SANDRA CANTU - 8 yo (3/2009) - Tracy CA

http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/national/FBI_Joins_Search_for_Missing_8_Year_Old_California_Girl_543649



Last seen wearing a Hello Kitty shirt and black leggings, Sandra has
long, light brown hair with golden highlights from spending a lot of
time out in the sun, her family said. Chavez described Sandra as a
little girl who is very talkative, would make friends wherever she'd go
and was always eager to help.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7210841&page=1

The Tracy police and the FBI are offering a $2,000 reward for any information in Sandra's disappearance.




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Thanks Admin for starting this section. I was going to suggest it today. (Clairvoyant are we?)

Sadly, I fear the worst. Based on her age and the situation she has been abducted and the perp(s) have sexually abused her and removed all traces of the crime. I have seen too many of these cases and if the FBI is involved this quickly there is more than we know.

Truly, I hope I am wrong and that she is found safe and returned BUT....

Poolside Encounter


Chavez said 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.
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, 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. The neighbor is a man in his 60s who is still a resident of
the park.
"He has been interviewed and may be interviewd again," Sheneman said,
but he also noted that all residents of the park have been interviewed.

Sandra came home from school about 3 p.m. Friday. She asked to go
play with a friend who lived a few houses down in the same mobile home
park. "I told her it was OK," Sandra's mother, Maria Chavez,
told CNN's Nancy Grace, dabbing tears. "And that was the last time I
saw her."Surveillance camera footage recorded the girl playing in the park. But her parents reported her missing about 8 p.m. Friday, when she was supposed to be visiting a second friend."We just know that she had gone to the first house, and played for
just a very short time. And then she was on her way to another friend's
house," said Lisa Encarnacion, the spokeswoman for Sandra's family.
"And we don't know, we can't confirm that she was there or she was not."The mobile home park has less than 100 units. There are about 80
registered sex offenders living in a five-mile radius around it. The
family has not looked at the list of offenders to see if they may know
any of them, Encarnacion told Nancy Grace. And so the search continues.

God Bless this little girl... If someone had kissed my little girl he would have found himself in the ER. What is wrong with these parents... Do they not see the dangers for these little girls....
Please come home safe :)

Homes of two men searched in missing girl case

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:17 PDT

Tracy, Calif. (AP) --Police are investigating two men they say are "persons of interest" in the disappearance of eight-year-old Sandra Cantu.

A Tracy police spokesman says officers searched the homes and towed the vehicles of two men Monday.

Items collected in the searches were turned over to the FBI crime lab for analysis.

Police are not saying why the two men have attracted the attention of investigators. The names of the men have not been released.

Meanwhile, the reward for information has grown to $7,000. Investigators are tracking down more than 150 tips that have come in from the public.

Police say there is no evidence Sandra was abducted or the victim of foul play.

She was last seen on surveillance video Friday afternoon in the mobile home park where her family lives.
___
Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, www.sfgate.com/chronicle

Did these people not KNOW that there were 80 sex offenders in the area? I would have not allowed my child to go by herself to the park or next door. This world is jsut CRAZY!!!!

mimi40 wrote:Did these people not KNOW that there were 80 sex offenders in the area? I would have not allowed my child to go by herself to the park or next door. This world is jsut CRAZY!!!!

She's only 8 FCITC! Even if there are 80 sex offenders, all 80 of them had a first victim before being labeled as such! Makes me want to cry! :.0

there are about 9 houses on my street/cul de sac and most everyone now allows their kids to play outside without an adult - i am pretty much the lone holdout - my kids are above the age of 8, but one of the kids is only 7 and her parents send her down the street to play all the time by herself. she will knock on every door until she finds someone to play with. i guess it depends on how far you let them go - i do let mine go two houses over now by themselves - but sometimes i still stand at the front door to watch. it is a hard call. this mom probably feels awful about letting her go to the friends' house - haven't heard yet how far she was allowed to go on her own - but like you all - i fear the worst.

i just finished ng from last night - mom is saying she went two houses down (but it seemed she took a while to answer) and they don't know the exact last time she was seen, maybe 8:15pm (parents of the 5 year old girl she was playing with need to confirm - why haven't they?)

