Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It was a regular Friday in a small California town.
School was out, bikes were everywhere, and eight year old
Sandra Cantu was bouncing from house to house like kids
do when dinner is still hours away. But somewhere between
her front door and a neighbor's trailer, something happened. Ten
days later, a suitcase turned up in an irrigation pond,
(00:22):
and everything changed. This isn't a case of a stranger
in a white van. This is about someone the community
already knew, someone who'd been part of the search, someone
who brought their own suitcase to a murder investigation before
we dive in. If you like your true crime brief
and bingeable, you're in the right place. It followed now
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for at least two new episodes every week. This is
ten minute murder. Let's get into it. In March twenty seventh,
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two thousand and nine, a Friday, one of those warm
pre summer afternoons where the school bell rings and every
kid in town turns into a heat seeking missile for snacks, bikes,
and their best friend's front door. Eight year old Sandra
Renee Canto was no different. Friday meant freedom, and she
was ready to make the most of it. She lived
(01:26):
in Tracy, California, at the Orchard Estate's mobile home park.
That name might sound fancy, but it was a tight knit,
modest neighborhood where kids played outside without a second thought,
and most folks knew your grandma, your cousins, and your business.
Sandra's house was full, her mom, her three older siblings,
and her grandparents lived just down the lane. It was
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a kind of place where you didn't have to knock,
you just showed up with a juice box and a
jump rope. Tracy wasn't a big city, not back then,
population around seventy eight thousand, and Orchard State smaller. Still,
Sandra went to the local elementary school, Sunday school at
a nearby church. She had plenty of friends, plenty of
places to be, and plenty of adults keeping casual tabs
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where everyone's kids were. This was before the find my
iPhone raised your kid for you. That afternoon, Sandra stopped
by one friend's house, hung out until four, then dropped
by her own home just long enough to say she
was off to play with someone else. She promised she'd
be back in time for dinner, but dinner came, and
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then dinner went and Sandra didn't come home. Now, some
kids push the limits, stay out past curfew, get lost
in the chaos of tag and trading silly bands. But
that wasn't Sandra. She was steady. She didn't test boundaries,
She followed the rules. So when she didn't come home,
her mom didn't wait around or assume she wandered off.
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She called the police at exactly seven fifty three pm.
The official search for Andrew Canto began. Not long after
Sandra left her house, a nearby surveillance camera caught what
would be the final known footage of her. She's skipping,
literally skipping like an eight year old with zero worries
and a whole weekend ahead of her. She crosses the streets,
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then pauses and turns like something or someone caught her attention.
That tiny moment, captured on grainy footage, was the last
time anyone saw her alive, and something about it just
felt wrong. Not dramatic or movie scene, wrong, just off.
Sandra vanished on a regular Friday afternoon, in broad daylight,
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surrounded by holmes and people and week end plans. This
wasn't a case of a kid sneaking off or running away.
She was eight, she was happy. She was wearing Hello Kitty.
And when a kid like that disappears in a place
like Orchard Estates, the panic spreads fast because if it
could happen to her, it could happen to anyone. The
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police handed over the footage to the press, and it
was everywhere by the weekend. Over and over again, people
watched Sandra turn and walk out a frame while they
played that on loop. The FBI swarmed the neighborhood. They
brought out everything, dogs, horses, helicopters, ATVs, if it had
wheels or a heartbeat. It was looking for Sandra. But
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every lead fizzled out, every tip led nowhere. Sandra was
just gone. Ten days after Sandra disappeared, a group of
local farmers drained an irrigation pond near the edge of town.
What they found called everyone off Guard. A suitcase heavy
and water logged. When investigators opened it, they discovered Sandra's
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body inside. The corner's report later confirmed that she had
likely died not long after she went missing. Evidence pointed
to trauma, the presence of drugs, and signs that she
had been restrained. Her body had then been con sealed
in the suitcase and dumped into the pond. The FBI
profilers working on the case came up with a fairly
(05:06):
specific theory. They believed the suspect was likely a white
man between the ages of twenty five and forty, with
a history of predatory behavior, possibly someone already on the
radar for possession of illicit material involving miners. Sadly, it
was the kind of profile they'd seen before in cases
like this. One local man quickly drew attention. A few
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years earlier, he had reportedly kissed Sandra at a local
swimming pool. She was just six at the time. It
was deeply inappropriate and enough to warrant a second look
now that she'd been found dead. He matched the initial
profile and investigators brought him in, but after a full
review of his alibim whereabouts, he was cleared. Whatever his
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past behavior, this wasn't him That left the case wide
open again, at least officially, but one person, someone already
well known in the community, had been involved in the
investigation in a way that started to raise some eyebrows.
Her name was Melissa Huckabee, twenty eight years old. She
lived in the same mobile home park as Sandra, and
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she had been part of the search from the very start.
