Sandra Cantu Update 27 April

As each fact surfaces from Melissa Huckaby's past, so does a new question.

Police accuse her of raping and murdering Sandra Cantu, 8, last month in a crime that in itself that defies logic. Statistically, women don't do that. Men do.

Add to that court files that tell of shoplifting, out of control hospital bills and a restraining order she took out against a man. Old friends from Southern California reportedly accuse her of starting fires, threatening suicide and cutting herself.

Could she have swallowed razor blades?

The story of this suspect, whose next court hearing is scheduled for May 22, may rewrite psychology textbooks.

Until the experts are done sifting through her life, almost everybody has a theory.

Oakland attorney Daniel Horowitz says it's Munchausen syndrome, the name of a disorder for people who hurt themselves to gain attention.

"You can translate it into, 'I need lots of attention. I need to be treated like a baby,' " he said.

To support this theory, Horowitz points to the $10,000 hospital bills that caused Sutter Tracy Community Hospital to sue her. She was reportedly in the hospital complaining of stomach pains shortly before her arrest, Horowitz said.

Forensic psychologist Paul S.D. Berg, who has watched reports of Huckaby's case, concluded that Huckaby suffers from borderline personality disorder.

This is characterized by people who often have tumultuous personal relationships. Unlike most people's response to stress, borderline personalty types hurt themselves or others. They turn inward and mutilate themselves or lash out to hurt others.

"They break down and can't handle it and act out in extraordinary ways," Berg said. "Instead of killing Cantu, she could have cut herself up."

The movies "Fatal Attraction" and "Play Misty for Me" are pop-culture examples often cited for having characters suffering from borderline personality syndrome.

The picture of a cold child abuser and killer doesn't fit with that of the sweet Sunday school teacher and mother Huckaby's friends and family have painted in recent weeks. Her grandmother, Connie Lawless, said Huckaby would never hurt a child.

Gregg McCrary, a retired FBI profiler based in Virginia, said the case reminds him of Dennis Rader, the Kansas serial killer known as the BTK killer.

Rader is now serving 10 consecutive life terms for his murders.

For decades he raised a family and was a church deacon before he became a suspect in the series of murders.

McCrary said some killers are able to compartmentalize their gruesome crimes while attempting to carry on seemingly normal lives.

"They have in many ways justified their behavior," he said. "So they're dealing with it; they're living with it. It's just who they are."

Maybe some people are just evil. No amount of being raised right can change that fact.

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