in fl and in ca - 8:15 is still light out and a friday night so i guess i can see a little bit why they would allow her to come home by themselves - we have driveway drinks several times a month and the kids are running around everywhere in the cul de sac, yards, etc and we are exactly paying attention to them. i know lots of moms/dads who let their kids run (still) into the early evening hours because it is still light out. i am trying to understand their pain - i truly cannot imagine being in their shoes - and the guilt they must now feel - i know i watched my daughter run over to the neighbor's tonight, which i have just been letting her run out the door by herself. this thing has me scared. i am not sure a sex offender cares about the difference between mobile homes and 400K houses, if they are watching, when they see an opening, i think they will grab it.

oviedo45 wrote:in fl and in ca - 8:15 is still light out and a friday night so i guess i can see a little bit why they would allow her to come home by themselves - we have driveway drinks several times a month and the kids are running around everywhere in the cul de sac, yards, etc and we are exactly paying attention to them. i know lots of moms/dads who let their kids run (still) into the early evening hours because it is still light out. i am trying to understand their pain - i truly cannot imagine being in their shoes - and the guilt they must now feel - i know i watched my daughter run over to the neighbor's tonight, which i have just been letting her run out the door by herself. this thing has me scared. i am not sure a sex offender cares about the difference between mobile homes and 400K houses, if they are watching, when they see an opening, i think they will grab it.

I agree that they are hurting and felling guilty! i think we all feel guilty about things with our kids at times. This is the worst! I also was on to hold on to being mom and keeping a tight grip. Mine is 15 and she has to be in before dusk. :shock: She's not happy with that but that is how it is!
I also realize that every sex offender started somewhere. But I have checked out my own area to know how many and where they live. I think that it is more important to do when a mobile home park or apartment complexes are invovled. I live out in the country. House stays unlocked and keys in the car. But things that are more valuable are watched over with more care, my KIDS!!! I do pray they find her and she is safe! God bless this family.

mimi40 wrote:

oviedo45 wrote:in fl and in ca - 8:15 is still light out and a friday night so i guess i can see a little bit why they would allow her to come home by themselves - we have driveway drinks several times a month and the kids are running around everywhere in the cul de sac, yards, etc and we are exactly paying attention to them. i know lots of moms/dads who let their kids run (still) into the early evening hours because it is still light out. i am trying to understand their pain - i truly cannot imagine being in their shoes - and the guilt they must now feel - i know i watched my daughter run over to the neighbor's tonight, which i have just been letting her run out the door by herself. this thing has me scared. i am not sure a sex offender cares about the difference between mobile homes and 400K houses, if they are watching, when they see an opening, i think they will grab it.

I agree that they are hurting and felling guilty! i think we all feel guilty about things with our kids at times. This is the worst! I also was on to hold on to being mom and keeping a tight grip. Mine is 15 and she has to be in before dusk. :shock: She's not happy with that but that is how it is!
I also realize that every sex offender started somewhere. But I have checked out my own area to know how many and where they live. I think that it is more important to do when a mobile home park or apartment complexes are invovled. I live out in the country. House stays unlocked and keys in the car. But things that are more valuable are watched over with more care, my KIDS!!! I do pray they find her and she is safe! God bless this family.

You leave your house unlocked? I really worry about that. No matter how safe the neighborhood or how far out in the country you live, you should keep your house locked up. You never know when someone could be out and just walk right in and take over. Please, lock up so I don't worry about you 24/7. :hug:

It's interesting for me to read all these posts about not allowing your 8 year old to walk round the immediate neighbourhood when it's still light out. When I was growing up we walked everywhere to all our friends houses etc at a very young age. People never locked their doors. Now days many in NZ will still allow it. Maybe growing up in California you can't but perhaps in Denver you could. I don't know. I've never seen a trailer park except on TV but it looks a bit like a camping ground and in NZ when on holiday you would let your kids have free reign round the camp. One thing I would say about the parents being different to me is that at 8 years old my son went to bed at 8pm. If you went to a friends to play after school you had to be back at 5pm. I feel what we should be focusing on is the 80 perps nearby because I feel that kids should be safe to play in their neighbourhood and with 80 scumbags there then it would be impossible. There has to be an answer somewhere on how to manage these creeps who can never be cured rather than let them have free reign in the community and cripple our way of life. All pedofiles should be castrated IMO. I genuinely don't see a problem with doing that. Childrens safety has to be societies first priority, always.

