Accusations stun N. California suspect’s family

TRACY, Calif. – Relatives of a Sunday school teacher arrested in the killing of an 8-year-old girl found stuffed into a suitcase said Sunday they are baffled by the accusations against the woman they know as a loving single parent.

“I just can’t comprehend. There are no words,” said Brian Lawless, the father of 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby, who is being held in San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping and killing Sandra Cantu.

Lawless met with reporters outside Clover Road Baptist Church in Tracy, where the family held Easter services. The church is just down the road from the mobile home park where Cantu lived and was last seen.

Huckaby’s grandfather Clifford Lawless, who is pastor of the church, and others offered prayers for Cantu’s family.

Some churchgoers cried as Huckaby’s uncle Brett Lawless gave a sermon preaching faith was the only way to weather hardship.

“How can you look at a circumstance like this and have any hope for the future? I tell you, because I know who God is,” he said.

Huckaby’s relatives said they still do not know why police searched the church or why investigators suspect her of the crime.

Investigators searched the church last week after police said Cantu’s body was found in Huckaby’s suitcase in an irrigation pond.

Brian Lawless said Huckaby lived for her 5-year-old daughter, Madison.

“She just always had an extra patience with her. Never raised her voice. Never yelled. Never struck her,” he said. “She was that same way with other children. She loved other children.”

Madison Huckaby played often with Cantu, who lived down the street from where Melissa Huckaby lived with her grandfather. Huckaby taught Sunday school at her grandfather’s church.

Huckaby was on suicide watch at the county jail, where she remained in custody Sunday without bail.

John Hughes Jr., Huckaby’s uncle, told the Associated Press his niece was from a good home, but had hit a rough patch and had moved in with her grandparents to get past her troubles.

“They opened their home up to her to try to get her life back on track. I think a lot of families have problems like that,” Hughes said.

Huckaby grew up in Orange County and was a “pretty normal kid,” he said. As the eldest of nine grandchildren, she played “mother hen” to the younger children when the family got together for the holidays.

After graduating from high school, Huckaby’s path appears to have become rockier. She married, had a daughter and was divorced in a few years. She had difficulty finding and keeping a job, partly owing to the challenges of single motherhood, Hughes said.

“She’s had her struggles,” he said. “But there’s no way (her grandparents) or anybody would be fearful that anything this horrifying could possibly come from that.”

Huckaby was arrested late Friday, about five hours after she drove herself to the local police station at the request of officers. Inconsistencies in Huckaby’s story led to her arrest, said Tracy police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman. He said there are no other suspects and no other arrests are expected.

It was not immediately clear if Huckaby had hired an attorney. She was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.