Sandra Cantu #3 4/15/09 -4/27/09

[klaasend]

http://www.tracypress.com/



Huckaby told friends she was raped
by Jennifer Wadsworth/ TP staff
04.18.09 - 01:48 am

Melissa Chantel Huckaby, who has been accused of kidnapping and killing Sandra Cantu, was herself raped, according to three friends who talked with the Tracy Press.

At the time of the rape, Melissa Chantel Huckaby was 18, just out of high school and still living with her parents in Brea, a city in Los Angeles County, the friends said.

The three people who knew Huckaby at different times in her life told the same story. None knew each other. One was a high school friend, another was from a vocational school, and a third was from where she used to work — all from Southern California.

The three asked that their names be withheld, because Huckaby told them of the rape in confidence. They also said they’re afraid of being caught in the media spotlight.

They all said the rape occurred at a time when Huckaby’s life began to spiral downward.

Her first serious boyfriend had moved away, which broke her heart.

Her best friend had moved away to college.

Huckaby had trouble getting along with her family, said the friends.

Private letters shared by one source indicate Huckaby was suicidal, and had been since the sixth grade.

According to a passage one of her friends read over the phone, the letter dated May 20, 1999, read: “I just wasn’t meant to live, I guess. No one wants me or even cares if I live or not, and I’m just in the way, anyways.”

Earlier in 1999, before Huckaby graduated from Brea-Olinda High School, her grades dropped, she got kicked off the dance team, and she became more withdrawn, one friend said.

Soon after graduating from high school 10 years ago, a cop asked her out on a date. Afterward, the police officer handcuffed her, shoved her in the back seat of his car and raped her — a story that all three friends said Huckaby told them.

Huckaby never reported the incident to authorities, the friends said. One of her best friends was unsure if Huckaby’s family even knew.

Today, Huckaby is 28 years old. The Sunday school teacher and single mother of a 5-year-old girl named Madison was put on suicide watch at the San Joaquin County Jail as soon as she was arrested, shortly before midnight April 10.

Police booked her without bail on suspicion of kidnapping, raping and killing second-grader Sandra Cantu. Four days earlier, farmworkers draining a filthy dairy pond north of town found a suitcase identified as Huckaby’s. Inside, police found Sandra’s body. She had been missing since March 27.

During Sandra’s disappearance, hundreds of volunteers joined 18 agencies to search for the girl. The desperate hunt for her whereabouts turned into a murder investigation when police opened the black Eddie Bauer bag to find Sandra’s body.

The mood changed from hopeful, to fearful and angry. Parents talked about how they looked forward to the day when police would find the “psychopath,” the “monster” who murdered Sandra.

Several neighbors in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where Sandra lived five doors down from Huckaby, became suspicious of one another. Many started keeping their children inside and keeping a closer eye on their neighbors, several said.

When news broke that the alleged killer was a friend to Sandra, many in the neighborhood said they felt betrayed that the alleged killer was someone Sandra knew. Sandra used to play with Huckaby’s daughter, Madison, a bright-blonde, blue-eyed but sickly girl.

“It was someone she trusted,” said 26-year-old Amber Austin, a mother of two, the morning after Huckaby’s arrest. “The frightening thing is that they knew each other. That’s scary.”

Sandra's uncle, Joe Chavez, said he found it difficult to contain his rage toward Huckaby's family.

"I want to go over there and beat the crap out of those people,” he told an Associated Press reporter on Easter Sunday, two days after the woman’s arrest. “But I'm not going to do that. I just want to vent my anger, but it's not in me."

Friends and family said few knew much about the hardships Huckaby had endured for most of her adult life — bankruptcy, divorce, physical abuse, depression. Even fewer knew of her struggles before that and how emotionally fragile she was for most of her life.

A classmate of hers at Bryman College — a Southern California vocational school Huckaby attended in 2005 — said she remembers vividly the day the recent divorceé told her about the assault.

Huckaby’s face flushed, it wrinkled, she sobbed, she got angry, said the classmate, who asked to withhold her name because the story was told in confidence.

“I had never seen her angry before, she was very laid-back, relaxed, so I figured she must have been telling the truth,” said the friend, who said the only reason she shared the story with the Tracy Press is because she believes it would make Huckaby sound more human.