TRACY, Calif. -- Nearly five days after a girl disappeared from a Tracy mobile home park, police said their investigation remains "very broad" and they're "keeping tabs on everybody" in the case.
Sandra Cantu, 8, was last seen Friday afternoon walking in Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park.
Investigators have gotten more than 500 tips on her disappearance, still considered a missing person case.
Lt. Jeremy Watney, spokesman for the Tracy Police Department, said authorities are also allowing for the possibility of foul play.
"Eight years old, granted, is a very young age," he said. Watney, however, added police have found "nothing to indicate there's a reason why she would leave."
"We're leaving the whole book open," he said.
Cantu's father, Daniel, told reporters Wednesday that police questioned him, including asking if he'd taking Sandra to his home in Mexico.
Watney originally said during a media update Wednesday morning that investigators did not know Daniel Cantu's whereabouts; the police spokesman later told reporters he was unaware Cantu had been dropped off at the police station.
"It was nothing that we asked him to do," Watney told reporters Wednesday afternoon. "He's done this quite frequently" to check on the case.
A student at Jacobson Elementary School, Sandra Cantu was last seen walking from her home to a friend's home within the mobile home park, located just off West Clover Road.
Anyone with information should call the Tracy Police Department at 209-831-4550. Investigators said anyone wishing to donate money for the reward fund may call police.
She's 4 feet tall, weighs 45 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. Cantu was wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings.
Volunteers have been going through trash at a local landfill, but police "have nothing to point that we're going to find anything," Watney said.
Authorities have searched five properties in Tracy -- including four mobile homes in the park -- as well as a location in Oakdale.
Three cars were seized in the investigation, police said.
A surveillance camera outside Cantu's home captured the last images of her, but Watney said police weren't releasing that footage because "there is evidentiary value in the video."

The father of a missing 8-year-old California girl pleaded with her to "scream, kick,
do what you need to do" to escape her captors as police sifted through
dumpsters and a landfill for signs of the child.
Sandra Cantu's dad Daniel said he has spoken at length with police, according to FOX San Francisco affiliate KTVU. "I've just gotten through a couple hours of being interrogated," Cantu said.
He is divorced from Sandra's mother and lives in Mexicali, along the California border with Mexico.He hasn't seen his daughter in a year, he said, but he does want to get a message to her.
"Honey, if you can get to a phone, dial 911, babe," KTVU quoted him as saying. "Scream. Kick. Do what you need to do." Cantu said he hadn't taken Sandra to Mexico. Police combed through garbage at a landfill in Tracy, Calif., but turned up no clues. A Tracy police spokesman said the search at the facility about seven miles from the mobile home park where Sandra lives with her family is
routine. Tracy Police Lt. Jeremy Watney said detectives hadn't gotten any information leading them to the
landfill, but wanted to cover their bases.Crews using bulldozers and other equipment were expected to be sifting through trash at the site all week. The girl was last seen at about 4 p.m. on March 27, when a surveillance video camera recorded her walking away from her family's mobile home in
Tracy. Her mother reported her missing at about 8 p.m. Investigators said they're poring over more than 500 leads in their search for the child, but none of the tips indicate Sandra may not be alive. "We're
not ruling anything out, because the moment we do is when we're proven wrong," Watney told KTVU. "We're going to treat it as a missing person, as a runaway, possibly foul play." To
date, four vehicles have been towed away from the mobile home park, according to the station. Detectives have scoured footage from surveillance cameras pointed at the front entrance of the park.Police say they're investigating two men classified as "persons of interest" in the case.
The men's homes have been searched and their vehicles confiscated, and the evidence collected is undergoing forensic analysis. But authorities have not said why the pair attracted the attention of
police, what their names are or how they might be connected to the missing girl.
Sandra's family held another vigil for the girl in their trailer park Wednesday night. The
child is described as Hispanic, 4 feet tall and weighing 45 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings when she was last seen.

