Melissa Huckaby, 28, center, with public defender Ellen Schwarzenberg earlier this month. AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, Pool
Police interviewed Huckaby, she told news station KPIX, and she described the incident as an innocent trip to the park. Huckaby claimed she had permission from the grandmother to take the girl to the park, but that the mom didn't know that.
The girl's 18-year-old sister today told KPIX that Huckaby did not have permission to take the girl. The television station did not name the sister as a condition for her interview.
Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told CNN’s Larry King on Monday that police had no probable cause to arrest Huckaby at the time.
The girl was reported missing on January 17 by a family in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park. Huckaby lived in the same complex, also where 8-year-old Sandra Cantu lived before police found her dead body on April 10. Police arrested Huckaby four days later on suspicion on kidnapping, raping and killing Sandra.
The January report alleges that someone took a 45-pound blue-eyed dark-haired girl to a park. The woman and the child were gone for four hours, from about 1:30 to after 5 p.m., according to the police log. The woman who took the girl drove a purple Kia Sportage, according to the report.
Police towed a purple Kia Sportage registered to Huckaby the day after farmworkers found Sandra’s body inside a suitcase dumped in a dairy lagoon.
The police log also noted an officer said the girl might be with a mobile home park resident's “granddaughter.” Huckaby until her arrest lived with her grandparents, Clifford Lane and Connie Lawless.
When the woman Huckaby returned the girl, the family took her to the hospital. A doctor found benzodiazepines — a muscle relaxant — in the girl’s bloodstream, the police log noted.
The girl's 18-year-old sister told the TV station that the girl "couldn’t stand up. Couldn’t walk. She could barely stand."
Police logs say the girl’s mother had alcohol on her breath and carried around some type of drug when she went to the emergency room. Police dismissed the incident because of the mother’s drug and alcohol problem, said a friend of the family’s who asked not to be identified because the FBI asked the family not to talk about the case, a point disputed by police.
Sheneman said whether a parent had alcohol on their breath would have no bearing in an investigation of a missing child.
• Contact Tracy Press reporter Jennifer Wadsworth at 830-4225 or jwadsworth@tracypress.com.
Editor's note: New information was added to this story on April 21.
Do you expect someone to sit up here and take your trash talk over and over and not come back at you with it???? Ha Ha Ha.....stop crying and get a life. I'm here trying to give my serious opinions on the subjects concerning the town that I live in and love along with all the other people who live here and your bashing us. As far as your last comment, you've already put all people in Tracy in a negative light that from what I've seen from most of their comments on here don't agree with, so grow up and don't dish out what you can't take!!!!! Ha Ha You must really live a boring life in your little cottage that your so thankful for.
Thanks FutureSheriffsWife, I appreciate the support. But you can't reason with ignorant people. We're probably just giving her attention she doesn't get at home, poor thing. LOL
Thanks again for showing people who just don't know what Tracy's all about.....strength and community.
They are questioning what they are hearing about the case in January which is very normal under the circumstances. I don't think people want to hear that an addict or alcoholic's child has any less rights or deserves protection any less than any other child.
My points were to mostly point out to those that want to blame TPD for not doing their jobs, that Ms. Polk has credibility issues and that her statements and actions were as inconsistent then as they are now. We cannot blame TPD for Sandra's death and cry foul when we don't know the extent of their investigation into the January incident. If I, just reading the story from Ms. Polks "own words" can see the inconsistencies than TPD had to see them too.
"Golly, simmer down ladies and gents! You have me convinced...Tracy sounds like heaven on earth! I'm calling my realtor now!"
lalalafayette - Please don't. You can't expect to come here and make stupid comments about our town and the people here and expect us not to defend both! To think that is stupid on your part.
KAmom - GREAT posts! I'm with you 100%. Keep it up! You make great points.
Diatrib - this is exactly what I was trying to point out to you earlier! I made the comment "things like this don't happen here" because they DON'T. We moved here because we wanted our children to grow up in a small town enviornment that was safe. Which Tracy is. I didn't make those comments because I put my head in the sand and don't realize what the world is about. I get stuff like this happens. It just doesn't usually happen here! The reason our sense of community is so strong here is that we do question authority, we do question our politicians and we do question what is happening around us - we participate! The problem isn't that we think we are immune to bad things happening. We just haven't seen this happen here. I get the sense that you have trouble with authority though.
Again what I am saying is your assumption is wrong.
In that case by your definition most of us are "outsiders" then. Do you know anything about Tracy? It is a transitional community, people often don't live here for more than 4 years. It is also called a "Bedroom" community. That is because of the huge amount of people who MOVED here from the Bay Area and commute to their jobs. It is more UNLIKELY to meet adults who were born and raised here because of the number of "outsiders". I have met many people who question authority too. It is ridiculous to suggest that we have an inordinate amount of compliant people. We debate plenty, we question plenty... in case you couldn't already tell by the number of posts by people who are disappointed with how the police handled these investigations.
