How Could Somebody Hurt

[CeaBee]

Re: How Could Somebody Hurt

(unusual to hear of a woman being arrested for kidnapping and murdering a child)


RACY, Calif. - A Sunday school teacher has been arrested after the body of 8-year old Sandra Cantu was found in a suitcase pulled from a pond.

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.

"She gave enough information to us during the course of the interview that probable cause was there to arrest here," Sheneman said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30159623

[QK13]

Re: How Could Somebody Hurt

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KD_09</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What about our little angels in Jamaica. Or have we just become desensitized to all the killings? </div></div>


Anyone who knows Remo, would know better than to make this comment.

[QK13]

Re: How Could Somebody Hurt

Sad. The world is a mess.

[halfwaytree]

Re: How Could Somebody Hurt

I remember the report of the little Jamaican schoolgirl that was abducted a few months back and sexually molested and thrown down a gully and left for dead. There was plenty of public outrage then!

People who commit violent crimes against children and the elderly (those who are defenseless) should never see the light of day again.

[Serenity82]

Re: How Could Somebody Hurt

Mad people. Only mad people would take a life and only a mad person would target a child!

[Marilyn]

Re: How Could Somebody Hurt

How could someone hurt anyone....as I read everyday about murder and mayhem I know for a certainty that there are two kinds of people in this world, those that a capable of hurting others and those who cannot fathom such a thing. I can't do it. I can't hurt of kill, don't want to ever do it. To a baby like this...never. Why is there good and evil? I don't know. But here in Memphis, they kill a woman a least once a week. at least once.

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: How Could Somebody Hurt



Melissa Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher, has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and killing a California girl whose body was found in a suitcase. Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman says 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby was arrested late Friday night after voluntarily going to police for questioning about the death of eight-year-old Sandra Cantu. (AP Photo/San Joaquin County Sheriff)

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: How Could Somebody Hurt

Tracy girl may have been raped
ShareThisBy Kim Minugh and Hudson Sangree
[email protected]
Published: Tuesday, Apr. 14, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
In a case already laden with gut-wrenching details, the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu took another turn Monday when prosecutors said she may have been raped before she was killed and her body stuffed into a suitcase.

Melissa Huckaby, a 28-year-old neighbor of the Cantu family, is scheduled to be arraigned today on charges that she kidnapped and murdered the Tracy girl.

Huckaby, whose 5-year-old daughter often played with Sandra, might also face special circumstance charges of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, and murder in the course of a kidnapping, said San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau.

Himelblau told the Associated Press on Monday that his office was considering the special circumstance charges.

If convicted of any of the special circumstance charges, Huckaby would be eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole, Himelblau told the AP.

Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman would not confirm Monday that his agency's investigation had revealed any sexual assault.

If such a charge is filed today and Huckaby is eventually convicted, the case would become an extreme anomaly.

Just 2.4 percent of homicides are committed by females against females, U.S. Department of Justice data show, and only 6.4 percent of homicides by female killers involve sex.

Only 1.3 percent of homicides involving female victims are carried out by neighbors, the data show.

&quot;This (allegation) is extraordinarily rare,&quot; said Professor Floyd Feeney, who teaches criminal law at the UC Davis School of Law.

In the end, it might just be a case that defies understanding, he said. &quot;There are a certain number of homicide cases that are just wild and crazy in ways that are not easy to explain, and this may turn out to be one of them.&quot;

Ruth Jones, a professor at McGeorge School of Law, said there are several aspects of the case that depart from the norm. For example, most children who suffer sexual assault at the hands of women are much younger than Sandra. And women who engage in kidnapping or sexual assault usually act as an accomplice to a man, she said.

On Monday, Sheneman reiterated that the investigation had produced just one suspect: Huckaby.

&quot;If there had been other people involved before, during or after, they would have been taken into custody,&quot; Sheneman said. &quot;We only arrested one person.&quot;

If Huckaby acted alone, Jones said, &quot;that's pretty extraordinary.&quot;

Until police or prosecutors release more detail on exactly what happened to Sandra, and how Huckaby allegedly carried out the killing, it's hard to say how unique the case is.

&quot;At this point, I just have a raised eyebrow,&quot; Jones said.

Police continued to keep quiet on details of the investigation that led to Huckaby's arrest. But Sheneman said investigators have not determined what the woman's motive might have been.

&quot;We're having a difficult time figuring out what the motive would be for a mother killing another mother's child,&quot; he said.

Huckaby lived with her grandparents, five doors down from Sandra and Sandra's mother and grandparents in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park. Huckaby taught preschool at nearby Clover Road Baptist Church, where her grandfather Clifford Lane Lawless is pastor.

On Sunday, Huckaby's family expressed disbelief that the Melissa they know could be accused of such crimes.

Her grandmother, Connie Lawless, described her as &quot;quiet&quot; and &quot;very peaceful.&quot;

&quot;This is completely out of character,&quot; she said, standing outside the church, where police searched twice in the course of their investigation.

More details emerged Monday about Huckaby's past.

After attending high school in Orange County, Huckaby spent time in both Southern California and Tracy.

According to San Joaquin County Superior Court records, Huckaby was convicted of petty theft in January. She pleaded no contest to the charge, and prosecutors dropped a second-degree commercial burglary charge, records show.

Huckaby was sentenced to probation and was ordered to have mental health counseling.

It was her second petty theft conviction: Huckaby was convicted of the same crime in Los Angeles County in 2006, records show. Her sentence was not clear, other than probation.

According to the Associated Press, Huckaby filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2003, when she was 22 and pregnant. She listed just over $5,000 in assets and more than $26,000 in debts.

Melissa Lawless, as she was then known, owed more than $17,000 in medical expenses, including two debts to ambulance services and $10,000 to a Tracy hospital, the Associated Press reported. She earned a total of $10,525 in 2002 while working at a grocery store.

In 2004, she left the market and about that time married and had the daughter with whom Sandra played. She soon divorced.

Huckaby is being held without bail at the San Joaquin County jail. She is under observation and is not being allowed visitors