Search for Sandra Cantu Focuses on Old River Hello Kitty Tshirt Found

Posted by Blink Thursday 2 April 2009 8:35 pm

Tracy, CA- Sandra Cantu, 8, has been missing from her family’s mobile home park since Friday March 27th. She was last seen on surveillance video at 4PM leaving her home in the opposite direction of the exit to the park.



Two men declared by Tracy Police Department as persons of interest; Frank Wohler and Christopher Sinclair, both Orchard Estates residents, remain under surveillance sources inside the investigation revealed to blinkoncrime.com.

Christopher Sinclair, 49, whose cars have been impounded for forensic testing, has a long history with the law. Blink on crime has confirmed that Mr. Sinclair has used the alias of his deceased brother Brandon on more than one occasion. Additionally, a former resident of the Orchard Estates mobile home park, Rebecca Crowler, filed a complaint in 2003 seeking a restraining order from Sinclair charging he bashed her head into a windshield. A restraining order was also sought by Sinclair’s parents a year later in February 2004; they own the mobile home he resides in currently.



They stated in their testimony seeking the order he forced his way into their home, and that he was a heavy drinker and drug abuser. Tracy Police Lt. Jeremy Watney declared Tracy PD has not ruled anyone out, including Danny Cantu, Sandra’s Father. It was reported earlier today that Mr. Cantu agreed to a polygraph test, but police would not confirm that information as it is considered proprietary.

For the third time, search efforts focued on the Old River, located north of Tracy and accessible from S. Tracy Avenue. There are unsubstantiated reports that cadaver dogs have “hit” there, but police remain tight lipped about what led them there in the first place. Within Tracy, volunteers have been sifting through trash designated for the landfill for the last five days. Police will not specify if they have found anything there or why they are sifting through the trash. Watney went on to say that Tracy PD has received almost 600 leads, all of which they follow up on, regardless of the source. Late this afternoon volunteers searching the landfill confirmed a Hello Kitty tshirt has been found in the trash. Maria Chavez, Sandra’s Mother told police the shirt was NOT hers.

Sacramento Bounty Hunter, Leonard Padilla, has thrown his hat into the search, offering a limited reward of $10K for Sandra’s safe return. Crimestoppers and The Carrington Sund Foundation have offerd a $7K reward as well.

Police are asking if you have any information about this case or Sandra’s wherabouts to call the tip line: 830-4225.

Leonard Padilla can be reached at: www.leonardpadilla.net

http://blinkoncrime.com/2009/04/02/search-for-sandra-cantu-focuses-on-old-river/

The FBI searched the Oakdale, Calif., home of a man related to the neighbor of a missing 8-year-old girl. The relative, Chris Sinclair, has been a focus of the investigation into
the disappearance of Sandra Cantu a week ago. Three vehicles connected
to him already have been seized. Feds served a search warrant on his Oakdale residence on Thursday.
Sandra was last seen about 4 p.m. March 27 walking away from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy, Calif., where she lives with her family. Her mother reported her missing about 8 p.m. that night.
Authorities widened their search for the child, but haven't revealed if their expanded efforts have paid off.

