SANDRA CANTU, 8, missing since 3/27/09 Tracy, CA #1 3/28/09-4/09/09

[klaasend]

Ok, glad we straightened that one up.
Sandra and her sister  were know to the Lawless people.
I am tired, but perhaps now that this has happened, the sister has come forward with some stuff that led them to someone related to / around the Pastor.
..
Houshold hint. Do not grab the pancake syrup instead of the diswashing liquid.
Wear glasses in kitchen from now on.

 

[Kat_Gram]

Church pastor questioned in Tracy girl's death
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 7, 2009


The Clover Road Baptist Church on West Clover Road is a quarter-mile from where Sandra lived at the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy. The church was cordoned off by yellow police tape today as officers awaited a search warrant. No arrests have been made.

Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said investigators planned to search the church in conjunction with a search of a residence in the mobile home park. The home searched was that of the church's pastor, Lane Lawless, said his wife, Connie.

At a 3:30 p.m. press briefing, Sheneman said the pastor has not been named as a suspect. He would not provide specifics about investigators' interest in Lawless, but did say that police have found no link between the pastor and the suitcase in which Sandra's body was found.

Lawless and all other residents of the mobile home park have been interviewed about Sandra's March 27 disappearance, Sheneman said, and people will continue to be queried.

"We're not eliminating anyone," he said. "We have no specific suspects."

The Lawless couple were surrounded by reporters as they drove toward the church this afternoon.

"I just spent the night with the police down at the station answering all their questions," Lane Lawless said. Asked if he had anything to do with Sandra's slaying, he said, "No."

Connie Lawless said police seized the couple's phone and computers during the search of their home of 13 years Monday night. She said investigators had questioned her husband "just because we live in the park. They are just covering all their bases.

"We were very open to them taking anything they wanted to take," Connie Lawless said. "We feel that the more people they can eliminate, the quicker they'll get to the truth of the matter."

She said police were also probably interested in them because Sandra played with their 5-year-old great-granddaughter.

"She was at our house quite often," Connie Lawless said. "She was the sweetest little thing. It breaks our heart to think that anyone would take such a tiny little thing, abuse her and murder her."

She said Sandra and her sister are "like children to us, our own children."

Sandra's family does not attend Clover Road Baptist Church, neighbors said. The church's Web site said Lawless has headed the church since 1981 and has three grown children and nine grandchildren.

Police have questioned at least four other people during the investigation, including Sandra's father, who lives in Mexico, and two men who live near the girl's home.

An autopsy was under way this morning at the San Joaquin County coroner's office to determine the cause of Sandra's death. Farmworkers found the suitcase containing her body Monday morning as they were draining an irrigation pond on Bacchetti Road, about two miles north of the mobile home park.

Sandra, a second-grader at Jacobson Elementary School, disappeared after telling her mother she was going to a friend's home to play. The last sighting of her was on a surveillance video taped the afternoon of March 27, showing her skipping outside her home.

Among those who came to stand vigil today was Nichole Lee, 18, a beauty-college student who used to live in the mobile home park and often babysat Sandra.

"We'd play with her, watch her, make cookies with her," said Lee, breaking into tears. "She's a good girl, very smart and always wanted to play."

Lee said, "It makes no sense. Who would have the heart to look at a little girl as she's dying? Who has the heart to do that?"

Penny Morgado, a 64-year-old retiree who has lived in the mobile home park for 12 years, said it was clear Sandra had been abducted while in the mobile home park. The girl never would have walked close to the street entrance, she said.

"She just wasn't that type of girl," Morgado said. "She did what her mom told her to do. She obeyed the rules.

"You don't know your neighbors," Morgado added. "You only know what they want you to know."

Debi McComber, 36, and her sister, Kadie Wales, 31, grew up in the mobile home park and still share a residence there.

Wales described the park as an insulated world where residents looked after each other. She said she often slept with her door open, and that she had never been burglarized.

"It's like we're our own little town in there," Wales said. "We didn't need the outside world."

The sisters spoke glowingly of Sandra, recalling how she did cartwheels through the streets while singing.

"She was like a little robot," said McComber, who teaches physical education in Tracy schools. "She was like a sponge - she soaked up everything."

Wales said she was barring her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son from being outside their home without adult supervision. Even riding a bike, she said, was off-limits.

"They're not going outside alone," Wales said. "We don't know if it's our neighbor."

McComber said the case had been grueling for family members as well as neighbors and the whole city.

"It's mind-boggling," she said. "You're holding out hope and putting a lot of energy into it. And then, boom, here it hits you again."

She said of whoever killed Sandra, "That's a coward, a total coward. We've got to find him quick, just to restore some security in our lives."

Chronicle staff writers Henry K. Lee and Kevin Fagan contributed to this report. E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.

[Kat_Gram]

OMG . Sorry. Meant to tidy that last one up.

[ISpy]

Pastor Questioned in Sandra Cantu Slaying

KTLA News

April 7, 2009

TRACY -- A search warrant has been issued for a neighborhood church that police say may hold clues in the disappearance and death of Sandra Cantu whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase.

