"Just about every one we've ever spoken to has wished us luck in 'getting the guy that did this...the monster...the man that would do this.'"
That is what a Tracy police spokesman told press this weekend after it was learned that a woman, Melissa Huckaby, was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu. Huckaby is a Sunday School teacher, the mother of the slain girl's best friend and the granddaughter of a minister. Police believe that Sandra Cantu was murdered by Melissa Huckaby inside the Clover Road BaptistChurch that was the scene of many searches since Cantu's disappearance.
This is not your usual suspect in a sadly all to usual scenario. It is not very common for women, especially mothers, to kill children who are not their own, and kidnapping and murders of young girls all too often come at the hands of male criminals:
FBI statistics from 2007 show that far fewer women than men are
involved in homicides -- less than 10 percent of all U.S. murders were
attributed to women that year.
When it comes to the murder of a child, it's even more rare.
"It's very unusual for women to be involved in an abduction and murder
of a child," said Candice DeLong, a retired FBI profiler based in San
Francisco. "Sometimes we see this when the woman is working with a male
partner. It does not appear to be the case this time."
DeLong says what makes this latest murder so baffling is the relationship between the victim and the accused.
"Women have been known to kill children of course but it's usually a
child that they're caring for. Sometimes their own child and they get
angry and they hit them too hard and they die," said DeLong.
But according to Tracy investigators Huckaby didn't have that type of
relationship. Huckaby was Cantu's sunday school teacher and family
friend.
Police do not know the motive.
If you are as intrigued by this case as much of the Bay Area seems to be, bookmark this link to complete coverage of the murder of Sandra Cantu in Tracy at CBS5.com.
UPDATE, 1:29 p.m.: In yet another stomach-wrenching turn in this case, prosecutors now say that Sandra Cantu was sexually assaulted prior to her death. Via the AP:
Prosecutors say they're considering rape and molestation allegations against the woman suspected of killing an 8-year-old Northern California girl and putting her body in a suitcase.
Twenty-eight-year-old Melissa Huckaby has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sandra Cantu.
San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himmelblau told The Associated Press Monday that a homicide charge against Huckaby could also include the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lacivious conduct with a child and murder in the course of a kidnapping.
Himmelblau wouldn't provide more details. Huckaby is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
Seems the motive is becoming more and more clear. What a horrifying development.
