Sandra Cantu Case: SOURCE SAYS ARREST IMMINENT
Tracy, CA- Breaking developments coming out of the investigation of the abduction and murder of 8 year old Sandra Cantu. Tracy Police Sergant Tony Sheneman stated during yesterday’s press conference that detectives are narrowing their investigation in one direction, but declined to name a subject.
..We are still looking forward to a conclusion to this, but I cannot tell you what time,” “First of all, there are a lot of things that go on in an investigation that we do not want the public to hear because part of the public would be some of the suspects,” he said. “We do not want them to know what we are doing. We don’t want whoever it is to be tried on television. We want them to receive a fair trial in court. We want them to receive the punishment they deserve there.”
Over the past few days Sheneman has attempted to quell rumors of an imminent arrest, but this afternoon a source close to the case confirmed to Blink on Crime there has been a significant development in Sandra’s case Tracy Police will be announcing at 11:15 am PST.
Check back to Blink on Crime for updates following the press conference.
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“Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested at 11:55 p.m. Friday on suspicion of murder and kidnapping after voluntarily going to police for questioning nearly five hours earlier, Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said.” MSNBC
Who won the pool? Blink..
39, 38, 35, 32, 31, 16, 17, I lost
I have always had a problem thinking a woman would kill a child.
But they do! Why? Why? This breaks my heart!!!
Arrest made. Melissa. OMG. Please let them have a rock solid case.
Apparently this Huckster character has quite an arrest record. She is a talker though. She is one that tries to splain it all away and digs a deeper hole. Where was her daughter when she was killing this little?
Breaking news: ARREST
by TP staff3 hrs 2 mins ago | 1942 views | 13 | 15 | | Twenty-eight-year-old Melissa Chantel Huckaby was arrested at 11:55 p.m. Friday on suspicion of kidnapping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.
Huckaby was arrested at the Tracy Police Department, where she had gone voluntarily for questioning nearly five hours earlier, police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman said.
She was booked into custody at 2:49 a.m. Saturday at San Joaquin County Jail, in French Camp.
Huckaby, a West High School graduate, lives with her grandparents, Clifford Lane Lawless and Connie Lawless, in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where Sandra lived.
No other arrests were made, and Sheneman offered no other details but said he would have a press conference at 10 a.m. today.
Huckaby told a Tracy Press reporter in an exclusive interview Friday that she teaches Sunday school at Clover Road Baptist Church, her grandfather’s church just down the street from the mobile home park.
She said someone took her large, black suitcase that she’d left in her driveway on March 27, the same afternoon that Sandra went missing.
Police found Sandra’s dead body in a black suitcase submerged in a dairy lagoon 2 miles north of the mobile home park.
Earlier Friday evening, FBI agents and police were seen at the Baptist church, where they loaded what looked like a fold-up bed into a crime scene van. They had searched the church on Monday.
Huckaby told the Tracy Press that she and her 5-year-old daughter had lived for the past year with her grandparents and that on March 27 Sandra had stopped by her house and asked to play with her daughter. Huckaby said she’d said no, because her daughter needed to pick up her toys and that Sandra went to another friend’s home.
Huckaby’s dark purple Kia SUV was towed and searched by police Tuesday night.
When she talked to the Tracy Press Friday, she said she wasn’t the same Melissa Huckaby who pleaded no contest Jan. 9 to a felony charge of second-degree commercial burglary and a misdemeanor charge of petty theft after being arrested in November 2008 for trying to steal something from Target. She had been examined by doctors and was deemed mentally competent to stand trial. She was due back in court next week for sentencing.
The criminal complaint also shows she was locked up in Los Angeles County for conviction of property theft in 2006.
Huckaby was released Thursday from Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, where she spent several days in the intensive care unit for what she described as “internal bleeding.” Police were stationed at the hospital during her stay.
Police announced Friday a $32,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of Sandra Cantu, last seen in a surveillance video skipping down the street near her mobile home.
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[...] yesterday it was reported that an arrest was imminent as Tracy Police Sergeant Tony Sheneman stated they are narrowing their investigation in one [...]
