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

I watched the Memorial for Sandra and I am in awe when a community can come together in reverence and love for a precious child. No banning, no security, no attention seekers, no lies just plain love and respect. Thank you Lord, rest in peace sweet Sandra, Amen. :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S48zyMuB-L0

A judge refused to rule on a request to have a second autopsy done on 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.

The
decision was made as 4,000 people mourned young Cantu, who was found
stuffed in a suitcase in an irrigation pond 10 days after she
disappeared from her Tracy mobile home.

Melissa Huckaby's attorney, Sam Behar, requested the exhumation so the defense team could conduct their own autopsy.

Huckaby is charged with kidnapping, raping and killing Sandra.

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, the Stockton record reported.

Behar
says a second exam of the body is necessary because the initial autopsy
was done without Huckaby's best interest represented.

"Every
hour is critical," Behar told the judge, adding that he's worried
Sandra's body is deteriorating. "Any delay will be prejudicial to my
client."

Behar
is particurlarly interested in the analysis of "genital trauma" that
the autopsy indicates Sandra suffered. The findings support lewd and
lascivious acts on a child and sexual penetration charges, which make
Huckaby eligible for the death penalty if she is convicted.

The defense attorney, of course, argued against disturbing Sandra's body, which was entombed Wednesday at the Tracy Mausoleum.

"It's
obscene. I'm outraged by it," Testa told the judge. "Let me have my
detectives here, my doctor here, (Sandra's) family here."

Behar
has two options: to make his case before the state's 3rd District Court
of Appeal or to wait for next Friday's scheduled hearing in Stockton.

Many
of the people who attended the public service for Sandra
Cantu Thursday at a local high school gymnasium -- some wearing
T-shirts with Sandra's face -- wiped tears from their eyes as family
members and community leaders remembered an exuberant, loving
second-grader who screamed with joy when she rode the Matterhorn roller
coaster at Disneyland and enjoyed skipping down the city's streets.


















Images
of Sandra marking the milestones of an 8-year-old -- graduating from
preschool, blowing out birthday candles, opening Christmas presents --
played on two screens.

"She
had arms of an angel gently giving you a hug," said Sandra's aunt,
Angie Chavez, reading a poem she wrote from a lectern behind a large
portrait of Sandra. "When she told you I love you, on your heart she
would tug."http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Attorney-for-Huckaby-Wants-Second-Autopsy-on-Sandra-Cantu.html

Sandra Cantu's Murder Latest in High Profile Crimes for Tracy: Hoping for Strength Out of Tragedy

. . . . . the folks in this San Francisco suburb are also struggling to understand a rash of crimes against their children.

On the day that a preacher's daughter was arraigned on charges of raping and killing Sandra, a man who had been a substitute teacher in Tracy's schools for the last five years was in another courtroom in the same superior court to face charges he molested about a dozen children and possessed child pornography.

These twin shocks came just months after an emaciated teenager, with shackles still around his ankle, escaped the clutches of the family he had been living with.

. . . . . Then last month, Tracy police arrested long-time substitute teacher Jesse Llorente III and charged him with child pornography, and several counts of felonious lewd acts with a child.

The arrest came after fifth- and sixth-grade students in Tracy's George Kelly Elementary School reported he made them feel uncomfortable when he stroked their hair and shoulders.

. . . . . The San Joaquin District Attorney's office is prosecuting four cases from Tracy right now, according to Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau, the fourth being rape charges against plastic surgeon Peter Chi. Chi, 46, has not entered a plea but is accused of raping eight female patients and commissioning a lewd act with a 16-year-old. . . . .


http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7344342&page=1

http://abcnews.go.com/gma

SoCal officer cleared of Huckaby rape charge, probe found
by TP staff
2 hrs 10 mins ago | 565 views |

Cypress police department spokesman Sgt. Tom Bruce said today that the department there conducted an investigation into claims by a Tracy murder suspect that a cop raped her 10 years ago. The investigation cleared the Orange County officer.

Melissa Chantel Huckaby, 28, was arrested on April 10 by Tracy police on suspicion of kidnapping, raping and murdering 8-year-old Tracy girl Sandra Cantu.

