The Clover Road Baptist Church lies a few hundred yards from the mobile home park where Sandra was last seen alive March 27. Her body was found by farmworkers 10 days later stuffed inside a suitcase and submerged in a dairy pond two miles north of where she lived with her family in Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park.
Exactly two weeks after her disappearance and five days since police identified her dead body, investigators had little to tell the public without “compromising the integrity of the investigation,” Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said.
He did say he’s confident they’re heading in the right direction and even narrowing down the search for a killer.
FBI searched the Baptist church through Tuesday night. By Wednesday, they had removed the yellow crime-scene tape, though they never said whether they’d ruled it out as a crime scene or whether they’d gleaned anything useful.
By this evening, the crime-scene tape was back up again, and FBI agents and police were seen on the roof, in the shed and taking a pretty big piece of evidence — about the size of a curbside garbage can — from inside the church and into a crime scene van.
Another crime-scene van parked outside the mobile home park, where police have questioned every resident several times since Sandra’s disappearance.
Pastor of the church Lane Lawless — identified in property records as Clifford Lane Lawless — told the press earlier this week that he and his family are fully cooperating with police during the investigation because they want the killer found and their names cleared.
Their granddaughter Melissa Huckaby, 28, who lives with them, said the same. She told the Press earlier in the day today that police had towed her car, interviewed her and questioned her relatives in connection with the investigation.
She said her 5-year-old daughter used to play with Sandra and that news of the girl’s death was devastating to her and her family.
She also said she’d lost a suitcase the same hour Sandra went missing. The suitcase she lost closely matched the description of the suitcase in which police found Sandra’s fully clothed remains on Monday.
Police have scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Saturday.
Also Tracy Crime Stoppers announced late today that it had increased its reward for information that leads to Sandra's killer to $31,700.
• Contact Tracy Press reporter Jennifer Wadsworth at 830-4225 or jwadsworth@tracypress.com.
What ever did happen to that poor baby girl, didn't happen in the driveway.
Sandra didn't deserve this. She was just a innocent little girl. God will not judge you well my friend.
Yes you should watch your own children. However, all those children that ARE allowed to go out and play are OUR children too. There should be a neighborhood watch, a safe house, in every neighborhood. Children should have rules about checking in. I refuse to try someone before they are charged. It is usually the ones pointing the fingers, that are the guiltiest of all.
I agree with you Angered. When my daughter was growing up all the chilfren in the neighborhood played together an all the parents watched over all the children it did not matter who's child was there with my daughter but i treated them as one of my own an tried to make them as safe as possible while they were at my house or with my daughter. We are losing too many of our children now an we need tougher laws on child killers an pedophiles an molesters i say bring back the public hanging gallows so everyone can gather around an watch them twitch till the die.
Sandra Little Angel rest now in the arms of God. And please if you donate in her name make sure it is the reputable donation sites not someone on the net who has created a bank account for donations. No one should profit off our dead murdered children