Families try to cope after arrest in girl's death

[April 13, 2009]  TRACY, Calif. (AP) -- The woman suspected of killing an 8-year-old girl found stuffed into a suitcase is being held in an observation cell where jail staff monitor her mental health, officials said.

Meanwhile, the families of the suspect and the slain girl attended Easter services Sunday at separate churches, struggling to cope.

Melissa Huckaby, a 28-year-old Sunday school teacher, is in custody at the San Joaquin County Jail, held without bail on suspicion of murder and kidnapping of Sandra Cantu. The girl was a playmate of her 5-year-old daughter, Madison.

Huckaby's father, 48-year-old Brian Lawless of Cypress, said he did not believe his daughter was capable of what police accuse her of doing.

"I just can't comprehend. There are no words," he told reporters outside Clover Road Baptist Church in Tracy, just down the road from the mobile home park where Cantu was last seen alive.

Sandra Cantu disappeared on March 27, and her body was found by farmworkers, stuffed in a suitcase in an irrigation pond on April 6. Huckaby was arrested early Saturday.

Lawless said Huckaby lived for her daughter Madison.

"She just always had an extra patience with her. Never raised her voice. Never yelled. Never struck her," Brian Lawless said. "She was that same way with other children. She loved other children."

Madison played often with Sandra, who lived down the street from where Huckaby lived with her grandfather, Clifford Lawless, the church's pastor.

On Sunday, citizens in this city of 78,000 people about 60 miles east of San Francisco were still coming to grips with Huckaby's arrest and Cantu's death.

About 400 parishioners, including members of the Cantu family, packed into the cafeteria of a local high school to hear Journey Christian Church Pastor Scott McFarland's Easter sermon.

Journey was one of more than a dozen local churches that mobilized its members on Sunday to pray and fast for the Cantu family. McFarland sent a special message to the Cantu family that, like Christ, Sandra's spirit had risen to heaven.

"Jesus is out of the tomb and Sandra is too," McFarland told The Associated Press after the sermon. "She's not in a grave, she's not in a suitcase. She's in heaven and celebrating the best Easter ever."

About 20 parishioners and an equal number of reporters filled the Lawless' church on Sunday. Huckaby's grandfather, the church's pastor Clifford Lawless, and others offered prayers for Sandra's family.

The family said jail officials had denied their repeated requests to visit Huckaby, and that they have not spoken to her since the arrest.

San Joaquin County Sheriff's Deputy Les Garcia said the mental health staff has not cleared Huckaby to have visitors at the jail and she is still in an observation cell. Huckaby has also turned down media requests for interviews, Garcia said.

It was not immediately clear if Huckaby had hired an attorney.

Police said inconsistencies in Huckaby's story led to her arrest about five hours after she drove to the police station at the request of investigators late Friday. They said they have no motive for the slaying and declined to say where or how the girl was allegedly killed.

Huckaby's uncle, John Hughes Jr. of Whittier, told The Associated Press his niece was from a good home, but had hit a rough patch in her life and had moved in with her grandparents in Tracy about a year ago to get past her troubles.

"They opened their home up to her to try to get her life back on track. I think a lot of families have problems like that," Hughes said.

Huckaby grew up in Orange County and was a "pretty normal kid," he said. As the eldest of nine grandchildren, she played "mother hen" to the younger children when the family got together for the holidays.

Huckaby was scheduled to appear in court on April 17 to check in with a county mental health program as part of a three-year probation sentence for a petty theft charge to which she pleaded no contest.

After graduating from high school, Huckaby's path appears to have become rockier. She married, had her daughter and was divorced in a few short years. She had difficulty finding and keeping a job, partly owing to the challenges of single motherhood, Hughes said.

Sandra's uncle, Joe Chavez, said he found it difficult to contain his rage toward Huckaby's family.

"I want to go over there and beat the crap out of those people, but I'm not going to do that," he said as he stood at the entrance to the mobile home park where the little girl lived with her mother. "I just want to vent my anger but it's not in me."

[Associated Press; By MARCUS WOHLSEN and GARANCE BURKE]

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