I have a girl about her age, the suffering Sandra and her family have gone through is unfathomable, I can’t imagine the sorrow. I live in Maine, 3,000 miles from Tracy but have followed the tragedy of Sandra from the beginning. The good folks of Tracy came together during this tragedy to search, and now to grieve, I felt that the people of Tracy would never have given up in their search. May God bless Sandra and her family, may God bless the good people of Tracy. My family has made a memorial video of Sandra. You may see it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADqmrUjViyU
FINALLY…surpise…arrest has been made!!!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/11/earlyshow/main4936448.shtml
KPIX also reports that Huckaby was recently convicted for petty theft in San Joaquin County. According to court records, the judge ordered her to be examined by physicians after Huckaby claimed she was not mentally competent to stand trial. It was determined that she was competent and she pleaded guilty.
The legal system already has paperwork proving that she is competent and sane. I reckon she never thought her little past arrest would keep her from using this defense in trial for a murder charge.
Also, if she is sane, she must just be mean as a snake.
I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. As soon as I read what Ms. Killerby told Tracy Press, it all started to make sense.
No, I doubt her killing her has anything to the stealing charge. It has everything to do with Grandma & Grandpa loving Sandra so much and Sandra always being at their house. It annoyed/bothered Ms. Killerby.
I’m sure it was a deal where just due to the living situation, G&G acted as surrogate parents to her daughter, i.e. scolded her, disciplined her, etc and b/c Sandra was not their child Sandra and if she was as sweet as we all have come to know she was, she was treated like royalty there. It happens with any normal parenting situation. You will treat your child different than her playmates,
BUT here it was grandparents doing it and it killed Ms. Killerby to see her child treated that way. She grew to despise Sandra. Turned her away that day and when Sandra came back something snapped.
The weird thing is they are saying Connie (Grandma) was there that day. Whole time? These homes are not that big. How did something go down and she wasn’t aware? I’m guessing maybe Grandma came home after? And that’s when Ms. Killerby had to quickly exit.
Care4Sandra, why do you find Pastor Lane to be creepy? Sorry, I think you prejudged him just based on fact cops turned their attn to his house and church and that he was a man.
My guess is there was still a luggage tag on Ms Disorganized Killerby’s suitcase. They knew it was her, once questioned she gave the “I went to church” and “my suitcase was stolen” story. This is why they searched the pastor’s home and church. It was clear the cops didn’t want us to think it was the Pastor.
It saddens me you assess him as creepy just b/c his granddaughter did this and attn was on his house and church due to her activities.
Well…
I was absolutely incorrect in my assessment of the offender responsible for the abduction and murder of Sandra Cantu.
Bias on my part? Probably a little.
With regards…
Chris
Blink, I think you were zeroing in on Williams, big surprise, huh? I wonder about this woman’s parents? Must be in jail or dead. She sounds like she had some kind of disassociative disorder, denying her police record along with her HS record. There is a sex offender named Lawless…site says he is in jail, but then they also have a check mark showing he is in violation. Could be her Dad.
Definately not her dad, but I am familiar with who you are referring and I could not connect them to this Lawless.. I am zeroing in on Williams, the “why” is clearly laid out in my article. One thing I can tell you with absolute certainty, there will be more arrests in the peripheral of this case.
B
coolio-sorry to offend you. I just get creeped out with Baptist Preachers as a rule. They say some very creepy things in church. No, I am not Baptist, and that is why. I am a Christian. Not knocking religion at all but I find the Baptist Preachers I hear about to be abusive and wicked in their sermon’s. Can’t go into long detail here.
Just read some of their sermons, if you ever get the chance.
C4S, thanks for explaining and sorry if I offended you with my post. Just seemed way too many people wanted to blame him and it was pretty clear the cops were trying to deflect attn away from him.
B, interesting you say there will be more arrests with absolute certainty. Guess time will tell.
Haven’t heard much on this case lately. Updates? Further arrests — did they happen? Can someone provide local website to track?