TRACY, Calif. -- Another person was questioned Friday in the disappearance of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who has been missing for a week.The
Tracy girl was last seen March 27 at Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park.
So far, police have gotten more than 800 tips and leads on the case,
with a massive volunteer effort scheduled for this weekend.Police
said they would hold a media update at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and would
release video that was shot outside a mobile home in the park.A
search warrant was executed Friday at the park for a home and a car,
police spokesman Lt. Jeremy Watney said. The car was towed, he said.The
man who was questioned Friday came voluntarily to the police station,
Watney said. He was driven to the station because he did not have
transportation.
He was not detained.Officials set up a roadblock to help monitor traffic going in and out of the park.Investigators
towed away a blue Mitsubishi sports car and a white Isuzu sport utility
vehicle on Friday, and a witness saw being taken from a mobile home in
the park. In addition, a member of the FBI Evidence Response Team Unit
was seen putting on a white jumpsuit.Earlier in the day, a man was seen being led away from unit No. 43 in the park.On
Friday evening, a witness saw a man who looked like the person who was
taken in for questioning returning to the park. He walked out of a car
and went up to unit No. 43. Someone at the door gave him a hug and he
walked inside. The man fit the description of a person wearing a plaid
Pendleton shirt and scruffy hair who was being driven by police earlier
in the day.So far, no arrests have been made in the case."It's
day seven, and we realize that, but also know that it's a lucky number
seven also and we still believe in happy endings," Lisa Encarnacion, a
representative of Cantu's family, said.
A reward for information on Cantu's whereabouts stands at $22,125.A
helicopter from the California Highway Patrol was scouring vast tracts
of open land Friday morning for any sign of the girl; Watney said
there's no reason to believe the helicopter would find anything, though.Also
Friday morning, police mentioned that Cantu has a birthmark on her
right cheek, a characteristic previously left out of her description.
She is 4 feet tall, 45 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. Cantu
was last seen wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings.
Volunteers who plan to help canvass and pass out posters should go to the fire station at 7700 Linnie Road this weekend."Any and all help is welcome," Watney said.While her father, Daniel Cantu, is not a suspect in the case, details have emerged about his criminal past.A
search of court records in San Joaquin County Superior Court showed
five criminal cases involving Daniel Cantu dating between 2001 and
2005. Charges included possession of a controlled substance; resisting,
obstructing or delaying a peace officer; possession of a controlled
substance for sale; and possession of a hypodermic needle or syringe.Records also show the court assigned Cantu to drug court at one point, but he was dropped from the program.According
to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Cantu was
sentenced to two years in prison for possession of a controlled
substance for sale. He served 13 months between September 2005 and
October 2006.
KCRA 3 tried to talk to Cantu about his criminal history, but he became upset and declined to answer questions.Cantu,
who lives in Mexico, was interviewed Thursday by police in Tracy. He
said he took a polygraph test. Cantu was also interviewed Wednesday by
police."We're leaving the door open on everybody," Watney said.

TRACY, Calif. -- Police released
video surveillance footage Saturday that shows missing 8-year-old
Sandra Cantu skipping along a neighborhood street the same day she
disappeared more than a week ago. Police were hoping the video
might jog someone's memory from March 27, the day she went missing
after playing with a friend. The brief footage shows the little
girl with brown eyes and light brown hair swinging her arms as she
skips near the mobile home park where she lives. Then she disappears
from the frame. Police have characterized Sandra as a missing
person but have not said whether they believe she was abducted. They
have not identified any suspects in her disappearance, although they
have searched several homes and towed four cars from the mobile home
park. Tracy Police Lt. Jeremy Watney said a man volunteered to talk to investigators Friday. "We have not ruled anybody out," Watney said. "Everybody is a person of interest."
Meanwhile, hundreds of volunteers continued on Saturday to scour canals
and fields near this city of 78,000 about 60 miles east of San
Francisco. Search and rescue squads on mounted horses and SUVS were
searching a remote area just outside the trailer park. The
city's community emergency response team was coordinating a push by
volunteers to circulate 11,000 new fliers with updated photographs of
Sandra. Shakil Ditta, 29, was among nearly 50 volunteers who
came to a Tracy Fire Station in a 45-minute span early Saturday to
help. He said his daughter reminded him that Sandra had been a
kindergarten classmate and a friend. "It just hit me," Ditta said. "I have an 8-year-old daughter, too."

Amber Alert: Sandra Cantu Surveillance Video Released

Posted by Blink Saturday 4 April 2009 12:12 pm

Tracy, CA- The case of missing Tracy California girl Sandra Cantu, 8, has entered it’s eighth day with no sign of the child. There have been rapid developments in the case, including the release of the 8 second surveillance footage of Sandra leaving her families home last Friday March 27th at 4 PM.