On Friday, three of Huckaby’s friends – none of whom knew each other – said she told them that a policeman raped her when she was 18, just out of high school.

Bruce confirmed that there was a report and an investigation, but provided no details and referred all calls to Tracy police.

Tracy police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman said he can’t comment on an report involving Huckaby because it’s now part of an ongoing investigation.

Huckaby was arraigned on Tuesday, but entered no pleas. As charged, she could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home&id=2345658-SoCal+officer+cleared+of+Huckaby+rape+charge-+probe+found&article-SoCal%20officer%20cleared%20of%20Huckaby%20rape%20charge-%20probe%20found%20=&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead_story&open=&

Huckaby told friends she was raped
by Jennifer Wadsworth/ TP staff
15 hrs ago | 3066 views | 25

Melissa Chantel Huckaby, who has been accused of kidnapping and killing Sandra Cantu, was herself raped, according to three friends who talked with the Tracy Press. Press file photo

A woman accused of kidnapping, raping and killing an 8-year-old Tracy girl told three of her friends separately that she was once raped herself.

At the time of the rape, Melissa Chantel Huckaby was 18, just out of high school and still living with her parents in La Habra, a city in Orange County, the friends said.

The three people who knew Huckaby at different times in her life told the same story. None knew each other. One was a high school friend, another was from a vocational school, and a third was from where she used to work — all from Southern California.

The three asked that their names be withheld, because Huckaby told them of the rape in confidence. They also said they’re afraid of being caught in the media spotlight.

They all said the rape occurred at a time when Huckaby’s life began to spiral downward.

Her first serious boyfriend had moved away, which broke her heart.

Her best friend had moved away to college.

Huckaby had trouble getting along with her family, said the friends.

Private letters shared by one source indicate Huckaby was suicidal, and had been since the sixth grade.

According to a passage one of her friends read over the phone, the letter dated May 20, 1999, read: “I just wasn’t meant to live, I guess. No one wants me or even cares if I live or not, and I’m just in the way, anyways.”

Earlier in 1999, before Huckaby graduated from Brea-Olinda High School, her grades dropped, she got kicked off the dance team, and she became more withdrawn, one friend said.

Soon after graduating from high school 10 years ago, a cop asked her out on a date. Afterward, the police officer handcuffed her, shoved her in the back seat of his car and raped her — a story that all three friends said Huckaby told them.

Huckaby never reported the incident to authorities, the friends said. One of her best friends was unsure if Huckaby’s family even knew.

Today, Huckaby is 28 years old. The Sunday school teacher and single mother of a 5-year-old girl named Madison was put on suicide watch at the San Joaquin County Jail as soon as she was arrested, shortly before midnight April 10.

Police booked her without bail on suspicion of kidnapping, raping and killing second-grader Sandra Cantu. Four days earlier, farmworkers draining a filthy dairy pond north of town found a suitcase identified as Huckaby’s. Inside, police found Sandra’s body. She had been missing since March 27.

During Sandra’s disappearance, hundreds of volunteers joined 18 agencies to search for the girl. The desperate hunt for her whereabouts turned into a murder investigation when police opened the black Eddie Bauer bag to find Sandra’s body.

The mood changed from hopeful, to fearful and angry. Parents talked about how they looked forward to the day when police would find the “psychopath,” the “monster” who murdered Sandra.

Several neighbors in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where Sandra lived five doors down from Huckaby, became suspicious of one another. Many started keeping their children inside and keeping a closer eye on their neighbors, several said.

When news broke that the alleged killer was a friend to Sandra, many in the neighborhood said they felt betrayed that the alleged killer was someone Sandra knew. Sandra used to play with Huckaby’s daughter, Madison, a bright-blonde, blue-eyed but sickly girl.

“It was someone she trusted,” said 26-year-old Amber Austin, a mother of two, the morning after Huckaby’s arrest. “The frightening thing is that they knew each other. That’s scary.”

Sandra's uncle, Joe Chavez, said he found it difficult to contain his rage toward Huckaby's family.

"I want to go over there and beat the crap out of those people,” he told an Associated Press reporter on Easter Sunday, two days after the woman’s arrest. “But I'm not going to do that. I just want to vent my anger, but it's not in me."