“Everyone makes her out to be a monster,” she said. “But she went through a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”

Another friend — who said she knew Huckaby very well during the two years before Huckaby was assaulted and also asked for anonymity — said she knew the preacher’s daughter had deep-seated troubles, but never knew their extent. The friend said she knew Huckaby would slash her wrists at times, and wore long-sleeved shirts in the summer to hide the self-inflicted gashes.

“She’s just a wounded person,” said the friend, sobbing uncontrollably. “I don’t think people understand that she’s so wounded, that she has so much pain in her life.”

Huckaby’s father, Brian Lawless, 45, has said that after high school, his daughter’s life started to unravel.

She became rebellious, he said. She hit a rough patch in life. She had a tough time keeping a job as a single mother. She battled depression.

To corroborate the personal accounts is a paper trail that begins in Huckaby’s early 20s.

Public records tell a story of a woman who claimed abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend and ex-husband, who filed for bankruptcy, who racked up enormous medical bills and who was arrested twice for petty theft.

She bounced back and forth over the years from Northern California, where her grandparents live, to Los Angeles County, where she grew up and where her parents still live.

That last arrest for property theft landed her in the San Joaquin County mental health courts. When Tracy police arrested her on suspicion of killing Sandra, Huckaby had recently started serving a three-year probation after pleading no contest in January to theft and burglary for stealing or trying to steal from Target in Tracy.

She missed a court date with a county-appointed psychiatrist on April 3, days before Sandra’s body was found, records show.

When reports came out that police found Huckaby’s suitcase, she was admitted to the local hospital in Tracy for what she described as “internal bleeding.” She refused to elaborate when asked just hours before her arrest. But police said they went to the hospital during her stay to keep an eye on her. Police said over the scanner on April 7 that they had to change detail at the hospital.

Huckaby’s grandfather, 77-year-old Tracy pastor Clifford Lane Lawless, said Friday he didn’t know what to say about the stories of his granddaughter’s rape.

“I’m not really of a mind to talk right now,” he said.

[Leroy]

http://www.tracypress.com/



Huckaby told friends she was raped
by Jennifer Wadsworth/ TP staff
04.18.09 - 01:48 am

--snipped--

“Everyone makes her out to be a monster,” she said. “But she went through a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”

Another friend — who said she knew Huckaby very well during the two years before Huckaby was assaulted and also asked for anonymity — said she knew the preacher’s daughter had deep-seated troubles, but never knew their extent. The friend said she knew Huckaby would slash her wrists at times, and wore long-sleeved shirts in the summer to hide the self-inflicted gashes.

“She’s just a wounded person,” said the friend, sobbing uncontrollably. “I don’t think people understand that she’s so wounded, that she has so much pain in her life.”

sorry, that is still not a valid excuse for her actions    

[no rose colored glasses]

http://www.tracypress.com/



Huckaby told friends she was raped
by Jennifer Wadsworth/ TP staff
04.18.09 - 01:48 am

--snipped--

“Everyone makes her out to be a monster,” she said. “But she went through a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”

Another friend — who said she knew Huckaby very well during the two years before Huckaby was assaulted and also asked for anonymity — said she knew the preacher’s daughter had deep-seated troubles, but never knew their extent. The friend said she knew Huckaby would slash her wrists at times, and wore long-sleeved shirts in the summer to hide the self-inflicted gashes.

“She’s just a wounded person,” said the friend, sobbing uncontrollably. “I don’t think people understand that she’s so wounded, that she has so much pain in her life.”

sorry, that is still not a valid excuse for her actions    

I totally agree, I am not condoning any of her actions. But if she was raped, and had other things happen to her when she was young, which I'll bet money she did, there is just something inside of me, that feels bad for anyone who experienced that. But, no excuses for what she did to Sandra.

[AZSunny]

http://www.tracypress.com/



Huckaby told friends she was raped
by Jennifer Wadsworth/ TP staff
04.18.09 - 01:48 am

--snipped--

“Everyone makes her out to be a monster,” she said. “But she went through a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”

Another friend — who said she knew Huckaby very well during the two years before Huckaby was assaulted and also asked for anonymity — said she knew the preacher’s daughter had deep-seated troubles, but never knew their extent. The friend said she knew Huckaby would slash her wrists at times, and wore long-sleeved shirts in the summer to hide the self-inflicted gashes.

“She’s just a wounded person,” said the friend, sobbing uncontrollably. “I don’t think people understand that she’s so wounded, that she has so much pain in her life.”

sorry, that is still not a valid excuse for her actions    

I totally agree, I am not condoning any of her actions. But if she was raped, and had other things happen to her when she was young, which I'll bet money she did, there is just something inside of me, that feels bad for anyone who experienced that. But, no excuses for what she did to Sandra.

