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Melissa Huckaby's Other Victim
But how much of that is a twisted sexist prejudice? How much of that speculation is colored by the assumption that a woman is somehow incapable of committing the gruesome acts police say Huckaby did? Just because it’s statistically improbable, doesn’t mean it never happened. Every case is exceptional in some sense – this one especially so. Residents have overwhelmed the Tracy police department with calls about how they must be wrong—the killer’s a man, and he must still be out there. Even investigators close to the case initially doubted the story evidence reportedly told: That a woman not only killed, but somehow raped Sandra Cantu with a foreign object, possibly even after her death.
The January report that alleges Huckaby abducted another child only strengthens the case against her.
If Huckaby is convicted, FBI and other agencies will study her case for its statistical rarity, police said. Lots of people in Tracy believe that if the allegations are true, then someone must have helped Huckaby. No Sunday school teacher and mother with a girl of her own would do such disgusting things to her daughter’s playmate, many say. Studies say that Huckaby just doesn’t match the usual profile of a woman who commits a sex crime. Only one percent of people arrested for rape are women, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And most of those women act as accomplices with men, the report says.
But police maintain that Huckaby kidnapped, raped and killed Sandra on her own. Adding to the peculiarity of the case is the lack of motive. Even after the emotional five-hour interrogation that led to her arrest, Huckaby offered no clues to investigators about what drove her to the violent act alleged against her. But with a history of arrests, abuse and mental healthy problems, there was apparently no motive. Huckaby allegedly killing Sandra Cantu could have been an accident or an impulse. Police refuse to say. But admittedly, there’s a lot even they don’t know.
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Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
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Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
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Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
fk4711
The police lack of follow up is a big problem, but I disagree with the article's assertion that police did not suspect her because she is a woman. That may be true, but I think more importantly, she is a granddaughter of a paster and she also taught sunday school. That will automatically put her down at the very end of the suspect list. In small town America, preacher is like king, for god-fearing people and police, they could do no wrong. People who teaches Sunday school is considered saints. I said her religious activity, as much as her gender, let police to spare her and led to the death of another innocent girl. Tragic and shameful.
flightsuit
Tracy is not exactly "small town America." It's a suburb, and not too far away from Lawrence Livermore Lab and Silicon Valley. It's not San Francisco or New York, but it's hardly some little one-horse town where a preacher's daughter would be afforded any special consideration.
scott1607
What's really scary is they found drugs in the little girl's system and there was no follow-up?! Someone really dropped the ball on that one. I hope the people of the town bring that up next time the police union is demanding a raise in salaries and more benefits...
betbee65
I agree 100% on your opinion. Falling through the cracks is often expressed in cases such as these. But after the fact is not good enough for Huckaby's activities. It was a red flag from the first child that was missing. The officer in the Huckaby charge is not to be blamed on this one. Its the officers in the first abduction, and it was an abduction.
We lost Sandra Cantu, and she probably fought off Huckaby and was murdered for it, so she wouldn't tell anybody.
Huckaby deserves the death penalty and I hope she gets it. Huckaby is vermin and the little children that have suffered from her hands will need psychiatry before it's over. Why is it that little children have to come in contact with these pedophiles, and murderers? It's far too prominent in this society of these murders of our children.
Betty J Berger, Elmhurst, IL
betbee65
Addendum to 1st letter...the fact that benzodiazepines were used on these children shows possible child porn activity and Huckaby more than likely does have an accomplice. The interrogations need to be forthcoming on the denizens of this trailer park. Let's get real, it appears this may be an every day event. I believe more of these children will now come forward. It's not always the registered pedophiles who commit these horrendous crimes, look at Huckaby the Sunday School teacher. How evil this woman is. Let's all pray for the children every day.
Betty J Berger, Elmhurst, IL
FNYGY1
This is a terribly sad story involving a terribly sick woman. However, I'm perplexed by your questioning of the police's "sexist" assumptions. We all make assumptions based on our experience - this isn't sexist, it's human. Certainly, women commit far fewer violent crimes than men so an assumption that a violent crime was probably committed by a man would be - more often than not - correct. Any assumption can be wrong. But, not to make assumptions at all - especially in police work - would be impossible. One has to form some hypothesis in order to prove or debunk it. Assumptions are part of the process.
Having said that, this particular case - given Huckaby's involvement in the previous incident - seems like shoddy police work. It looks like sexism played a role in a larger incompetence.
AgathaX
The thing that strikes me is not the gender of the suspected assailant but the poverty of the victim. There is more to poverty than just not having money. Part of the package is that you are more likely to be a victim and that the investigation of the crime will merit fewer resources and is much less likely to be solved.