Friends and family said few knew much about the hardships Huckaby had endured for most of her adult life — bankruptcy, divorce, physical abuse, depression. Even fewer knew of her struggles before that and how emotionally fragile she was for most of her life.

A classmate of hers at Bryman College — a Southern California vocational school Huckaby attended in 2005 — said she remembers vividly the day the recent divorceé told her about the assault.

Huckaby’s face flushed, it wrinkled, she sobbed, she got angry, said the classmate, who asked to withhold her name because the story was told in confidence.

“I had never seen her angry before, she was very laid-back, relaxed, so I figured she must have been telling the truth,” said the friend, who said the only reason she shared the story with the Tracy Press is because she believes it would make Huckaby sound more human.

“Everyone makes her out to be a monster,” she said. “But she went through a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”

Another friend — who said she knew Huckaby very well during the two years before Huckaby was assaulted and also asked for anonymity — said she knew the preacher’s daughter had deep-seated troubles, but never knew their extent. The friend said she knew Huckaby would slash her wrists at times, and wore long-sleeved shirts in the summer to hide the self-inflicted gashes.

“She’s just a wounded person,” said the friend, sobbing uncontrollably. “I don’t think people understand that she’s so wounded, that she has so much pain in her life.”

Huckaby’s father, Brian Lawless, 45, has said that after high school, his daughter’s life started to unravel.

She became rebellious, he said. She hit a rough patch in life. She had a tough time keeping a job as a single mother. She battled depression.

To corroborate the personal accounts is a paper trail that begins in Huckaby’s early 20s.

Public records tell a story of a woman who claimed abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend and ex-husband, who filed for bankruptcy, who racked up enormous medical bills and who was arrested twice for petty theft.

She bounced back and forth over the years from Northern California, where her grandparents live, to Los Angeles County, where she grew up and where her parents still live.

That last arrest for property theft landed her in the San Joaquin County mental health courts. When Tracy police arrested her on suspicion of killing Sandra, Huckaby had recently started serving a three-year probation after pleading no contest in January to theft and burglary for stealing or trying to steal from Target in Tracy.

She missed a court date with a county-appointed psychiatrist on April 3, days before Sandra’s body was found, records show.

When reports came out that police found Huckaby’s suitcase, she was admitted to the local hospital in Tracy for what she described as “internal bleeding.” She refused to elaborate when asked just hours before her arrest. But police said they went to the hospital during her stay to keep an eye on her. Police said over the scanner on April 7 that they had to change detail at the hospital.

Huckaby’s grandfather, 77-year-old Tracy pastor Clifford Lane Lawless, said Friday he didn’t know what to say about the stories of his granddaughter’s rape.

“I’m not really of a mind to talk right now,” he said.
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?article-Huckaby%20told%20friends%20she%20was%20raped%20=&page_label=home&id=2341927-Huckaby+told+friends+she+was+raped&widget=push&instance=home_news_bullets&open=&

I am sorry but it looks like another case of someone needing attention. She seems to accuse everyone she comes in contact with, as abusing her in some way or another.......if in fact any of this is true, this is NO excuse for what she did to this little innocent child.......but I sure see where the defense will be going with this.

Claim abuse, claim mental health issues, claim suicidal thoughts and whatever you do is okay. That is BS in my opinion.

Annabeth wrote:I am sorry but it looks like another case of someone needing attention. She seems to accuse everyone she comes in contact with, as abusing her in some way or another.......if in fact any of this is true, this is NO excuse for what she did to this little innocent child.......but I sure see where the defense will be going with this.

Claim abuse, claim mental health issues, claim suicidal thoughts and whatever you do is okay. That is BS in my opinion.

I so agree with you Annabeth!!! I was physically abused almost every day of my young years up until 9 or 10....I would never ever harm a child or anyone else. People need to start taking responsibility for their own actions and not go into court and blame it on your upbringing...it just pisses me off when I hear things like this.

NanaMichele wrote:

Annabeth wrote:I am sorry but it looks like another case of someone needing attention. She seems to accuse everyone she comes in contact with, as abusing her in some way or another.......if in fact any of this is true, this is NO excuse for what she did to this little innocent child.......but I sure see where the defense will be going with this.

