Tracy police and the FBI are scouring an area northeast of town for clues in the case of Sandra Cantu after a large black container was found floating in a pond that was being drained by a farmer.
Concerned that it might be related to the case of the missing 8-year-old, who disappeared 10 days ago, at least 25 law enforcement officers spent the day at the scene collecting potential evidence. However, at a news conference held just before 4 p.m. this afternoon, Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Sheneman said the container probably wouldn't be opened until later tonight.
"We don't know what's in there or if there's anything or there's nothing in there," Sheneman told reporters.
A coroner's van arrived at about 3 p.m. at the scene, a farm near Bacchetti Road in northeast Tracy about two miles north of the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park where Sandra was living when she disappeared after returning home from school on March 27.
Law enforcement is restricting traffic in the area on South Tracy Boulevard at South Lammers Road and at West Sugar Road, and the scene has become a media circus, with multiple television cameras set up and a California Highway Patrol helicopter circling above in the sky.
The area had been searched two times previously, Sheneman said. It's believed that the container was not in the pond when it was last drained, about two weeks ago. When workers noticed it, they thought it was suspicious and called police after pulling it over to the side of an embankment.
The scope of law enforcement and media response to the discovery highlights how frightened and tense the community has become over the whereabouts of the Jacobson Elementary School second-grader.
Since she vanished, the district and school have received daily calls from parents whose children are having trouble sleeping and are suffering from bad dreams.
Cara Rodoni, a psychologist assigned to Jacobson, has been working daily with students and their families to help them cope with what can be a traumatic situation.
"Some of the kids are very emotional and crying, maybe scared about being kidnapped themselves; others are having trouble sleeping" she said. "These responses are typically pretty normal for what they have experienced."
The local news is reporting that their helicopter can't get close because the FBI has put a no fly zone in place in the area around the suitcase.
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