Love Found in California by Melissa Rolka

I don't know if that makes a difference or not'. On the day Cantu disappeared, Huckaby sent a text to Cantu's mother that said 'tell the police that I had something stolen today around 4 p.m. Upon finding Cantu's body, police became suspicious of a number of coincidences regarding Melissa Huckaby, a 28-year-old Sunday school teacher who also lived in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park and whose daughter was a friend of Cantu.

The profile that FBI experts assigned to the case was a white male aged between 25 and 40 with a criminal history of sexual assault or child pornography. An autopsy established that Cantu had been beaten and sexually abused with a foreign object before being smothered, while toxicology results showed that she had ingested Alprazolam.

On April 6, a suitcase containing Cantu's body was found during routine draining of an irrigation pond. He was interviewed and cleared of any involvement. One early suspect was a local man who was witnessed kissing Cantu on the lips two years earlier at a local swimming pool, when she was six. A $22,000 reward was offered for information in the case. Over the course of the weekend of March 28–29, police dogs, equestrian teams, all-terrain vehicles and a helicopter from the California Highway Patrol were brought in to search for Cantu. A search of the mobile home complex was conducted without results and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was called in to assist on the case. The footage, which showed Cantu crossing the street in front of her home before moving out of frame, was played on national news stations. Police collected footage recorded by a surveillance camera near the family home.

When she did not return for dinner, she was reported missing to the local police at 7:53 p.m. She later left home saying that she was going to play at another friend's house.

On Friday, March 27, 2009, Cantu played at a friend's house after school until approximately 4:00 p.m., when she returned home. She was a second grade student at Melville S. Sandra Renee Cantu, eight at the time of her death, lived at Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy, California, with her mother, grandparents and three older siblings. Huckaby pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and murder of Cantu and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 2010. On April 10, police arrested a local woman, 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby (born February 23, 1981), and charged her with the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Cantu. Her body was discovered ten days later inside a suitcase in a local irrigation pond. Sandra Renee Cantu (Ma– March 27, 2009) was an American girl who gained national attention after she disappeared from Tracy, California, on March 27, 2009.

Love Found in California by Melissa Rolka