Claim abuse, claim mental health issues, claim suicidal thoughts and whatever you do is okay. That is BS in my opinion.

I so agree with you Annabeth!!! I was physically abused almost every day of my young years up until 9 or 10....I would never ever harm a child or anyone else. People need to start taking responsibility for their own actions and not go into court and blame it on your upbringing...it just pisses me off when I hear things like this.

NanaMichele........i am crying for your missed childhood and the pain you went through when you should have been laughing and playing. Look at the wonderful person you have become. I for one am honored to know you. Reading your words makes me so much angrier at people who use abuse, mental illness as a crutch to do whatever the hell they please. We here far to little about people like you who endured the worst and yet have the strength, courage to come out a shining star. :hug: :hug: God Bless you and thank you for sharing.

Annabeth wrote:

NanaMichele wrote:

Annabeth wrote:I am sorry but it looks like another case of someone needing attention. She seems to accuse everyone she comes in contact with, as abusing her in some way or another.......if in fact any of this is true, this is NO excuse for what she did to this little innocent child.......but I sure see where the defense will be going with this.

Claim abuse, claim mental health issues, claim suicidal thoughts and whatever you do is okay. That is BS in my opinion.

I so agree with you Annabeth!!! I was physically abused almost every day of my young years up until 9 or 10....I would never ever harm a child or anyone else. People need to start taking responsibility for their own actions and not go into court and blame it on your upbringing...it just pisses me off when I hear things like this.

NanaMichele........i am crying for your missed childhood and the pain you went through when you should have been laughing and playing. Look at the wonderful person you have become. I for one am honored to know you. Reading your words makes me so much angrier at people who use abuse, mental illness as a crutch to do whatever the hell they please. We here far to little about people like you who endured the worst and yet have the strength, courage to come out a shining star. :hug: :hug: God Bless you and thank you for sharing.

Thank you Annabeth...but please no crying for me...there is a reason for everything..my childhood made me a better wife, Mom and Nana. I am proud to be a survivor of an abusive childhood! I am proud to be the Mom and Nana that I am and I am very proud to be a friend of yours and all the other wonderful people in this forum.

Here are two pages from websites I used to do..

http://www.geocities.com/michele0555/THEABUSEDCHILD.html?1082123879470

http://www.geocities.com/michele0555/11thcommandment.html?1082133894470

NanaMichele wrote:Here are two pages from websites I used to do..

http://www.geocities.com/michele0555/THEABUSEDCHILD.html?1082123879470

[url=http://www.geocities.com/michele0555/11thcommandment.html?1082133894470

http://www.geocities.com/michele0555/11thcommandment.html?1082133894470[/quote[/url]]

Beautiful Michele, just beautiful......

NanaMichele wrote:Here are two pages from websites I used to do..

http://www.geocities.com/michele0555/THEABUSEDCHILD.html?1082123879470

Nana]http://www.geocities.com/michele0555/11thcommandment.html?1082133894470

Nana these 2 websites help those of us who were not abused understand what these children go through. I am so sorry that you were an abused child, but I am so proud of you for the person you have become. Love and Hugs :loving:

Sandra Cantu Case: Huckaby’s Dark Past Emerges

Posted by Blink Monday 20 April 2009 2:22 pm



Tracy, CA- As we all watched the horrific events leading up to the finding of Sandra Cantu’s remains in a suitcase in an irrigation pond, there was a collective feeling of “There has to be more”. When murder and rape suspect Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested and we watched her appearance in court, the confusion was palpable.

Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman stated the Tracy PD is getting hundreds of calls per day from the public emphatically declaring there is no way she acted alone in the molestation, rape and murder of this beautiful child we last saw skipping past her home. The fact that Tracy PD admits they do not have a motive for this crime, and can’t begin to speculate on one, leaves most of us struggling to accept or discount, in some cases both, the senseless scenario of a woman without a violent past viciously raping and murdering an innocent little girl.

Melissa Huckaby’s family and friends burst onto the scene immediately upon her arrest to proclaim other than mild depression, she had no psychological markers to indicate she was capable of such an atrocity. Joni Lawless Hughes , Huckaby’s aunt, went as far as to say this was completely out of character and they could not and did not believe she committed the crimes she is accused of. As is usually the case fairly quickly after a crime of this nature, friends and known associates of Melissa Huckaby are telling a very different story.