Why did her family not recognize her calls for help if she was slashing her wrists, and in deep depression?  He criminal petty theft acts certainly were a cry for help also.  I am saddened that she had to kill a young innocent child for all of this to come forward. 

[no rose colored glasses]

I don't understand either, but maybe her family did try to get her help, and she wanted no part of it.

[goodnmad]

Just peeking in to say hello.

What I find interesting in the article is the man who allegedly raped Huckaby was a COP. Interesting. I'd imagine reporting it would be even more difficult.

Many, many women do not report rape because they are made to look guilty instead of the rapist.

Not an excuse. Not in any way shape or form. Plenty of women and men have been hurt and abused and never took that out on innocent children.

I'd be surprised if she wasn't also sexually abused as a child ... and why the church?

Something is still not adding up for me, monkeys. But I'm not quite sure what it is.

[AZSunny]

Just peeking in to say hello.

What I find interesting in the article is the man who allegedly raped Huckaby was a COP. Interesting. I'd imagine reporting it would be even more difficult.

Many, many women do not report rape because they are made to look guilty instead of the rapist.

Not an excuse. Not in any way shape or form. Plenty of women and men have been hurt and abused and never took that out on innocent children.

I'd be surprised if she wasn't also sexually abused as a child ... and why the church?

Something is still not adding up for me, monkeys. But I'm not quite sure what it is.

I am very surprised that it has been a week now, and no further arrests. 

[Stacey]

http://www.tracypress.com/



Huckaby told friends she was raped
by Jennifer Wadsworth/ TP staff
04.18.09 - 01:48 am

--snipped--

“Everyone makes her out to be a monster,” she said. “But she went through a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”

Another friend — who said she knew Huckaby very well during the two years before Huckaby was assaulted and also asked for anonymity — said she knew the preacher’s daughter had deep-seated troubles, but never knew their extent. The friend said she knew Huckaby would slash her wrists at times, and wore long-sleeved shirts in the summer to hide the self-inflicted gashes.

“She’s just a wounded person,” said the friend, sobbing uncontrollably. “I don’t think people understand that she’s so wounded, that she has so much pain in her life.”

sorry, that is still not a valid excuse for her actions    

I totally agree, I am not condoning any of her actions. But if she was raped, and had other things happen to her when she was young, which I'll bet money she did, there is just something inside of me, that feels bad for anyone who experienced that. But, no excuses for what she did to Sandra.

Hello Monkeys

Do I feel sorry for MH for what she has gone through, yes but she made her choice not to call police and report the rape. She did not give Sandra that choice bless her heart.

Monkey hugs

[Stacey]

Also wanted to say No Rose I agree with you it's no excuse what she did to Sandra.
Feeling sorry for MH should not mean her getting a free pass for what she did. She knows right from wrong she made her choice when she took Sandra did she mean for her to die I don't know and really don't care she took that first step and what ever happened after that is all her fault even if she didn't mean for her to die. Sandra never would have died if MH didn't take that first step so she should pay for what she has done.

 

Monkey hugs

[MontgomeryMonkeyMellie]

http://www.tracypress.com/



Huckaby told friends she was raped
by Jennifer Wadsworth/ TP staff
04.18.09 - 01:48 am

--snipped--

“Everyone makes her out to be a monster,” she said. “But she went through a lot of stuff that people don’t know about.”

Another friend — who said she knew Huckaby very well during the two years before Huckaby was assaulted and also asked for anonymity — said she knew the preacher’s daughter had deep-seated troubles, but never knew their extent. The friend said she knew Huckaby would slash her wrists at times, and wore long-sleeved shirts in the summer to hide the self-inflicted gashes.

“She’s just a wounded person,” said the friend, sobbing uncontrollably. “I don’t think people understand that she’s so wounded, that she has so much pain in her life.”

sorry, that is still not a valid excuse for her actions    

I totally agree, I am not condoning any of her actions. But if she was raped, and had other things happen to her when she was young, which I'll bet money she did, there is just something inside of me, that feels bad for anyone who experienced that. But, no excuses for what she did to Sandra.

Hello Monkeys

Do I feel sorry for MH for what she has gone through, yes but she made her choice not to call police and report the rape. She did not give Sandra that choice bless her heart.

