Huckaby Linked to Earlier Kidnapping

Will be charged today; may face death penalty

(NEWSER) - The California Sunday school teacher set to be accused of killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu may also face rape and child molestation charges, qualifying her for the death penalty, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Melissa Huckaby will be arraigned this afternoon; prosecutors will charge her with murder but are debating whether to add the “special-circumstances” charges. More»

(NEWSER) - Family and friends of Melissa Huckaby can’t believe the Sunday school teacher might have killed and raped 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "She was actually really mellow and a good friend, and she loved her daughter so much,” a college friend says. And with police still working the case, some observers suspect that another arrest is on the way—and that Huckaby is just covering up for a man. More»

Huckaby swallowed three knife blades before arrest

(NEWSER) - Days before she was arrested for the rape and murder of Sandra Cantu, California Sunday-school teacher Melissa Huckaby attempted suicide by swallowing three razor blades, CBS reports. She was hospitalized and remained under suicide watch until yesterday’s hearing, where a sobbing Huckaby learned she could face the death penalty for murder, kidnapping, and rape with a foreign object of her daughter’s 8-year-old playmate. More»

(AP) - A Tracy, Calif., Sunday school teacher was arrested last last night on suspicion of kidnapping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found in a suitcase in an irrigation pond Monday. Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested about 5 hours after she drove herself to the local police station at the request of officers, the AP reports. The suitcase that held Sandra's body belonged to Huckaby, police said. More»

Stockholm syndrome turned victim into abductor's defender

(NEWSER) - Kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard lied to a suspicious parole officer in a desperate bid to protect her abductor when she was discovered, according to just-released report of her questioning. Jaycee, kidnapped when she was 11 in her northern California town, called herself Alyssa and presented herself as Phillip Garrido's wife. She laughingly explained that she was often mistaken as someone young enough to be the sister of her daughters, fathered by Garrido. More»