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

[Leroy]

Mar 29, 2009 10:31 am US/Pacific
Searchers From 7 Counties Looking For Missing GirlTRACY, Calif. (CBS13) ― 

Volunteers from seven counties are now helping in the search for an 8-year-old Tracy girl who has been missing since Friday afternoon.  Although police continue to say there is no indication that Sandra Cantu was abducted, they are offering a reward for information leading to her safe return.   

Sandra has been missing since about 3 p.m. Friday, according to Tracy Police. She was playing at a friend's house at the Orchard Estates mobile home park located at 812 West Clover Rd. She was last seen returning home from her friend's.

This morning, Tracy police said there are now professionally trained searchers looking for Sandra.  They also say they are following several leads in the case.

Detectives say Sandra has never run away before, and always lets her mother know where she is going and when she will be coming home.  Police say Sandra's father is enroute to Tracy from Southern California.

Sandra is 4' tall, weighs 45 pounds, and has brown hair and eyes. She was last seen wearing a pink "Hello Kitty" t-shirt and black leggings. She was reported missing to police at 7:53 p.m.

Anyone with information about the possible whereabouts of Sandra is asked to call the Tracy Police Dept. at 209-831-4550 or call the Center for Missing and Exploited Children at800-843-5678.

http://cbs13.com/breakingnews/girl.missing.tracy.2.970373.html

[Leroy]

Search for missing girl in Tracy     
Written by TP staff     
Saturday, 28 March 2009 
 

Crews fan out all over city today for 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, missing from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park since Friday afternoon.

http://tracypress.com/content/view/17659/2398/


There are some pics of the search at this link.
 

[no rose colored glasses]

Search for missing girl in Tracy     
Written by TP staff     
Saturday, 28 March 2009 
 

Crews fan out all over city today for 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, missing from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park since Friday afternoon.

http://tracypress.com/content/view/17659/2398/


There are some pics of the search at this link.
 

Thanks Leroy, I sure hope they are successful today.

[Leroy]

Family Pleads For Missing Girl's Safe Return

March 29, 2009

TRACY - "If they see her, just call the police department because I want her home." A mother's desperate plea to find her missing daughter. At a candle light vigil outside her home Saturday night, a tearful Maria Chavez begged for 8 year old Sandra Cantu's safe return.

Cantu's grandmother, Dolores Chavez also pleaded with the public, "Would you please, please bring her home to us or take her to a police station or a church."

Tracy Police, the FBI and countless volunteers have launched an all out search. Flyers with Cantu's picture have been distributed throughout the city and posted on store fronts. Cars coming in and out of the Orchard Estates mobile home park where Cantu was last seen were stopped for questioning.

"She wouldn't go with a stranger unless she was forced into the car. She wouldn't leave the trailer park without being forced because she knows better than that," said Cantu's 15 year old brother, Thomas Fortin.

Police say Cantu went to play at a friend's house yesterday afternoon. She returned home, but disappeared a short time later.

"We're concerned for the welfare of the child. We're trying to find a little girl. We're turning over everything we can to find her and make sure she's safe," said Sgt. Tony Sheneman with the Tracy Police Department.


http://www.fox40.com/pages/landing_local_headlines/?Family-Pleads-For-Missing-Girls-Safe-Ret=1&blockID=252176&feedID=190

[klaasend]

Everyone has a different last name

Sandra Cantu

Mother:
Maria Chavez

Father:
Danny Cantu (now on his way from Southern Calif)

Brother:
Thomas Fortin (15yrs old)

Sister:
Simone Chavez (age unknown)

Grandmother:
Dolores Chavez

So Chavez appears to be the maternal surname.  Who is FORTIN?  That's what I'd like to know.  Another man in the mothers life.

[cookie]

Everyone has a different last name

I noticed that too....

[klaasend]

http://tracypress.com/content/view/17661/2268/

Search continues       
Written by TP staff     
Sunday, 29 March 2009 
 

New photos of Sandra Cantu, the missing girl from Tracy, show her on her eighth birthday.
 

[Leroy]

BLOCKED WEBSITE

[cookie]

hope that there is some news and that this little girl is home with her family soon...

[Blink34]

BLOCKED WEBSITE

I cannot even begin to say how dejected I feel for this child after reading that. It is prophetic, imo.

[cookie]

Blink....I felt the same way after I read it....

[klaasend]

http://tracypress.com/content/view/17661/2268/

Search for Sandra continues   
Written by Cheri Matthews     
Sunday, 29 March 2009 
 

Hundreds of crews and volunteers fan out over the city to find 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.



Not only that, but 230 search-and-rescue professionals from 16 different agencies, on foot and on all-terrain vehicles, with 11 dogs and several equestrian teams, searched the rural area, businesses and neighborhoods from Interstate-205 all the way to 11th Street and Holly Drive to Corral Hollow Road.



By 5 p.m., they hadn't found a sign of the Jacobson Elementary School second-grader who disappeared Friday afternoon from her home on Clover Road, Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said.

But they weren't giving up.

"The ground search will be suspended at 7 p.m., but we can call them back on a moment's notice," Sheneman said.

Sandra, who lives in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park with her mother, Maria Chavez, two sisters and a brother, reportedly visited a friend who lives nearby after school Friday. She walked home and then went outside again sometime between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Friday.

Her family called police around 8 that night.

At first, there was some talk that Sandra's father, Danny Cantu, had taken her. However, he showed up over the weekend and was questioned by investigators. He was at the house today with the rest of Sandra's family.

