Woman Charged In Girl's Gruesome Slay

Melissa Huckaby Charged With Murder Of 8-Year-Old Sandra Cantu; DA Says Girl Was Raped, Kidnapped

(CBS/AP)  A Northern California woman kidnapped, raped and murdered an 8-year-old girl and stuffed her body in a suitcase that was dumped in a pond just a few miles from home, prosecutors alleged Tuesday.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, was charged with murdering her daughter's friend, Sandra Cantu, in a gruesome crime that has shocked and terrified residents in Tracy, a city of about 78,000, 60 miles east of San Francisco.

Huckaby, who volunteered as a Sunday school teacher at her grandfather's Clover Road Baptist Church in Tracy, was due to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutors filed the murder charge before Huckaby's scheduled court appearance and included in their allegations the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd or lascivious conduct with a child under 14 and murder in the course of a kidnapping.

The special circumstances mean Huckaby, if convicted, could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors have said they have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Sandra disappeared March 27. She was last seen on a surveillance camera skipping outside the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy where she lived just five doors down from Huckaby.

A 10-day search by law enforcement and the community ended on April 6, when farmworkers draining an irrigation pond a few miles away from the mobile home complex found the suitcase that was later determined to contain Sandra's body.

Police have said Sandra was found wearing the same clothes she had on when she was last seen: a pink "Hello Kitty" T-shirt and black leggings. They have not said how, why or where she was killed, and the coroner's office has said autopsy results are pending.

Huckaby was arrested Friday, hours after she told a Tracy Press reporter that the suitcase was hers but it had been stolen the day Sandra went missing.

A case like this would be "extraordinarily rare," says criminologist James Fox, if Huckaby indeed committed the crime.

Fox, a professor at Northeastern University and co-author of "The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder," said on The Early Show Tuesday, "Only 10 percent of murderers are female. But they generally kill in the family, not outside the family. When you add rape as a possible charge, we're talking about only about 100 cases over the past three decades. Add to it the fact that the victim was a female and a child -- I can only find one other case (like it), 25 years ago in South Carolina. Talk about very few and very far between!"

The implication of the case, he told co-anchor Julie Chen, "offends our sense of what motherhood should be like, and the way that mothers should behave. They should protect their own child, as well as being protective of all the children in the neighborhood. Not be their molester or murderer, allegedly, of course. So much about this case strikes a nerve."

What could possible have motivated Huckaby to kill, assuming, for the moment, she was Sandra's murderer?

"When men kill," Fox says, "it's often aggressive and predatory. An offensive move. When women kill, it's usually a response. Sometimes self-defense, sometimes defending others. Or a response to some emotional state of mind. ... even a response to some degree of conflict, or anger. There may be, here, for example, something involving her own five-year-old child, who was a playmate of the victim. We don't know all the details yet. But my guess is that this is not an act that was planned by the perpetrator, but that something happened in their interactions with the child that precipitated this act."

[Ter58]

It absolutely makes me sick to see Melissa Huckaby crying in court.....why??? becuase she got caught?... what about what she did to Sandra Cantu, and also her family... they have to live the rest of their lives, knowing they couldn't keep her safe from an animal like Melissa. Innocent until proved guilty, what a crock...the only one innocent was Sandra.... I strongly beleive in an eye for an eye...what she did to Sandra should be done to her...she deserves everything she gave to be done to her.... I can only pray she get her just desever in prison... Sandra is in a better place, and no one can hurt her, but what about her famiy... I can remember as a child my father telling me about when he was a child in Hayward, CA how the people caught a man who kinapped and killed a child... and how the people took the man to a park in San Jose, and HUNG him. The problem with this world is we give the criminal more rights and previlages than the victims....this is so WRONG. The Cantu family will have the pain that Melissa Huckaby caused for the rest of their lives...God be with them all, and hope they will in time find some sort of peace....God Bless the Cantu Famiy, my prays are with you all.

[luciemarie323]

Call the Orkin man. He'll spray that parasite with a lethal pesticide!!!! Dirt bag, homicidal, pervert WILL be put down and out!!! And it can't happen soon enough, that's for sure.

[kme4160]

I am overwhelmed with some of these comments, I cannot understand how you can say innocent until proven guilty, when she already admitted that it was an accident. How can molesting this child and using a foreign object to force inside her be considered an accident. And I guess it was just an accident that her suitcase was stuffed with this poor childs body and thrown into the pond. Sure doesn't sound like an accident to me. She also admitted to taking the other 7 year old child to the park, and when the child was reported missing, she returned her back to the parents with muscle relaxers in the childs bloodstream. Must have been an accident also...........................Probably molested this child also. She doesn't deserve to live, I hope they seek the death penalty for her, Give the other children around the neighborhood a sense of relief, knowing that she cannot harm another child!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jen71]

I think the death penalty isn't good enough for this woman. I think she should be tortured to death. Criminals get off too easy in this country. I pray for Cantu's family I can't imagine the horror they are going through. I don't see how people do it, If it were me and someone hurt my child there would be no place for them to hide my anger would be worse than the wrath of God. People who harm children should be exterminated.

