The Murder of Sandra Cantu
Warning, this case talks about sexual assault and crimes against a child.
I received an email yesterday morning asking me to cover this case. For my research, I watched various YouTube videos and read articles, which I will link in my sources.
An 8 year old girl disappears from her California neighborhood.
Background
Sandra Cantu
Sandra Renee Cantu was born on March 8, 2001. Sandra lived in a mobile home with her mom Maria, three siblings, and grandparents.
Sandra was described as always being happy and outgoing. She often loved to play with her friends around the neighborhood, and made friends very easily, with kids and adults.
The Disappearance
On March 27, 2009, Sandra came home from school around 4pm, and decided to go see if her friends could play. A few hours passed, but Maria wasn’t worried at first. Sandra often went out to play with friends, and knew when to be home.
By 7pm, Sandra still wasn’t home, and her mom wanted her home for dinner. Maria went outside to look for Sandra, and there was no sign of her. Maria called the police.
When the police came over, they asked for a description of Sandra, and what she was wearing that day. Maria told them she was wearing a pink Hello Kitty shirt and black leggings.
The police canvassed the area. They knocked on neighbor’s doors, and asked if anyone had seen Sandra. No one had.
The Cantu’s did have surveillance cameras at the front of their house that Sandra’s grandpa had installed. In the video, Sandra can be seen skipping away from her home at 4pm. The police would only notice something suspicious about the video later on in the investigation, but more on that later.
By the next day, the police had called in the FBI, there were cadaver dogs, helicopters and hundreds of volunteers searching for the missing 8 year old. A $2,000 reward soon went up to $30,000, and Sandra’s case was all over the media.
The Suspects
The first suspect was Sandra’s dad Daniel. He and Maria were separated at the time, but she didn’t believe he had anything to do with it. He wasn’t close with his daughter, and he had an alibi. He was ruled out very quickly.
The police received some information about several sketchy characters that either lived in the mobile park or were around the area on March 27.
An ice cream man that the neighbors didn’t recognize was in the neighborhood on the 27th, and was seen talking to several children. He wasn’t a suspect for long, and was ruled out.
The next suspect was a man who lived near the Cantu’s, who people believed was a pedophile. He knew Sandra, and had been seen kissing her on the lips two years before Sandra disappeared. The police asked this man to come into the station for questioning. He admitted that he was attracted to girls around 9-10 years old, but that it was harmless. (UM, THAT’S NOT HARMLESS, WHY IS THIS DUDE ON THE STREETS?) This man was eventually ruled out, but the police said they would be watching him.
The police also received information about a Hello Kitty t-shirt found at a local dump. This turned out not to be Sandra’s. It was the wrong color and size. This was confirmed by Maria.
The Neighbor
The police became very attached to this case, and they were disappointed that every lead was a dead end. A candlelight vigil was held for Sandra, but it was ruined by a distraught woman. The woman ran up to the police who were at the vigil, and told them that she found something.
This something was a letter, and it was found by a neighbor of the Cantu’s named Melissa Huckaby, a 28 year old Sunday school teacher. She also mentioned to them that her suitcase was stolen from her driveway on the 27, but didn’t think it was important.
The letter said:
“Cantu locked in stolin suitcase. Thrown in water onn Bacchetti Road and Whitehall Road. Witness.”
The letter was sent in for testing, but police were suspicious right away. The handwriting stood out to them, and there were a lot of misspelled words. The police still wanted to check it out, and a dive team was sent to search the area. The bodies of water that were searched were mostly sewage dumps, and nothing was found.
The police decided to do some further digging on Melissa. They brought her in for questioning, and talked to neighbors about her. Melissa had a history of mental illness, and many people said she did a lot of weird things for attention.
When the police brought Melissa into the station, they asked her where she was on March 27. Melissa said she had been decorating her classroom at the church. She told the police that she made a phone call about the stolen suitcase while she was there. Melissa’s phone records were obtained, and it showed that she did make a phone call at 4pm. The police didn’t actually know if Sandra disappeared at 4pm, and believed that Melissa was still their prime suspect, they just needed more evidence.
The Evidence
The police seized Melissa’s car. Inside the car, a post it note was found. The post it note had been written on, and the words were scribbled out. It was sent in for testing, and the testing proved that the words “Bachetti Rd., Whitehall Rd., and water,” were all on the note.
A warrant was obtained for Melissa’s home. A notebook was found under Melissa’s dresser. The notebook had the same paper as the letter that Melissa gave to police during the vigil. They knew it was Melissa who wrote the note because of the paper, and the indents found on a different page.
