no matter what comes out in the trail.