And if the assailant's grandfather was a well known pastor in the area, that may very well have helped insulate her as well.
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exploora
I think though, generally women internalize their abuse, which is possibly why we live in a society where there appears to be more programs for men than for women.
For example, I live in a town where there are two projects in the works for men who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, and zero projects in the works for women in the same situation. I live in a town, where until just recently, the salvation army only provided emergency shelter to men, but sometimes were willing to liberalize this exclusion, if the woman was accompanied by a man. I live in a country where approximately 50 women were allegedly disposed of in a wood chipper, and the neighbours did not notice.
So what do we expect women to do then when they find themselves in a similar situation than men find themselves in, but find more people willing to abuse or exploit them than help them. I guess out of sight is out of mind.
And as a rule, more people when they see a homeless man feel fear, than when they see a homeless woman. When they see a homeless women they may feel disgust, contempt, and turn away when she speaks, refusing to acknowledge her existence and even her humanity.
So I suspect that is why there are more programs for men than women, women are expected to remain silent, out of sight and out of mind. And men on the other hand, are expected to do these kind of things, not women.
This article is right. Crimes are usually investigated at the beginning, based on assumptions, until facts and evidence can be gathered, to prove otherwise.
It is much easier to predict what 100 men or 100 women are going to do, than one individual man or woman will do.
skyeleo
How revolting. And I can't believe the police did nothing about the fact that she gave that other little girl muscle relaxers! If you have ever taken them, you know how strong they are.That was attempted murder,imho. It made me sick to hear of another precious poor little girl being tortured and murdered. I don't care if she was a woman or not. And she made have had help. I pray they find out who else was involved, but I hope the police get help this time! They were way out of their league. The worst thing was seeing her crying so pitifully in court. Aww-poor little child rapist/murderer. And her pastor-grand father says she's innocent. What about the victims' families? The family prob. always knew she was weird. I'm just glad she got arrested before she ruins another life. God help us. How can anybody do this? I'm sick of all the excuses.
Annie57
Wow. It just seems so unbelievable that the police didn't follow up on the earlier abduction and drugging incident. If they had, surely the little girl who was murdered would still be alive.
I think sexism is part of the equation; I also think a lot of it has to do with socioeconomic status. If the little girl who was originally kidnapped and drugged had had well-to-do, professional parents, I feel quite sure that if they didn't get satisfaction from the police, they would have hired a lawyer and gone after Melissa, or alert the media to the presence of this dangerous woman. Let's face it-taking a 7 year old away from her home and drugging her is completely unacceptable. It sounds like the police didn't take this mini-kidnapping seriously (maybe because the perp was female), and as a direct result, another little girl died a gruesome death.
blueberries
What is going on in that town? When a hospital finds benzodiazepines in a child the POLICE AND DFS should have been notified. If a man force-fed the benzos to the child...why didn't the police track it down to the nth degree. No child I know could sustain a park for 4 hours...where did they really go? That 4 hour time span seems convenient...especially with an empty church nearby.
The police shouldn't stop with Melissa; they need to continue searching for other victims so that ALL the pedophiles can be put away.
Zorkadork
The cops were too busy eating donuts!
werrit
blueberries wrote: "No child I know could sustain a park for 4 hours"...
This has to be one of the all-time dumbest things I've seen written on this site. You don't spend much time with kids at parks, do you??
blueberries
you can call me dumb if you want but other than Disney Park, I don't know of any 7 yo child who would spend 4 hours at a local park....3 days a week? Do you?
baptox
werrit, you may spend a lot of time at parks, but probably not with children.
This is one of the many questionable statements that Melissa Huckaby made regarding the abduction of this child that should have raised red flags with the police. Any person who "takes" a child without a parent or caregivers permission is abducting that child. There was no misunderstanding or miscommunication between the parents of this child and Melissa Huckaby. She outright abducted this child. That the police conveniently ignored this fact and did no follow-up investigation is inexcusable. That they ignored the subsequent report from the emergency room doctor regarding this child having been drugged borders on professional misconduct.
Police officers in most California cities receive top salaries and extraordinary benefits in most California cities. They also receive top training and they are supposed to know the laws regarding the protection of children. For them to ignore all of the red flags presented here and not be held responsible is not acceptable.
The CA attorney General, Jerry Brown, should open a separate investigation looking at how this case was (mis)managed, whether police department officials should be charged with dereliction of duty, and what changes need to be made to prevent further incidents like this from occurring.