Clover Road Baptist Church was cordoned off just hours after the 8-year old's body was discovered yesterday by farm workers draining an irrigation ditch.

Police say the church's pastor, Lane Lawless, lives in the same mobile home park as the Cantu family and has already been interviewed twice by investigators.

Lawless told a local TV station that he and his wife spent last night talking to police and said they were questioned because they know Sandra and her family and were "close friends with her."

His wife, Connie, said their great granddaughter often played with Sandra.

Connie Lawless said the couple was fully cooperating with police. She said investigators took phones and a computer, among other items, from their home.

"We're very open to them taking whatever they want," she said.

"We feel the more people they can eliminate, the quicker they will be able to get to the truth."

Connie Lawless said they had nothing to do with the girl's abduction.

"She was the sweetest little thing. It breaks it our hearts to think that anyone would take such a tiny little thing and abuse her and murder her," she said.

The second-grader disappeared on March 27 from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Community.

According to family members, the 8-year came home from school, kissed her mother, and left to play with a friend who lived a couple of houses down.

Surveillance camera footage released this weekend shows the girl skipping down the street.

"We just know that she had gone to the first house, and played for just a very short time.

And then she was on her way to another friend's house," said Lisa Encarnacion, the spokeswoman for Sandra's family.

"And we don't know, we can't confirm that she was there or she was not."
Her mother reported her missing about 8:00 that night.

Police have not identified any suspects in the girl's disappearance, but they have searched several homes.

All the locations were connected to two men who live in the mobile home park, officials said.

Authorities have also towed four cars from the mobile home park.

The cars were being examined by a team of investigators from the Tracy Police Department and the FBI.

More than 100 mourners - some holding candles, others wiping away tears - gathered outside the mobile home park Monday night while police blocked the entrance.

Several also passed by dropping off gifts Tuesday.

http://www.ktla.com/landing_topstories/?Pastor-Questioned-in-Sandra-Cantu-Slayin=1&blockID=252627&feedID=1198

Hmmmm...I've not seen anywhere in any report that police stated Sandra was abused and then murdered, as Connie Lawless stated above.  Does anyone have a link to where this has been reported?
Also, supposedly Sandra was on her way to a second friend's house to play after the short stop at her own.  Could that second house have been the Lawless' house?

[GramaMonkey]

Has there been any mention of other missing children in that same general area???

Hopefully the guilty will be found, and hopefully it will help solve other unsolved cases.  If she was fully clothed, this may lead them to other cases of similarity.

[flossy]

I'm  really curious as to what might have been found on the computer of Lawless and if that may have had anything to do with the search moving to the church.  Wondering if maybe someone else used his computer from time to time - possibly a son or grandson.  Maybe even someone with whom he was acquainted through the church.

I don't necessarily think Lawless himself harmed Sandra, but maybe someone close to him did.

[A's Fever]

It seems unusual to me, though certainly not impossible, that this  man who has a clean history would start his criminal life with such a brutal, brazen crime.  Often these types of perps engage in progressively worse crimes over time.  So far, at least, there has not been anything uncovered in the pastor's past nor any whispers from the community about this guy, at least that I have seen.  One of the comments on the church website though  did cast suspicion on a grandson, I believe.

Yes, I did see that and I'm questioning perhaps a son or grandson of the pastor.  I suppose what I'm going to say is naive on my part, but since the pastor is up there in age 77, that in itself is troubling to think he had something to do with this, but I guess he certainly could, or maybe he has a good idea who may have.

Very good point about the Pastor's age.  I also think it is odd, very odd, that the body is described as fully clothed.  For if not a sex crime, what would the motive be against a child so young?  I am thinking that LE is very carefully controlling the info that is put out there and that maybe we don't have the whole story.

I wondered about fully clothed also, and pages back there are posts about redressing the victim, if I recall this right that some perps who are very fond of the victim may dress the person after they die. I think it was Jean Cassares on HLN who even said her shoes, flip flops were on her feet.

I saw the post about redressing, but it seems unlikely to me.  Of course I have no idea, but it just seems that the abduction of a child is such a sensational crime that the perp would know that he would have to move very quickly - and redressing a lifeless body takes time. 

[Anna]

Klaas,
I did it again, made a Sandra post in the Natalee Thread.  If you will remove it, I promise never to ask a mod for help again ever.

Sorry.  Will go watch TV until I can concentrate better.  This has me upset.

But what I said was we have innocent until proven guilty and all that so I am not going to point a finger at anybody without some kind of proof.

That said, I would sure hate to be the first person questioned after a body had been recovered.

Just saying. . . . . .

[leslee]

OMG . Sorry. Meant to tidy that last one up.

  Laughter IS the best medicine Ok.... whatever they found at the pond or in the suitcase gave them suspicion of more than one perp. It almost sounds like something revealed today confirmed there was More than one perp. I could be wrong but I don't think child SO like sharing, they are similar to serial killers in that they work alone. COULD Sandra have seen something she was not supposed to see? A drug deal going down with the perps already stoned out of their minds?