Again I will repeat this, the reason you hear so many "this type of thing doesn't happen here" and not ""among us" is because we REALLY ARE shocked! These are "new" developments here. Within the last 6 months so many things have happend here that we are really not used to hearing about happening in this city.
Golly, simmer down ladies and gents! You have me convinced...Tracy sounds like heaven on earth! I'm calling my realtor now!
My comments were in regard to the majority of people on these forums and on the news infering that these kinds of people are not "among us". These types of things are not "our" issues. It seems denial to the extreme. I am sensing it is a bit more than the usual "things like this just don't happen here" of which I am more familiar. I would imagine that a person who questions authority would have problems here especially if they were new to the community.
We don't believe EVERYTHING our preacher, our politician and our PD tells us. That is ridiculous, we are thinking, intelligent hard working individuals. We talk about what is going on in the world around us and debate things too. There is alot of back and fourth between us "Tracy residents" about issues too. What is common is a feeling of shock.
We don't think that outsiders are evil, it is the attacks on where we live and who we are as a community that is upsetting. Many of us our sad and grieving for a community who has lost it's innocence and a beautiful child and trying to make sense of all the senselessness of the last 6 months. There are people who come here to our home town newspaper and post about things they don't understand completely because they don't live here.
I personally am a transplant from the bay area. I moved here 5 years ago and can attest to how DIFFERENT the community is here compared to anywhere else I have ever lived. (Fremont, Union City, San Francisco and Costa Mesa, Irvine). So unless you live here you won't quite get EXACTLY why we feel the way we do. Then to insult us doesn't help you be an "insider" now does it?
Read the posts you will see we debate among ourselves too. We are all in shock and trying to get through this the best we can.
This is a small town where we run into our friends and neighbors EVERYWHERE we go and enjoy a feeling of community and have a small town feel. One where there are actually quite alot of stay at home moms. Our town newspaper has a police blog that for a 24 hour period references items such as a man calling to say he found an injured cat covered it with a blanket and took it to the animal shelter or a boy stole potato chips. It is usually short and serious crimes are an abnormality.
How insensitive of you to write a post like this to a city newspaper who hasn't had this type of crime up until 6 months ago and our community has been rocked down to our core.
You call our community "unpalatable", I find you tasteless and classless, so it is no wonder you find it so.
One newspaper article mentions that the urban sprawl reaching this city is part of the reason we are now getting these "bigger city" crimes... that would be people moving over here from your "illustrious" side of the hill.
P.S. My husband works in Walnut Creek... you don't get much of a break in the heat department stupid.
fyi, for future reference, your spelling of "genius" ("genious") is incorrect. Also incorrect is your presumption that I hate ("STOP HATING")your distant burb. What's to hate? Perhaps the heat in the summer?
xxoo lalalafayette
The point here is that MH is atleast implicated in a crime with striking similarities to the crimes she stands accused of against Sandra Cantu. It would appear quite obvious that MH was preying on another young girl who lived in the trailer park and played with her own daughter; just like her current victim did. This January 17th crime will be admissable in MH's murder trial, and will probably provide the basis for seperate charges against MH in the end.
Ms. Polk's credibility issues notwithstanding, the similarities to the Cantu murder are too much to ignore; that alone makes me believe Ms. Polks version over MH's side of the story.
lalalafayette,
No one is calling this historical, genious!! We have not looked or felt like this is something that we wanted to be noticed for or especially didn't want to happen. I think all you dummies are just jealous of the fact that we came together as the srongest community that most people have ever seen and we looked better and stronger through all of this than most communities in this country. STOP HATING!!! This is about a baby that was violated and killed and the fact that you have children "you should" thank the good Lord that they haven't had to endure what the children here have but don't put the people here down for their feelings or defending their community. I have lived in many different towns in the U.S. and have loved alot of them but none like Tracy.
If you people are tired of hearing "our" opinions of the town "we" live in then like I said before get off this sight and find another sight to babble on. Or at least say something that makes some stinking sense.....
Well you live in So Cal so I can guess why you don't understand the mindset of a small town that doesn't have a major crime issue. Like I said I've lived here a long time and I haven't seen this type of thing in the time I've lived here. If those of us that DO live here are having trouble wrapping our heads around what has happened - give us time. Do pass judement - that's even more dangerous!
As for the outsiders comment by me. I was referring to you as an outsider and that you've brought that on yourself. By the way, you don't act like, based on your comments, that you believe there are educated people in Tracy.
"But they do happen in Tracy, and they happen A LOT"
You just stated you don't live here so how are you privy to the things that happen in Tracy??? We have NOT had this type of crime in Tracy before. I'm pretty clear on the things that go on in our town. Do we have problems? Sure. Have we had our share of it in the last 6 months???? Yes! Does this happen in Tracy A LOT??? NO! Case in point, voted the 17th safest city in California and the 56th safest in the country.
I too am glad you didn't buy here and found a quaint place in Lafayette.