Monkey hugs

I don't understand why, if the folks at the church were aware that MH was so troubled that she would cut herself, they put her in the position of Sunday School teacher.  Kids naturally trust and look up to SS teachers...

[June]

I wonder about them making her a teacher as well.

I also wonder if she wasn't acting out something that happened to her as a child, then killed the girl after she realized what she had done in an effort to cover it up?

[flossy]

Do we even know if Melissa Huckaby has ever taught a legit Sunday School class in her entire life?  Considering the fact that the entire church itself does not appear to be functioning as a true church and hasn't had any website updates or activity in years, where were these Sunday School classes she supposedly taught? 

I've never heard the claim backed up with a single bit of info that sounded legit. 

[Wyks]

The whole article is sad, yes.  Am thinking the purpose is to help us understand Melissa, to  perhaps explain in part why she seems to be the way she is today.  Perhaps meant for the public to empathize with her, feel sorry for her circumstances in the past.  The only thing it really does, is help to explain to whatever doctor who will be seeing her, what her past was like.   

As other monkeys have said, what has happened to Melissa in her past, however sad, does not excuse her from making the choices she did with Sandra, if in fact, Melissa made those choices and did the crime herself. 

I read the article upthread carefully, and IMO, the following seems to be the main problem, at least from what we've been told so far:

<snipped from the news article earlier upthread>

"Huckaby had trouble getting along with her family, said the friends.
Private letters shared by one source indicate Huckaby was suicidal, and had been since the sixth grade."

For a child to supposedly be suicidal beginning in the sixth grade, one has to figure that something was going very wrong in her life at that young age.  And since one doesn't usually become suicidal overnight, am betting there was much going very wrong long before that.  And since her friends has said that Melissa had trouble getting along with her family, my guess is that whatever was going so very wrong had to do with her family.  And that is very odd, IMO, considering the fact that Melissa is a Baptist preacher's daughter as well as the g.daughter of a Baptist preacher. 

I am the adopted daughter of a Baptist head-deacon, called elders in some Churches.  Grew up from 5-18 among other deacon's kids (DKs) and preacher's kids (PKs).  Most of us were very likely the worst kids in the community.  heeeeeee!  And yet, in looking back, we may have been brats, but not many of us were depressed and at the point of suicide by the sixth grade. 

Something very drastic and emotionally painful was going on with Melissa and family, for a longgggggggggggggg time, that has not been brought out yet.  And even when it comes out, still will not excuse her from what has happened.  IMO.

Melissa's g.father is not really "of a mind to talk right now"... Uh huh.   

Having said all that, I just want to add this food for thought.  Fits in with what I've been thinking:

When one is looking for a fall guy, a scapegoat, someone to take the blame for everyone else, who do they look for?  The one in the group who is vulnerable and fragile, the one who has already been in trouble, perhaps who seems to have been a problem their whole life, the one who others will easily believe is the guilty one.  And then the group can sit back and say, "It was her, what a shame, she's always been 'the sick one', while washing their hands of the whole thing. 

I do hope I'm totally off base and wrong, am hoping this is not what her family is doing to her.  Yet if so, am hoping LE will see right thru it.   

[no rose colored glasses]

Wyks, I am also wondering if she is the scapegoat, but eventually this will come out, if this is the case, I can't imagine her being quiet about this forever. I just wish I would stop thinking something is up with grandma and grandpa 

[Kat_Gram]

Suicidal from the sixth grade onwards ?
Where was this girl's family. Oh, I know how hard it is to get help and the costs involved, but she must have been about 12 and showing signs of something not right. A kid under 18 at home is still under the parents' control and insurance.
Cutting the arms is a classic sign of abuse undealt with.
These stories scream childhood abuse. While I feel sorry for anyone who endured this trauma, I somehow have no sympathy for Melissa. Lots of people, just check out this board or your own friends in your real life have had bad things happen to them and don't take it out on others or kill an inocent bystander ( Sandra ) to your life of feeling bad. Boo Hoo is tha way I feel.   
..
Her family is around her now, where were they for the previous years of her life ?
They are not indigent persons, they had some resources to help at the time.   

[flossy]

<snipped from the news article earlier upthread>

"Huckaby had trouble getting along with her family, said the friends.
Private letters shared by one source indicate Huckaby was suicidal, and had been since the sixth grade."