Suicidal in the Sixth Grade

A classmate of Huckaby’s, Emily Fontes, recounts a very sad and early indication Melissa was deeply troubled. In a letter dated May 20, 1999, one month before her graduation, Huckaby claims to have been suicidal since the sixth grade. An excerpt:

..All I know is I have come up with a solution that will solve all
my problems, and I have been seriously thinking about it.. I have been
thinking about it for a very long time and I am very serious about it..
When I was little, like sixth grade, I used to pray like every night
that I would not wake up in the morning. I just wasn’t meant to live I
guess. No one wants me or even cares if I live or not and I’m just in
the way anyways.

High School Years

Huckaby grew up in LaHabra and attended Brea High School. Carol Finn was Huckaby’s former dance instructor and was shocked to learn of her arrest:

“It’s shocking that anyone would do that, but it’s very surprising
that Melissa would do it,” “I think sometimes kids in high school, you see
there’s hatred or they are upset about things in the world. … But Melissa
was never that way.” “You know there … are students, they did something
bad and you say, ‘Oh well, I could see that coming.’ But that wasn’t the case
with Melissa at all. You never would have dreamt that she (would do) anything bad.”

Finn said Huckaby and a friend would regularly visit her during lunch and after school. Finn doesn’t believe Huckaby had previous dance training but enjoyed dancing. Huckaby never caused any problems.

Trouble Begins

A source inside the investigation of Melissa Huckaby has confirmed that her first serious boyfriend and high school sweetheart moved away right around the time Melissa began having difficulty at home with her parents, as did her best friend.


It was at this time, during the end of her senior year, that Huckaby accused a Cypress Police Officer of raping her in the back of his patrol car while she was in handcuffs. As first reported by The Tracy Press, three of Huckaby’s friends who do not wish to be identified begrudgingly divulged the information about the rape to Tracy Press reporter Jenn Wadswoth. All claim they do not know one another, and according to Wadsworth all 3 stories were identical. As my readers know, I do not report unsubstantiated rumor on blinkoncrime, especially from unverifiable sources. I emailed Ms. Wadsworth of my concern to carry her piece without corroberation and in very short order, she had confirmation on the invesigation of the alleged rape report by Melissa Huckaby from Sgt. Tom Bruce from Tracy Press:

Cypress police department spokesman Sgt. Tom Bruce said today that
the department there conducted an investigation into claims by a Tracy
murder suspect that a cop raped her 10 years ago. The investigation
cleared the Orange County officer.

One has got to ponder the relationship between the occurrances at this time in Huckaby’s life almost concurrently. Boyfriend and best friend move away, parents adopt a baby girl, Huckaby alleges rape. How these incidents unfolded chronologically and by what catalyst will undoubtedly provide a significant window into her behavior going forward.

(editors note: My sincere thanks to Ms Wadsworth for verifying the authenticity of this information and I look forward to her upcoming exclusives on the Sandra Cantu case. This reporter is doing exactly what reporters are supposed to do- report fairly and accurately, yes, but investigate! Her work has progressed this case without a doubt and I applaud the zeal of an investigative colleague any day.)

Huckaby is said to have divided her time between Tracy and Orange County for the time period following her graduation up until June 2008 when she moved in with her grandparents, Connie and Pastor Clifford Lane Lawless. In 2002, Huckaby took out a restraining order against a recent former boyfriend, Josh Palmer . According to those documents, she alleged the respondent was threatening to kill her and her grandfather, Lane Lawless.

On a recent GMA appearance, Johnny Huckaby, Melissa’s former husband and father of their 5 year old daughter, confirmed that she had been dating someone prior to their relationship that was a cause for concern for Melissa. Blinkoncrime has learned from court records Mr. Palmer was arrested for a DUI with a special circumstance of having a passenger under the age of 14 at the time of the citation, but the identity of the child is not known. Mr. Palmer has an extensive criminal record.

