Did Alleged Killer of Sandra Cantu Abduct Another Little Girl?
By Howard Breuer
Originally posted Monday April 20, 2009 06:30 PM EDT
Sandra Cantu
Photo by: Landov
Sandra Cantu may not have been the first young girl that accused killer Melissa Huckaby abducted at her Tracy, Calif., mobile home park.
Her hometown newspaper, the Tracy Press, reports that police there learned in January of a woman who allegedly led a 7-year-old girl from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park to a nearby park, kept her there for four hours and gave her drugs.
Drugs in Her System
The report says that the girl's family then took her to the hospital, where doctors found benzodiazepines (a class of drugs that includes Valium and Librium) in her bloodstream. The newspaper reports that the suspect in the case drove the same type of car as Huckaby – a purple Kia Sportage – and that police have now tied that incident to Huckaby.
Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman tells PEOPLE that he has heard about the report, but he cannot comment on it. He says that all police reports linked to Huckaby are now under seal.
Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher and the granddaughter of a local pastor, is due back in court April 24 to enter a plea to charges that she killed Sandra Cantu, 8, who played with Huckaby's 5-year-old daughter on March 27. Huckaby allegedly stuffed Cantu's body into a suitcase that was dumped in a nearby agricultural pond, then reported the suitcase stolen.
Exhume Remains?
Huckaby is also charged with rape with a foreign object. Sheneman tells PEOPLE that before Huckaby enters her plea, the court will rule on her lawyer's request to exhume Cantu's body for a week so defense expert Dr. Terri Haddix can examine the remains and testify on the rape allegation.
"I believe and allege such an examination is extremely crucial and material to Ms. Huckaby's defense," Huckaby’s lawyer, San Joaquin County deputy public defender Sam Behar wrote in his motion.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20273817,00.html
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