Details emerge in the killing of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu. more ›

Melissa Huckaby, the 29-year-old Tracy woman who you may recall kidnapped and murdered that 8-year-old girl last year, will appear in court this a.m. and is expected to receive a life sentence with no parole. Huckaby made a surprise guilty plea last month to the first degree murder and kidnapping of Sandra Cantu in March of 2009, and in exchange for the plea prosecutors dropped sexual abuse charges and took the death penalty off the table. more ›

Residents busted for shackling and torturing a teenager, a doctor arrested for allegedly sexually abusing patients, and a substitute teacher fingered for molesting "upward of 15 students" -- these are just a few of the bizarre crimes Tracy played host to before the rape and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu. Why has this one-time safest city in California taken a turn for the macabre? Well, according to Joseph McNamara, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and San Jose's police chief from 1976 to 1991, says Tracy's rapid growth might be to blame. Tracy, it seems, doubled in size since the mid-1990s. "As the city grows, inevitably, the crime gets more complex, there will be more conflict ... and the police will get caught in the middle of that," said McNamara. Interesting. Central Valley readers, if you can put down the cattle prod and stick the gag back in her mouth for a second, is this true? Is Tracy really this horrific? more ›

Rape, murder, kidnapping, drugging, Ogilvie home perm disasters -- is there any crime Melissa Huckaby won't commit? Well, now we might be able to add 'arson' to her ever-growing list of felonies. The woman charged with killing and raping 8-year-old Sandra Cantu "has been questioned in connection with two arson fires in Orange County," according to CBS 5. While never convicted, Huckaby was a "person of interest" in two fires that broke out eight days from each other at a home where she rented a room in 2007. The damage to the charred house cost around $90,000. Huckaby remains in jail on murder and rape charges. She is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
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The family of Tracy's own Melissa Huckaby -- who we mentioned earlier is the prime suspect in the slaying of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu -- can't stop talking about how "churchgoing" and "good" she is. She's the granddaughter of a pastor, teaches Sunday school. "She must have had a double life, because she seemed sweet and the Bible study kids love her," waxes Carlos Martinez, who lives in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park near where the alleged murderess lived. While everyone is calling this murder an anomaly, former Christ Lutheran Church Congregation Council President Dennis Rader (AKA the BTK Killer) might beg to differ. In related news, police have identified Clover Road Baptist Church as the spot where Cantu was killed. more ›