In 2003, Huckaby claimed bankruptcy which included charges from 2 ambulance transportations and outstinding hospital bills. As she was receiving public asisstance at the time, it is unclear what the fees were for, and why should would not have been eligible for indigent charge off. She married Juhnny Huckaby and give birth to their child a few months later.

In 2005 Huckaby got a job as a Medical terminologist and divorced Johnny Hukaby; who has not spoken to her or seen his daughter since chortly thereafter. It would seem the ascension into what appears to be Ms. Huckaby’s psychological downturn starts to be more visual beginning with her theft charges in 2006 in Los Angeles County. Almost immediately following that arrest, Huckaby and her daughter moved to a home in La Palma.

Were there Was Smoke There was Fire

In 2007, Melissa Huckaby rented a room at 7101 Caprice Circle, La Palma. It appears to be a spacious home in a nice neighborhood and Huckaby’s roomate Evelyn Lloyd had enjoyed living there for the last 12 years:

“She was very nice … very cordial,” said Evelyn Lloyd, her housemate who lived at the house for about 12 years. “Every girl who ended up in (that) house had a story. She (Huckaby) really didn’t have a story. She was very secretive.”

In 2007, two fires were set at the house just eight days apart. Lloyd was arrested in the first fire on July 20, but the case against her was dismissed. Lloyd said Huckaby might have set her up.

Huckaby and her daughter were at the house when the second fire broke out, on July 28, said La Palma Police Chief Edward Ethell. Everyone who lived at the house, including Huckaby, was questioned about the fire. Huckaby was considered a “person of interest,” but she was not arrested, Ethell said. La Palma police officers are sharing information about the fire case with the Tracy Police Department and the investigation is ongoing.

According to John Hughes, Huckaby’s Uncle, Melissa moved in with the Lawless’s in Orchard Estates 10 months ago. In November of 2008, Huckaby was sentenced to 3 years probation and mandatory participation in a Mental Health program for a petty theft conviction in San Joaquin County. Huckaby’s counselors felt she was making progress, was taking psychotropic medications, and were ready to proceed to her next appearance on April 3rd; which she missed.

One thing that seems to be clear in the last several years of Ms. Huckaby’s life, there are several flags that even to a layman, would bring cause for concern, putting it mildly. What I find again in Sandra’s case, is the brutally preventable death of a child.

I am not suggesting that grandparents are responsible for their children’s actions as they are parenting their grandchildren.

However, it cant be lost on anyone that Huckaby’s daughter was wisked away to Cypress the day after Sandra went missing .

What prompted that decision? At what point when the parents of an individual demonstrating overt wrecklessness with their children are the grandparents obligated to come forward and report them to CFS?

In this case, I would offer a woman being investigated for arson, convicted of theft, and on psych meds worthy of an intervention of some kind. In the three largest missing children’s cases in recent history: Caylee Marie Anthony, Haleigh Cummings and Sandra Cantu, there is one glaring common denominator. Their grandparents were AWARE of behavior on behalf of their child that put their grandchildren or in this case, someone’s else’s child at risk.

http://blinkoncrime.com/2009/04/20/sandra-cantu-case-huckabys-dark-past-emerges/

WTH, Huckabee abducted a 7 year old girl before this violation of Sandra? And the little girl was returned with diazapam (sic) in her system? I can't believe this at all!!

Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2009


Bee News Services
TRACY -
The woman charged with killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu has been linked
to a report of a younger girl who went missing briefly in January,
media outlets said Monday. Melissa Chantel Huckaby is tied to a report
that someone took a 7-year-old girl to a Tracy park for four hours and
brought her back under the influence of muscle relaxants, the Tracy
Press
and several TV news stations reported.Farmworkers found Sandra's body
in a pond April 6; police arrested Huckaby four days later.Huckaby,
28, mother of one of Sandra's playmates and a Sunday school teacher at
her grandfather's nearby church, was charged with the murder, rape and
kidnapping of Sandra. She could be sentenced to death if convicted.