[Blink34]

Sorry. I be mixed up. Ms. Lawless didn't say Sandra was there that day, just that she was there often to play with 5 year old GG, no name for GG.

NP Kat gram- To be honest, I would have checked out the connection as you did myself.
Thanks for clearing it up

[klaasend]

Klaas,
I did it again, made a Sandra post in the Natalee Thread.  If you will remove it, I promise never to ask a mod for help again ever.

Sorry.  Will go watch TV until I can concentrate better.  This has me upset.

But what I said was we have innocent until proven guilty and all that so I am not going to point a finger at anybody without some kind of proof.

That said, I would sure hate to be the first person questioned after a body had been recovered.

Just saying. . . . . .

Anna - I fixed it in the NH thread.  It's easy to do when you have multiple windows/tabs open.

[Anna]

Klaas, I know but twice in one day is a bit much.

Will do better in the future.  If we all did this twice a day, you'd be a very busy person.

[klaasend]

http://www.tracypress.com/pages/news





Church search continues
Apr 07, 2009 | 0  | 1  | 
FBI crime-scene investigators comb through the Clover Road Baptist Church today for evidence in the Sandra Cantu murder case.

[cartfly]

JUST SPECULATING, NOT A CONFIRMED FACT: I do not remember where I read this (perhaps topix, if so take it with a grain of salt, but locals post here) Anyway, I read about a local person speculating about a group of workers remodeling/working on one of the mobile homes in the park. I bring this up because someone in this group could have easily spoke to her/put her in a vehicle and left the park for another location. Also if any of these "workers" were anundocumented illegalhe would not have much to worry about, i.e. no record of his "legal" existence, easy to disappear. Anyway, just speculating on something I read. I will try to locate where I read about the workers in the park.

My other theory which makes more sense to me is the Slayter (?) guy who was arrested for obstruction. I do not get a good feeling about him.

Also, in regards to the pastor, he sure looks alot younger than 77 years old!!

[Kat_Gram]

I think in any missing child case, they start with the family and the people who were / are the closest, then work outwards. Last known associations, etc.
We have no idea why the Pastor was questioned or why those other vehicles were taken away. We also have no idea of any connection any of these people have to each other, if any. Toss in sixty kiddy porn fans to the mix.   
..
Can you imagine living there right now ?   

[cecilita]

I think in any missing child case, they start with the family and the people who were / are the closest, then work outwards. Last known associations, etc.
We have no idea why the Pastor was questioned or why those other vehicles were taken away. We also have no idea of any connection any of these people have to each other, if any. Toss in sixty kiddy porn fans to the mix.   
..
Can you imagine living there right now ?   

how he knows that sandra was abused?

[Tamikosmom]

Did law enforcement state suspects?

Janet

+++++++

Police Eye Oakdale Property in Search for Sandra
FOX40 News
April 2, 2009

On Thursday, April 1st, police expanded their search to the Tracy landfill as well as a home in Oakdale.  Authorities tell us the home belongs to a relative of Chris Sinclair, a resident of the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park who has been identified as a person of interest in the case.  FOX40 spoke with Sinclair, who says he's not sure why he's under investigation.  Sinclair said he returned home earlier this week, and both of his cars were gone.  He says police asked if he knew anything about Sandra's disappearance.  Martial arts instructor, Frank Wohler, is another person of interest who has  been questioned by police.  He lives a few houses down from Sandra and peaked the interest of investigators when they learned he kissed Sanda on the lips at the community pool two years ago.  Wohler says he was just being friendly and nice.  "It's kinda my nature and I haven't talked to her since.  I've seen her in the park, but that's it," Wohler said.

http://www.fox40.com/pages/landing_local_headlines/?Police-Eye-Oakdale-Property-in-Search-fo=1&blockID=256041&feedID=190

[pink angel]

Family spokeswoman's past revealed

Lisa Encarnacion, who up a few days ago was the spokeswoman for Sandra Cantu’s family, said today she stepped back from that role when police told the family about her criminal past.
<snip>

http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story?page_label=news&id=2260894-Family+spokeswoman-s+past+revealed&widget=push&instance=special_coverage_bullets_right_column&article-Family%20spokeswoman-s%20past%20revealed%20=&open=&


At least the police were looking after the people who surrounded this family. That makes me even more confident about this investigation.

[klaasend]

NEW BLINK POST:

http://blinkoncrime.com/2009/04/07/sandra-cantu-case-church-searched-pastors-wife-speaks/

Sandra Cantu Case: Church Searched- Pastors Wife Speaks

[pink angel]

http://www.kron.com

Has a live broadcast of the evening news at 11:00 a.m. (look for the live banner on the right of the screen)

They will probably do a wrap up of the day and a live remote from the MHP. They did last night.

That's 1:00 p.m. CST or 2:00 EST