The police asked Melissa to come in for questioning again, and this time she told the police that there were a few more suspects she had in mind. She told them about an older neighbor that was suspected of drugging kids in the past. She also told them about a father and son that lived nearby, who had pictures of children on their phones.
The police did need to rule out other suspects, so they were all brought in for questioning. They were all given polygraphs, and so was the man who confessed to kissing Sandra. The man who kissed Sandra passed, but the other three failed. As creepy as they all were, they were cleared, and didn’t have anything to do with Sandra’s disappearance.
The Discovery
On April 6, 2009, the police received a phone call from a employee working at an irrigation pond. The employee said they had discovered a suitcase when they drained the pond.
Sure enough, a black suitcase tied with a white string was found. It had the overwhelming smell of decomposition, and it was transferred to the medical examiner’s office.
Sandra Cantu had finally been found. Her body was badly decomposed, but she was eventually identified by the clothing she was wearing the day she disappeared. She didn’t have any defensive wounds on her body, just a small cut on the inside of her lip. Her cause of death was asphyxiation.
The medical examiner also made a few other horrifying discoveries during the autopsy. Sandra had been drugged, and had a high dose of Alprazolam in her system, and she had been sexually assaulted with a foreign object. She had injuries to her genitals that proved it.
The “Confession”
The police had an overwhelming feeling that their killer was Melissa Huckaby, and they wanted to interview her again. The police went over to Melissa, but they discovered she had tried to commit suicide by swallowing razor blades. Melissa was in the hospital, and the police were not allowed to see her until she was released.
While they waited, the police looked for any witnesses that could put Melissa at the pond on the day Sandra disappeared. They got very lucky, a man and his wife had been in the area on the 27, and saw a parked dark colored SUV with the door wide open. The man said he saw a woman with dark colored hair, and when he asked if she was okay, she just said that she had to pull over and use the bathroom. The description of the vehicle matched Melissa’s car.
A search warrant was obtained for the church where Melissa taught. Inside her classroom, the police found a white string that had been cut from the blinds, and retied. They also found a rolling pin with a red substance on it. The rolling pin was sent in for testing.
Despite the pile of evidence they had against Melissa, they wanted more. The police decided to tap her phone, and waited until she got out of the hospital.
The police couldn’t believe their luck, when on the day she was released, she called the Cantu family. Melissa asked Sandra’s sibling to come over and play with her 5 year old daughter. The police raced over to her home, and discovered that there were no children in her house at the time. Melissa probably was trying to lure another child into her home. Melissa had also texted the Cantu’s on the day Sandra disappeared about her missing suitcase.
The police brought Melissa in for questioning, and confronted her. She denied it, until the police mentioned the witness at the pond. She told them it was an accident. She said she was playing hide and seek with Sandra and her daughter, and that Sandra zipped herself into the suitcase. Melissa then said she put the suitcase in her car, and went to the church. When she came out, Sandra was dead. She said she panicked and decided to get rid of the suitcase.
Arrest and Conviction
The police knew she was lying. Sandra’s blood was been found on the rolling pin found in the church, and Sandra had been drugged.
Melissa was arrested on April 10, 2009, but the police wanted more evidence. They obtained a warrant for her computer, and discovered that this was not an accident. It was premeditated. Melissa had searched how to kill a child, and she looked up another murder where a father killed his child, and got rid of the body by putting it in a suitcase.
The prosecution’s theory was that Melissa lured Sandra over to her house. On the surveillance footage, Sandra is seen looking over in the direction of Melissa’s home, and walking over. They said Melissa asked Sandra to come to the church to help her decorate. When they got to the church, Melissa gave Sandra some juice that had the medication in it, and waited until Sandra passed out.
Melissa eventually took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. She pleaded guilty to first degree murder and kidnapping. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Melissa Huckaby
Other
Melissa had a history of drugging people, including another child, and the Alprazolam was found in her purse and in her home.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ugh, I struggle reading the facts about every murder, but this one was especially hard. Sandra’s final moments must have been so terrifying, but it’s believed that she was not awake while she was being assaulted.
Melissa has never actually said why she killed Sandra, but it seemed like she was planning to kill any child, and it just so happened to be Sandra that day. Many people said she was mentally ill, but there are many that said she liked getting attention. All Sandra wanted to do that day was play with her friends, and she was brutally killed after only living for 8 years. Melissa deserves to rot in prison forever, and I don’t believe she’s sorry for what she did.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sandra_Cantu
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/new-documents-give-gruesome-details-on-cantus-death/2091727/
https://people.com/crime/inside-story-clues-to-why-melissa-huckaby-murdered-an-8-year-old-girl/
https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Tracy-girl-s-killer-apologizes-gets-life-term-3185446.php