Melissa Huckaby, 28, center, listens in a
Stockton, Calif., courtroom to public defender Ellen Schwarzenberg,
left, during her arraignment, Tuesday, April 14, 2009. (Paul Sakuma /
The Associated Press)
A family in Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where Huckaby and Sandra
also lived, reported the other incident Jan. 17. According to the Tracy
Press, the parents of a blue-eyed, dark-haired, 45-pound girl told
police that someone took her to a park. They were gone for four hours,
returning after 5 p.m.The
woman who took the girl drove a purple Kia Sportage, the Tracy Press
cited the police report as saying. Police towed a purple Kia Sportage
registered to Huckaby on April 11.An officer said the girl might
be with a mobile home park resident's "granddaughter," the Tracy Press
said, citing the police log. Huckaby lived with her grandparents,
Clifford and Connie Lawless.When the woman returned the girl,
the family took her to the hospital, where a doctor found
benzodiazepine -- a muscle relaxant -- in the girl's bloodstream, the
Tracy Press said, again citing the police log.Although the
girl's mother called police, responding officers said they believed the
mother was under the influence of alcohol and she had some kind of drug
in her possession. The Tracy Press cited a family friend who said
police dismissed the incident because of the mother's drug and alcohol
problem.Police
would not comment on the case because of the murder
investigation.Huckaby is to return to court for a hearing Friday at
12:45 p.m. in front of Judge Franklin Stephenson.Also
this week, a decision is expected on a motion filed by deputy public
defender Samuel Behar, Huckaby's attorney, to exhume Sandra's body for
a second autopsy.The San Joaquin County coroner conducted an
autopsy on Sandra but has not released the cause of death pending the
results of toxicology tests.In his motion, Behar wrote that a
second autopsy, which would be conducted by Dr. Terri Haddix, a
forensic pathologist hired by the defense, was "extremely crucial and
material to Ms. Huckaby's defense."
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/673675.html

Susmihara wrote:WTH, Huckabee abducted a 7 year old girl before this violation of Sandra? And the little girl was returned with diazapam (sic) in her system? I can't believe this at all!!

i posted a story about this -

Huckaby questioned in previous drugging of little girl.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/30321980#30321980

http://abcnews.go.com/gma

(Scroll down in center of page - Recently on GMA)

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7388653

Direct link to video

ginybe wrote:http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7388653

Direct link to video

This is so sad, maybe if she had been investigated for this Sandra would still be alive. This whole neighborhood sounds like it is not the place to let children out without their parents. :shock:

Annabeth wrote:

ginybe wrote:http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7388653

Direct link to video

This is so sad, maybe if she had been investigated for this Sandra would still be alive. This whole neighborhood sounds like it is not the place to let children out without their parents. :shock:

Yes it is a real shame this was not looked into future, I wonder if the child was checked for abuse also. I also wonder if her daughter has been checked over by a doctor for drugs or abuse. Very sad situation.

http://www.wesh.com/video/19246936/index.html

Huckaby Tied To SoCal Arson Case, Police Say

Woman Arrested In Homicide Of Sandra Cantu

POSTED: 3:56 pm PDT April 21, 2009
UPDATED: 7:33 pm PDT April 21, 2009

TRACY, Calif. -- Police said Melissa Huckaby, the woman charged in the homicide of 8-year-old Tracy girl Sandra Cantu, is a suspect in one or two house fires in Southern California, according to police. However, police said she would not be charged in that case.

KCRA 3 and a reporter from NBC 11 talked in San Jose with the La Palma police department in Orange County on Tuesday.

Video: Huckaby Involved In SoCal Fire Investigation

Huckaby had rented a room in a home in La Palma and arson was to blame for a minor fire and later a moderate fire in the same house.

Police confirm Huckaby is a suspect in at least one or possibly two fires that occurred in July 2007.

A week before Huckaby was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Cantu, La Palma police contacted the Tracy Police Department.

Police said Huckaby's current arrest takes priority over the fires, so the La Palma investigation will stop and she will not be charged in that case.

Huckaby, 28, was charged last week in Cantu's homicide. The girl's body was found in a suitcase pulled from an irrigation pond 10 days after she went missing.

Prosecutors added to the charge the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14 andmurder in the course of a kidnapping.

Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said Tuesday that Judge Linda Lofthus ordered a gag order in the case.

"Parties and counsel" are directed not to "release information or opinions concerning this case or any issue likely involved in this case," according to the order.

http://www.kcra.com/news/19244229/detail.html