For a child to supposedly be suicidal beginning in the sixth grade, one has to figure that something was going very wrong in her life at that young age.  And since one doesn't usually become suicidal overnight, am betting there was much going very wrong long before that.  And since her friends has said that Melissa had trouble getting along with her family, my guess is that whatever was going so very wrong had to do with her family.  And that is very odd, IMO, considering the fact that Melissa is a Baptist preacher's daughter as well as the g.daughter of a Baptist preacher. 

I am the adopted daughter of a Baptist head-deacon, called elders in some Churches.  Grew up from 5-18 among other deacon's kids (DKs) and preacher's kids (PKs).  Most of us were very likely the worst kids in the community.  heeeeeee!  And yet, in looking back, we may have been brats, but not many of us were depressed and at the point of suicide by the sixth grade. 

Something very drastic and emotionally painful was going on with Melissa and family, for a longgggggggggggggg time, that has not been brought out yet.  And even when it comes out, still will not excuse her from what has happened.  IMO.

Melissa's g.father is not really "of a mind to talk right now"... Uh huh.   

That "suicidal since the sixth grade" is huge to me and was what I really clued in on as well, Wyks.  It speaks volumes. 

Whatever was going on with her was no small potatoes, IMO. 

[Searching]

Sandra's family had to accept the knowledge that she was brutally raped and murdered, then stuffed inside a suitcase and tossed into a drainage ditch like garbage. Add to that the indignity of an autopsy, and the absolute devastation of burying their sweet precious little girl. I cannot imagine the horror of thinking the defense wants to exhume her body and do another autopsy or examination, just to help her murderer's case. It is WRONG... and if it were me, I would fight it with the last breath in my body. Constitutional rights be damned... this is crazy!!
What a sad day that criminals have ALL the rights and the victims have NONE!!

   
That poor family has been through enough have they not?? That is like those on that OTHER forum saying the mother should be charged with neglect.. WTH is wrong with people.. Burying her daughter was not enough for them??  Makes me so angry!!!   

[Leroy]

Suicidal from the sixth grade onwards ?
Where was this girl's family. Oh, I know how hard it is to get help and the costs involved, but she must have been about 12 and showing signs of something not right. A kid under 18 at home is still under the parents' control and insurance.
Cutting the arms is a classic sign of abuse undealt with.
These stories scream childhood abuse. While I feel sorry for anyone who endured this trauma, I somehow have no sympathy for Melissa. Lots of people, just check out this board or your own friends in your real life have had bad things happen to them and don't take it out on others or kill an inocent bystander ( Sandra ) to your life of feeling bad. Boo Hoo is tha way I feel.   
..
Her family is around her now, where were they for the previous years of her life ?
They are not indigent persons, they had some resources to help at the time.   

This is how I feel too.  My mom is a rape victim and a victim of domestic violence ... she eventually became a counselor for rape victims and volunteered for the Battered Women's Shelter.   She certainly did not go out and take an innocents child life!

I have zero sympathy for Melissa.

[4getUnot]

Have to say ITA agree with all of you above 100%

You would think over the course of 16+ years that someone besides three of her friends would have noticed and done something helpful.  What about her teachers or others in a position to notice her troubling behavior, if it was THAT BAD??

Seems out of character that her "blind" family stands so supportive at her side now.  I'm not falling for this either.  Somethings amiss and she's not getting my sympathy.

[no rose colored glasses]

Sandra's family had to accept the knowledge that she was brutally raped and murdered, then stuffed inside a suitcase and tossed into a drainage ditch like garbage. Add to that the indignity of an autopsy, and the absolute devastation of burying their sweet precious little girl. I cannot imagine the horror of thinking the defense wants to exhume her body and do another autopsy or examination, just to help her murderer's case. It is WRONG... and if it were me, I would fight it with the last breath in my body. Constitutional rights be damned... this is crazy!!
What a sad day that criminals have ALL the rights and the victims have NONE!!

   
That poor family has been through enough have they not?? That is like those on that OTHER forum saying the mother should be charged with neglect.. WTH is wrong with people.. Burying her daughter was not enough for them??  Makes me so angry!!!   

It would not surprise me in the least that there are people saying on the other forum, or other forums that the mother should be charged with neglect.  Maybe if people realized that these horrific acts, happen regardless of the parenting involved. I'm sure Sandra's mother thought it was a safe little community, I think my little area is safe also, and let my guard down. I'm sure many of the children in that park, played and ran around, they were just being kids, now they won't be running and playing and being kids in that mobile park.