The Associated Press

The families of a slain 8-year-old girl and the woman suspected of killing her struggled to cope Easter Sunday as the shaken father of the suspect described his daughter as a loving mother who cared deeply about children.

The family of the suspect — 28-year-old Sunday school teacher Melissa Huckaby — held Easter services today at the church just down the road from the mobile home park where Sandra Cantu was last seen.

Huckaby remained in custody today at the San Joaquin County Jail. She was being held without bail on suspicion of murder and kidnapping.

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.

Cantu's body was found stuffed in a suitcase in an irrigation pond this past Monday. Police and federal agents scoured the church and its grounds for clues after the discovery.

Lawless said Huckaby lived for her 5-year-old daughter, Madison.

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

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

Sandra's uncle, Joe Chavez, said the arrest of his sister's neighbor had allowed some of his rage toward Huckaby's family to surface.

"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."

Police and community members are still coming to grips today with Huckaby's arrest.

"I was in shock that, number one, it was a woman and, number two, a member of our community," Tracy police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman said.

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 today 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 said 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."

Sandra disappeared on March 27 and hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officials turned out to search for the girl with dark brown eyes and light brown hair. Police said they received 1,500 tips in the hunt for Sandra and her killer.

Huckaby had attended the second of the several vigils for the slain girl, Sheneman said.

On April 6, farmworkers draining an irrigation pond found the suitcase. Police said autopsy results are not yet available, and they declined to say whether investigators believe the slaying was accidental or deliberate.

Sheneman said investigators have no motive for the slaying. Police declined to say where or how the girl was allegedly killed, though investigators said they believed she died very soon after she was last seen.

Inconsistencies in Huckaby's story led to her arrest, Sheneman said. She was arrested about five hours after she drove herself to the local police station at the request of officers.

She was being held without bail for an arraignment Tuesday.

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 to get past her troubles.

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

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.

After graduating from high school, Huckaby's path appears to have become rockier. She married, had a 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.

"She's had her struggles," he said. "But there's no way (her grandparents) or anybody would be fearful that anything this horrifying could possibly come from that."

Huckaby is scheduled to appear in court this Friday 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.

It was not immediately clear if Huckaby had hired an attorney to speak for her.

Huckaby had worked for four years as a checker at a Food for Less grocery store on Tracy Boulevard just east of the mobile park, until she was fired sometime in 2004, said Matt Duncan, an assistant manager at the store now known as FoodMaxx.

"I wouldn't have anything bad to say about her, until now," said Duncan, who has worked at the store off-and-on for about 10 years. "I would've never suspected her to do something like this."