[Advocate4Christ]

I agree that the US death penalty system is ridiculous because taxpayers end up paying to keep murderers, rapists, etc, alive and it costs thousands of dollars a year and takes up needed space in prisons. All the costs of keeping people on death row alive could be cut down almost entirely merely by putting a bullet through their heads. If someone has no respect for another's life, then they should be given the same. In this case, yes, by shoving a foreign object into someone is absolutely rape, and if this woman is found guilty...then I don't feel sorry for whatever happens to her in prison, or in her afterlife in hell! And as far as that incompetant comment about "conservatives who reject abortion" should support babies who could have been aborted, what an ignorant comment especially since ALL taxpayers support these children by way of Welfare, WIC, Food Stamps, TANF, etc...the list goes on and on! HELLO! Oh yah, and to anyone who supports the MURDER of an unborn child (don't know why the heck this stuff was brought into this discussion to begin with--but in defense of many) aren't you glad that your mother selflessly gave YOU life...and didn't selfishly choose instead to drill into your head and suck you out (sometimes still alive and suffering, and sometimes yanking off body parts), or that she didn't have toxins injected into her placenta to burn you to death like acid? Abortion is disgusting and IS murder! There are WAY to many couples who cannot have children who would love to adopt a baby!

[joycemadrid]

First of all! Melissa has admitted that the murder of Sandra was an accident. Second of all, she admitted to writing the note telling the authorities where the general vincinity of little Sandra's body could be found. She has tried to commit suicide because of the guilt or the pity she wants to recieve. So their is no innocent until proven guilty in this case since she has admitted it was an accident. Did she accidential kidnap her also? After all if the murder was an accident, the the kidnapping must of also been an accident. Furthermore the authorities are saying the poor child was raped with a foreign object. Was that to an accident. If everything was such an accident, then why didn't she call 911 and get help. Oh,let's see, then Sandra could of told them everything this sick woman did to her.

[poeticaintit]

Melissa Huckaby was hospitalized after swallowing three X-Acto knife blades, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. She remains under suicide watch after being formally charged Tuesday with kidnapping, raping and murdering her daughter's playmate, Sandra Cantu.


Something not right here...deeply religious people don't opt for suicide if they are innocent. (where did she get the blades?) On the other hand...everyone says this is totally out of character and Huckaby herself said the suitcase had been stolen. Wouldn't be the first time someone went to prison for something they insisted they hadn't done. Only thing for certain is this child died a horrible and agonizing death...in fear and probably screaming for help.

[newslink]

One point that can not be denied, She is awaiting charges for murder. And she does not look like a Sunday School teacher now. These type of people are sick and wicked. And I pray that the truth will prevail.

[heidiadelyn]

I agree wholeheartedly....................................................................

[heidiadelyn]

Has anyone EVER heard of innocent untill proven guilty.......your Like a pack of wild wolfs,
sad really, I admit i wanted to kick the lady in the face when i read the news...but . I agree with toldyouso29, fumorons and geena5.

[toldyouso29]

I also believe that conservatives who object to abortion should, by logical extension, be willing to put their money where their collective mouths are and financially support the prenatal care and the childhood expenses of the children who result from those pregnancies where they would deny abortions.
Posted by flreason at 7:08 AM : Apr 14, 2009


Well said--though if they did, odds are they'd be the biggest advocates of abortion within a decade--they'd be that, and bankrupt.

[toldyouso29]

There is always the possibility, that this woman (who does not look well) is covering for someone else. Maybe someone who also raped her as a kid and has enough conterol of her mind and emotions to make her assume the blame and guilt for something that they did. additional DNA found that is not the woman's would help this argument angle.

For the record, women lack the sexual equipment to rape. They can sexually abuse, molest, assault, and/or traumatize another person, but unless the concept and definition of "rape" have grossly changed, then penetration by anything other than a body part is sexual assault, not rape.

[Dgunner]

The last statement in the aricle is redundant . When men kill it is agressive and offensive. When women kill it is a response to a state of mind to some degree conflict and anger. This guy isn't a brain trust on murder i hope. He could easily be torn down a expert witness. The sick b---h killed a bay . Let me have her about three days . Ill show her what assault is. This may take longer given pound per flesh . I would have to stop for lunch.and sharpen knife.