But it wasn't just that she was involved, it was
how she involved herself that caught attention. Just hours after
Sandra disappeared, Melissa had texted Sandra's mother. The message read quote,
tell the police that I had something stolen today around
four pm. I don't know if that makes a difference
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or not. The item she claimed was stolen a suitcase.
To the police at the time, it sounded odd but
not criminal. Melissa was known to have mental health challenges.
She'd been diagnosed with multiple disorders, and while that alone
means nothing, her behavior was increasingly erratic. She also had
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a personal connection to Sandra. Their daughters were friends, and
Melissa had once been Sandra's Sunday school teacher. At first,
her comments were seen as a misguided attempt to help,
but once that suitcase turned up in the pond, everything
about her involvement suddenly looked very different. So when she
started offering up details and theories, texting Sandra's mom about
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a stolen suitcase, and repeatedly inserting herself into the search effort,
it felt at first like someone trying way too hard.
To be helpful or maybe just someone desperate for attention
in a tragic situation That changed when Sandra was found.
Because Melissa's missing suitcase, the one she couldn't stop talking
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about it was the exact one Sandra had been in.
Now there were three things stacking up. Number one, Melissa
wouldn't leave the case alone. Number two, she had a
close relationship with Sandra. At number three, Sandra's body had
been found in something Melissa claimed was stolen. That many
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coincidences start to feel like a pattern. Then came the vigil.
While the community was grieving and lighting candles for Sandra,
Melissa approached the police with another revelation. She'd found a note.
It read with several misspellings, cantu locked in stolen suitcase
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thrown in water on Buchetty Road and Whitehall Road. Witness
Melissa was reportedly crying and hyperventilating as she handed it over,
but investigators were no longer seeing her as an overly
emotional bystander. They were asking a new question. Was Melissa
a victim of this tragedy or was she orchestrating it?
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The mention of a witness got their attention and led
them to one, A retired marine and his wife came
forward with something investigators could not ignore. On the same
day Sandra disappeared, the couple had been driving past that
same irrigation pond and saw a woman walking away from
the water. When they briefly stopped, the woman told them
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she had just needed to relieve herself. Later, after seeing
her on TV, they realized that woman was Melissa Huckabee.
They'd seen her between five thirty and six pm that day.
The timeline matters, Sandra was last seen on security footage
at three point fifty four pm, heading toured Melissa's trailer.
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Minutes later, Melissa's SUV left the park in the opposite direction,
and she called the property manager to report that her
suitcase had been stolen. Roughly ninety minutes after that, Melissa's
vehicle was spotted near her grandfather's church, where she volunteered
as a Sunday school teacher. She returned to the church
half an hour later. In that exact window of time,
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Melissa was seen by the pond, and that was enough
for investigators to start zeroing in. When the police searched
the church, they found a rolling pin that matched injuries
discovered during Sandra's autopsy, the handle had been bent. Blood
on the object was tested and confirmed to belong to
Sandra Cantu. Melissa Huckabee was arrested and charged with Sandra's murder.
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In court, prosecutors argued that Sandra's murder wasn't a spontaneous act.
They believed Melissa had done this for attention, an idea
that sounded absurd until they outlined what came before. Just
weeks prior, Melissa had reportedly given the same sedative to
a seven year old girl. That child survived. Less than
a month before Sandra's murder, Melissa also allegedly poisoned her
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ex boyfriend. He survived too. The prosecution's theory was that
these were practice runs. Sandra was the final act Melissa
had been escalating toward. To avoid the death penalty, Melissa
took a plead deal. She admitted guilt first degree murder.
When she stood in court to speak to Sandra's family,
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Melissa said, I still cannot understand why I did what
I did. This is a question I will struggle with
for the rest of my life. She asked for forgiveness,
claimed that God had already forgiven her. Said Sandra had
not suffered. That last claim stood in brutal contrast to
the medical evidence, and most people didn't buy it. Clearly
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not the judge and definitely not the public. Melissa Huckabee
was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
She knew what she was doing, said her neighbor Jose.
She could have asked for help. She could have gone
to a doctor if she was sick this way, thanks
(11:41):
for listening to ten minute murder brief and bingeable true crime.
I'm Joe the host. Then, yeah, this one was pretty heavy.
Sandra Canto's story is one of those cases that sticks
with you, not just because of what happened, but because
of who had happened to. She was just eight, just
being a and someone she knew turn that trust into
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something unthinkable. I know these episodes aren't always easy to hear,
but telling the truth, even when it's awful, matters, and
so does remembering the people behind the headlines. Now, let's
reset the emotional clock a bit, go outside, touch some grass,
or if you're me, you open the fridge seventeen times,
hoping the snack situation has magically improved. Hey, if you
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(12:48):
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tell someone where you're going, and I'll see you next time.