It is not enough just to feel sad about what happened and not learn from this. How about it, Attorney General Brown? How about it Governor Schwarzenegger? What are you two going to do to prevent any more tragic situations like this and to protect the children of this state? Like Sandra Cantu, they too need the protections of our laws and the highest quality services to keep them safe.
blueberries
Melissa also kidnapped child #1 - the mother had no idea where her child was. It is beyond me how a hospital, after finding a blood level of benzodiazapines, could have allowed the child to leave the hospital. Isn't it protocol in California to call DFS when a child is found to be endangered. Benzodiazapines such as Xanax, Valium, or klonopin are NEVER to be given to children...they are prescription drugs and can only be obtained with an RX. I don't care if the child found the pills on her living room floor - it should have been investigated.
Seems like Melissa returned the child a little too early and wasn't going to take the same chance with Sandra. What a tragic case!!!!!
aspiecelia
You refered to a lack of motive in this case. If she was male one would assume he was trying to cover his crime. This type of crime is about having control and power. There are female sexual psychopaths with the same movtives as males.
baptox
Given this new twist on this case, I rather doubt that Melissa Huckaby was alone in carrying out the initial abduction and drugging of the child in Jan. Nor do I think she acted alone in the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Sandra Cantu. I think both children were probably drugged and taken to the church to be filmed for pornographic child tapes. In Sandra's case Melissa Huckaby must have overdosed her on the valium and then gotten assistance in the dumping of the body. My guess is that the police probably have an accomplice they're watching now, probably a boyfriend of former boyfriend of Ms. Huckaby's.
What really concerns me with this case is how unresponsive the first police team were in investigating the incident withe the child in Jan. whom Melissa Huckaby kidnapped (taking a child with out their parent's or care giver's permission). Later When the parents took the child to the emergency room and the treating physician found serious evidence that valium had been administered to this child, a criminal investigation should have been opened then. Even if it had been shown that the mother of the child might have given the valium to her child, that mother should have been investigated, along with Melissa Huckaby.
Children are not the personal property of their parents. Children have rights to medical safety and a life free from harm that legally supersede the rights of parents or caregivers.They certainly have the right not to be abducted, murdered and sexually exploited or assaulted.
I have to question why these trips in which these girls both of whom were abducted and probably drugged did not send off huge alarms within the police community. This is a perfect scenario for the videotaping of sexual assaults that are downloaded onto pedophilia websites. This is what I think occurred to the little girl who thought she was "going to the park" in Jan. She was probably taken to the Church where Melissa's grandfather was pastor and videotaped while being sexually assaulted in a drugged state. The same thing probably happened to Sandra Cantu, but she may had been given too many drugs, accidentally or purposefully, resulting in her death.
How sad that we Americans value the life of poor children so little and still view them as the property of their parents. Contrast this with the media circus surrounding Jon Benet Ramsey's death years ago.
The last thing I will say here is that the courts, the police Department and child protective services need to be coordinated services better in this community and all others. If the Mental Health Court that was overseeing Melissa Huckaby while she was on probation would have heard about the abduction and drugging of a child by her in Jan.Melissa Huckaby would have probably been admitted for a thorough psychiatric evaluation and then court-ordered in-patient treatment, for a long, long time. The court did not know, because the Police Department failed to do other than a cursory check of this case and thus never knew (or bothered) to report MH to her mental health court social worker or to contact the CA Department of Child Protective Services.
When agencies protecting children don't communicate and work together, children suffer and sometimes, die. It's past time to change these preventable mistakes.
NinaMiller
Indeed. Well said.
QueenCeleste
I feel so sick about this. We must protect children. Someone dropped the ball, and now a little girl is dead. The police must not let anything slip through the cracks, and people must be hyper alert in watching for anything suspicious, at all times. May Sandra Cantu rest in peace. And let's just hope the murderer(s) get the death penalty.
diatrib
There have been numerous cases right here is CA where women have been arrested for this type of crime. It was usually not single perpetrator though. But police are very well acquainted with those types of cases- especially in California.
I think the idea that nobody mentions a church association as a fantastic cover is very telling. I have tried to point on on various forums that people will overlook a pastor or someone in the family before a woman, man, or a regular law abiding Joe. Does a strong church association in Tracy mean you have lots of advantages? I don't live there but it seems very church oriented and no one wants to look at that aspect. Tracy is not typical small town America. That is obvious. But the church seems to be a great place to hide there. The female factor was secondary to that aspect in this case and don't be surprised if the church thing helped cover the situation in January. A church is never off limits when looking for answers on something like this.
I am afraid that people in this community don't think like that however. It's one of the creepier aspects of this case so far.
Not that it may have happened in the church- but that people in that town don't have a desire to discuss that aspect at all.
Thank you.
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