A Teacher A Killer
TRACY, Calif. – Police and residents were shocked when the suspect in the killing of an 8-year-old girl found stuffed into a suitcase turned out to be a woman, the mother of the slain girl's best friend.
Melissa Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher and granddaughter of a minister, was on suicide watch Saturday at the San Joaquin County Jail, where she was being held without bail on suspicion of kidnapping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.
Sandra's body was found in one of Huckaby's suitcases in an irrigation pond nearly a week ago, police said.
"This was an anomaly in the murder of a child," police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said at a news conference Saturday. "Finding out that it is a woman who is responsible for Sandra's kidnapping and murder, and then finding out it is a member of the community is another blow."
FBI statistics show women are involved in just 7 percent of murders of any sort. Solo killings of children by women are even more unusual.