"I asked him if he took her," Chavez said. "But he didn't. He's here."

Family spokeswoman Lisa Encarnacion said no one is giving up hope that Sandra will be found.

"Somebody knows something," she said. "We're hoping people will look for her and call with tips. It may be the tip that will lead us to her."

Tracy Crime Stoppers and the FBI have offered a $2,000 reward for information that leads to finding Sandra.

Both Sheneman and Encarnacion said the offers of help from the community have been overwhelming.

"We live in a really great place," Encarnacion said. "This is a community that embraces you."

Sheneman said the police department had so many volunteers, there weren't enough jobs to give them.

He suggests that people keep their eyes open in town and report anything suspicious.

"We want people looking around on their own," he said. "If they see anything out of the ordinary, we want them to call us, and we'll investigate."

Anyone who has information is asked to call the police department at 831-4550. 

Encarnacion said friends and community members have planned a prayer vigil at 8:30 tonight in the parking lot of the Microtel Inn, at 861 W. Clover Road, across from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park. 

 

[no rose colored glasses]

Blink....I felt the same way after I read it....

Me too, my heart sank.

[no rose colored glasses]

I'm wondering how much supervision this child gets, reminds me of some neighbor kids that were unsupervised and running around early in the morning and late at night. After many complaints to the association by many people that is no longer going on. It sounds like she is a lonely little girl.

[Leroy]

I'm wondering how much supervision this child gets, reminds me of some neighbor kids that were unsupervised and running around early in the morning and late at night. After many complaints to the association by many people that is no longer going on. It sounds like she is a lonely little girl.

I agree.  I have a real bad feeling about this little girl    

The family says how she was good about letting them know where she was and what time she would be home.....and they didn't call the cops until 8pm!!!  Is that what time she was supposed to be home?  If so, then why did she leave early??? 

[cookie]

I'm wondering how much supervision this child gets, reminds me of some neighbor kids that were unsupervised and running around early in the morning and late at night. After many complaints to the association by many people that is no longer going on. It sounds like she is a lonely little girl.

I agree.  I have a real bad feeling about this little girl    

The family says how she was good about letting them know where she was and what time she would be home.....and they didn't call the cops until 8pm!!!  Is that what time she was supposed to be home?  If so, then why did she leave early??? 

I agree as well....
it does sound like she is lonely and in need of attention..
My goodness, did no one miss this child at dinner time?  Is 8 pm the first that they noticed that she was not where she was supposed to be? Even if grand daughter is at a neighbors house, I still call or go over there to make sure that she is ok and still welcome to stay...we also call each other when one of the little ones are going home so that we can be outside to meet them...always in eyesight of the child....
8 is too young/little to be out roaming the streets at any time day or night...in my opinion of course...

[Leroy]

Search For Missing Tracy Girl Continues
theKCRAchannel.com
updated 5:47 p.m. ET, Sun., March. 29, 2009
TRACY, Calif. - Hundreds are involved in a search for a missing 8-year-old Tracy girl.

Police said Sandra Cantu was last seen at 4 p.m. Friday in Tracy. She was supposed to be at a friend's house at a mobile home park in Tracy but was not located there.

Two-hundred trained law enforcement from eight counties including 13 people from FBI and a dive team, along with 100 volunteers, are involved in the search.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is also assisting in the investigation.

Law enforcement said "untrained" volunteers are being asked only to help pass out flyers so that potential evidence is protected.

Cantu is 4 feet tall, weighs 45 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings.

Police said Sandra did communicate with older men who lived in mobile home park.

The Tracy Police Department is asking the public for help. A $1,000 reward is being offered in the case.

Stay with KCRA 3 Reports and KCRA.com for the latest developments.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29929967/

[no rose colored glasses]

I'm wondering how much supervision this child gets, reminds me of some neighbor kids that were unsupervised and running around early in the morning and late at night. After many complaints to the association by many people that is no longer going on. It sounds like she is a lonely little girl.

I agree.  I have a real bad feeling about this little girl    

The family says how she was good about letting them know where she was and what time she would be home.....and they didn't call the cops until 8pm!!!  Is that what time she was supposed to be home?  If so, then why did she leave early??? 

This does not make sense to me, I wonder if her mom and grandparents work, and don't come home until later, but what about the other siblings, you would think someone would be watching her, sounds like a latch key kid, I don't even know if they use that term anymore.

[Leroy]

I'm wondering how much supervision this child gets, reminds me of some neighbor kids that were unsupervised and running around early in the morning and late at night. After many complaints to the association by many people that is no longer going on. It sounds like she is a lonely little girl.

I agree.  I have a real bad feeling about this little girl    

The family says how she was good about letting them know where she was and what time she would be home.....and they didn't call the cops until 8pm!!!  Is that what time she was supposed to be home?  If so, then why did she leave early??? 

I agree as well....
it does sound like she is lonely and in need of attention..
My goodness, did no one miss this child at dinner time?  Is 8 pm the first that they noticed that she was not where she was supposed to be? Even if grand daughter is at a neighbors house, I still call or go over there to make sure that she is ok and still welcome to stay...we also call each other when one of the little ones are going home so that we can be outside to meet them...always in eyesight of the child....
8 is too young/little to be out roaming the streets at any time day or night...in my opinion of course...

i cant believe that parents still allow children that are so young to be out roaming around....it happens way too much    

[Leroy]

ONe of the articles said there was going to be a 5pm press conference....anyone know if that happened??

(and now that I asked, i'm not even sure what time it is in CA..lol)