Sandra Cantu

Tracy police investigating container found in pond


By Mike Martinez and Aaron Swarts

Bay Area News Group
Posted: 04/06/2009 02:17:36 PM PDT


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Aerial view of the scene in Tracy where law enforcement officers are investigating a container...

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TRACY
— Tracy police and the FBI are scouring an area northeast of town for
clues in the case of Sandra Cantu after a large black container was
found floating in a pond that was being drained by a farmer.Concerned
that it might be related to the case of the missing 8-year-old, who
disappeared 10 days ago, at least 25 law enforcement officers spent the
day at the scene collecting potential evidence. However, at a news
conference held just before 4 p.m. this afternoon, Tracy Police Sgt.
Tony Sheneman said the container probably wouldn't be opened until
later tonight."We don't know what's in there or if there's anything or there's nothing in there," Sheneman told reporters.A
coroner's van arrived at about 3 p.m. at the scene, a farm near
Bacchetti Road in northeast Tracy about two miles north of the Orchard
Estates Mobile Home Park where Sandra was living when she disappeared
after returning home from school on March 27.Law enforcement is
restricting traffic in the area on South Tracy Boulevard at South
Lammers Road and at West Sugar Road, and the scene has become a media
circus, with multiple television cameras set up and a California
Highway Patrol helicopter circling above in the sky.The area had
been searched two times previously, Sheneman said. It's believed that
the container was not in the pond when it was last drained, about two
weeks ago. When workers noticed it, they thought it was suspicious and
called police Advertisement after pulling it over to the side of an embankment.The
scope of law enforcement and media response to the discovery highlights
how frightened and tense the community has become over the whereabouts
of the Jacobson Elementary School second-grader. Since she
vanished, the district and school have received daily calls from
parents whose children are having trouble sleeping and are suffering
from bad dreams.Cara Rodoni, a psychologist assigned to
Jacobson, has been working daily with students and their families to
help them cope with what can be a traumatic situation."Some of
the kids are very emotional and crying, maybe scared about being
kidnapped themselves; others are having trouble sleeping" she said.
"These responses are typically pretty normal for what they have
experienced."

A body that was identified as Sandra Cantu was found inside a piece of luggage Monday in a San Joaquin County irrigation pond, Tracy police said.

Two arrests have been made in connection to the disappearance of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, Tracy police said Monday.

Sandra was last seen March 27 inside Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, just off West Clover Road.

Farmworkers found a black, sealed case Monday while they were draining a pond near Bacchetti Road, about two miles from Orchard Estates.

Police said it was a black piece of luggage of significant size with both hard and soft sides.

Officials in white suits removed the luggage from the pond shortly after 5 p.m. It was loaded into a van and driven to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office in French Camp.

http://www.kcra.com/news/19112110/detail.html