[geena5]

the police shouldnt forget it is probably more realistic that a man saw an opportunity to steal a child, saw a suitcase to hide the child, put 2 and 2 together, had an adrenaline rush crime spree and raped the child himself (not a tool needed if its a man). but the idea of lesbian crime is more exciting and easier to blame the suitcase owner. I hope this isn't what is happening but it could be. there is a witness who said a suspicious man in a truck was over in that area. the police need to not rush and really look for the truth, not just a quick pat on the back

[geena5]

I have doubts Melissa did this, after digging around other articles and interviews on the web, Melissa was pretty open with a reporter before she was arrested about mundane details in the search, she sounded like she was really trying to give her side of what was going on from her perspective, and the suitcase could have been stolen from her driveway like she says, it is very plausible. The police say they arrested her based on inconsistencies in her testimony, I know when I retell my family things that I do during the day I get my story confused and details mixed up, it is easy to do. There are plenty of innocent people in jail, see the http://www.innocenceproject.org/ I have doubts about Melissa doing it, and I was quick to be glad someone was arrested, but you can't just arrest the first person who can be railroaded easily by police, you have to arrest the real killer, there is another testimony of someone saying they saw a suspicious guy in a truck on the same road Sandra was found, they should look into that. I hope this doesn't turn into another circus like what they did to JonBenet's family just because it makes great sensational headlines and is a quick arrest, I hope justice is served to the killer, if Melissa is the real killer I am all for justice but there should not be a rush to judgment like what has been done many times before. I hope people aren't just hanging on to this idea of lesbian crime because it is such a bizarre thought and not focusing on reality. this could be Jonbenet all over again, and it shouldn't be. the police seem to be rushing too much here, I hope they aren't ignoring other real leads just because it is easy enough to blame the suitcase owner they know rather than a thief who is usually much harder to catch, police almost never catch petty thieves, so it is easy to blame the owner. Jonbenet's killer has never been found, police sometimes can't figure these things out, and forensic evidence is probably much harder after soaking in water for a while. I hope the child killer is caught but I have big doubts it was Melissa

[Druii1]

at the top of the story column there are three letter "a's". Pick one...

[jackiemaxmcc]

erasmus- hate to be a bother, and i know you were not responding to me, but where on the screen can i find the place to set the size of the fonts i am reading?
i looked but do not see it.
you can respond to my e-mail which is:
[e-mail]
if you see this...
thanks

[airboatboy]

See its idiots like these that our justice system is so screwed up! Did you by any chance witnessed this woman murder this child??? Innocent until proven guilty not the other way around jack@$$! This woman wether she did it or not she has a right to a fair trial..
Posted by robertx13 at 11:38 PM : Apr 14, 2009

Boy, I bet you enjoyed the first OJ trial!

[stn_sage]

Adults picking on little kids like this, is absolutely despicable! It's absolutely heinous!

It goes from the realm of criminal, into the realm of sheer EVIL!!

In special cases like this, perhaps some medieval punishment like death by slow dismemberment OUGHT to be reinstated, I doubt too many people would complain if it were!

[robertx13]

I simply don't understand, I feel so sorry for this young girl.But I know she's in heaven with god. But Huckaby you are definately going straight to hell, you stupid,stupid woman.
I am praying for the family, and asking god to please help them to get through this.
MNeavins
Posted by mneavins at 5:53 PM : Apr 14, 2009


See its idiots like these that our justice system is so screwed up! Did you by any chance witnessed this woman murder this child??? Innocent until proven guilty not the other way around jack@$$! This woman wether she did it or not she has a right to a fair trial..but she wont get that in Tracy, CA or in surrounding areas! The police have a good track record of putting the wrong ppl behind bars! The evidence so far is based on inconsistencies!!! hardly evidence that she commited homicide! Like the scott peterson trial! No murder weapon??? The police need to arrest someone!!! ppl pull ur heads out of ur arsses!!! if it was you u would agree with me...c'mon who wants to be thrown in jail for a crime they didnt commit...like murder in the first degree...i dont see any hands...imagine ur innocent being accused of this crime??? U want someone to believe you right??? Personally i dnt care what happens to this woman she never harmed me...but lets be fair and not send ourselves back to the days of the salem witch hunt. And i knw im gonna get $h!t for this but WHAAAA!!!! A little girl died! So what!!! Kids die everyday its called murder, cancer, accidents, desease, hunger ect!!! Hardly news its the fact of life!!! We all die some sooner than others! Its unfortunate she had to go at such a young age, but thats life!!! Stop griping about this story on a woman who may or may not have done it idiots!!! You are all welcome to respond.
Thank you all youve been wonderful!! And say what you want...as you can tell im pretty cold! So wrods cant hurt me! :D