Melissa Huckaby's family was "shocked" by her arrest in the Sandra Cantu case, a relative said.
"We're trying to just gather our thoughts," Joanie Hughes said by phone Saturday.
Hughes, who identified herself as the daughter of Huckaby's grandparents Lane and Connie Lawless, said her family had been out of town when Huckaby was arrested Friday in connection with 8-year-old Sandra's death, and they were still trying to process the news.
"We're very shocked," Hughes said.
She declined to elaborate on Huckaby or the case, but said an official statement from her family would be forthcoming.
"My brothers and I do plan on preparing a statement ... and will be able to address the church's pastor for the past 30 years.
"I'm not sure exactly how long the church has been here, but it's many years — I think since the '50s," she said.
Neighbors, former co-workers and others described the suspect as a quiet woman who kept mostly to herself.
Carlos Martinez, a handyman for the mobile home park, said he remembered seeing Sandra, last seen alive March 27, go into Huckaby's home about two weeks ago to play with her friend.
According to Martinez, who has worked as a handyman at Orchard Estates for the past 15 years, Huckaby's child never played outside with the other children in the neighborhood.
Huckaby and her family appeared quiet, he said. "I never thought she'd be the person."
A former college classmate of Huckaby's who did not want her name published said she met Huckaby in 2004 at a college in Orange County where the two were studying medical billing and coding.
She described Huckaby as "a little moody and odd" and got the impression that she had a rough past but said she saw nothing in her behavior that would suggest she was capable of hurting anyone.
"She never really talked about her parents," the woman said.
She said after Huckaby moved back to Northern California in 2005, she didn't hear much from her, aside from the occasional e-mail joke, but said during one exchange Huckaby told her she had gotten a job in the medical field but didn't stay with it because it didn't pay well. Huckaby said in the e-mail that she was a party coordinator and that "everything was going well."
Matt Duncan, an assistant manager at the Food Maxx down the street from Orchard Estates, remembered Huckaby from when she worked there as a checker in 2004. Duncan described Huckaby as being particularly quiet.
"She came in, did her job and went home," Duncan said. "She just did her own little thing."
Linda Candelaria, a co-worker of Huckaby's in 2004 at the grocery store, said news of the arrest left her distraught.
"It's horrible. It makes you lose trust in people," Candelaria said. "Who can you trust?"
Candelaria didn't want to pass judgment on her former co-worker, but she is hopeful that authorities are closer to finding Sandra Cantu's killer.
"It's sickening," Candelaria said. "I just hope justice is served, either way."
Tim Heinrich, pastor of Crosswinds Baptist Church in Tracy, said he didn't know Pastor Lawless, but he planned to ask his congregation to pray for both Lawless' family and the family of Sandra Cantu during Easter services today.
"Because the (case) focuses on a pastor's family, it shook me," Heinrich said.
The tragedy has rocked his congregation — at the church's annual egg hunt, parents appeared to "keep their kids much closer than they would have before," Heinrich said, adding, "It is definitely affecting our community."
Why would anyone kill one of the playmates of their own child? I don't get how a mother could even do this to another mother. I know that my heart would be broken if anything happened to my children, and would never want to cause that kind of pain to another person.
Other Sandra Cantu Updates
source
No comments:
Post a Comment