The day 8-year-old Sandra Cantu disappeared from a Tracy, Calif., mobile-home park, Melissa Huckaby sent a text message to the child's mother. "Tell the police that I had something stolen today around 4 p.m.," Huckaby texted to Maria Chavez on March 27, 2009. "I don't know if that makes a difference or not." That stolen item turned out to be an Eddie Bauer suitcase that contained Cantu’s body, the victim of a brutal sexual assault and murder. The case horrified the Central California community, but even after Huckaby pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, residents were at loss...
- 6/27/2010
- by Howard Breuer
- PEOPLE.com
Melissa Huckaby, arrested in the murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu in Tracy, Calif., is expected to enter a plea Friday to murder charges that could lead to a death sentence upon conviction. In the nearly two weeks since Huckaby's arrest, reports have surfaced that the 28-year-old Sunday school teacher has also been connected with another child abduction at the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, and to two arsons in Southern California. "There are two fires that were set in 2007 and she is a person of interest in at least one of the fires, if not both," La Palma police Capt.
- 4/23/2009
- by Howard Breuer
- PEOPLE.com
The Sunday school teacher charged with killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu of Tracy, Calif., and stuffing her body in a suitcase was a good mom to her 5-year-old daughter - and didn't seem capable of hurting anyone, Melissa Huckaby's ex-husband told Good Morning America on Friday. "My initial reaction was shock and complete disbelief," said Johnny Huckaby, who has been divorced from Melissa Huckaby since Sept. 2005, two years after they married. "It's not something you want to think anyone possibly [is capable] of doing - let alone somebody that you knew. And that's a mother of your child." For the sake of their daughter,...
- 4/17/2009
- by Howard Breuer
- PEOPLE.com
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