For days after 8-year-old Sandra Cantu disappeared from the mobile home complex where her family lived, police insisted there was no evidence the little girl had run into foul play.
Publicly they remained optimistic, seeming confident even after nearly 72 hours had passed that she was “alive and well.” It was not clear that she had met with danger until Monday’s discovery of Sandra’s body in a suitcase dumped in an irrigation pond ended a massive, 10-day search.
Behind the scenes, officials say, they had left no stone unturned. They scoured the area, called in reinforcements and explored every possible theory, from dealing with a runaway to looking for a kidnapper.
“Until we had an indication that Sandra had been killed, we were treating this as a missing persons case,” said Tracy police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman. “Now that she’s been found, we’re working it as a homicide.”
But some say authorities could have done more to heighten the urgency of finding Sandra and to warn the public of the danger that could be lurking in their community.
“If it would have been my daughter, I would’ve wanted everyone watching, everyone to be suspicious,” said Ana Morales, 24, a mother of two who visited a sprawling makeshift memorial for Sandra outside Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park on Wednesday.
“We always had the sense that she was going to be okay,” she said. “(Police) statements were a little misleading – their statements led us to believe they knew something about how she was doing.”
Her brother, Luis Morales, 27, chalked it up to inexperience: “This usually happens in large cities, not in small towns like this.”
Sheneman acknowledged that “we’ve never handled a missing persons case such as this.” But officials say city police quickly asked for help, calling in the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Department, other neighboring law enforcement and the FBI. Within hours after Sandra’s family reported her missing on evening of March 27, the city opened its emergency operations center, normally reserved for earthquakes and fires, according to city spokesman Matt Robinson.
Police say they never issued an Amber Alert because they had no information on a suspect or mode of transportation connected to an abduction, which is normally required for the alert.
Joseph Pollini, deputy chair of the law and police science department at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said he disagreed with that decision.
“Even if it’s just some nuance of information, we still want to get that out there,” said Pollini, who headed the kidnapping and cold-case homicide units during his 33 years with the New York Police Department.
With time a crucial factor in recovering an abducted child, publicizing a physical description of Sandra as broadly and quickly as possible just makes sense, Pollini said.
“It’s not like it’s going to cost a lot of money to put the transmission over the air,” he said. “You’re still dealing with a life.”
Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, defended Tracy police’s handling of the search for the missing girl and said they made the right call in not issuing the Amber Alert. Broadcasting an alert with only a physical description is not an appropriate use of the system, he said.
“The response of the Tracy police in this case was swift and serious. It’s hard to imagine what else they could have done,” said Allen, whose organization’s hotline received hundred of tips regarding Sandra’s disappearance.
Hundreds of people have been interviewed since the disappearance, Sheneman said, and police have served more than 15 search warrants, including one at a local church, since the body was found a few miles from her home. Upwards of 100 law enforcement officials have been assigned to the case, he said.
An autopsy on the girl has been completed, but results will not be available for several weeks, a coroner’s spokesman said Wednesday. Officials declined to discuss any preliminary findings.
Pollini, who is not involved in the investigation, said based on what has been publicly disclosed, it appears Sandra’s killer fits a “disorganized” profile – someone lacking in intelligence who would commit a crime close to home, dump the victim’s body nearby and likely leave behind evidence.
Police would be searching for footprints, tire prints and broken vegetation leading to and from the pond, he said. They would also examine suspects for traces of mud or dirt from the scene.
“As long as you have the resources, tenacity and the time, every case is solvable,” he said.
Robinson, the city spokesman, said he understood public frustration over the lack of answers but urged patience.
“This is a town in which we protect our own. We had an unsuccessful ending with Sandra, and that’s going to eat at people,” he said. “Now the next step is letting police do their jobs.”
Joined by some of Sandra’s relatives outside the mobile home complex, the girl’s uncle Joe Chavez told reporters Wednesday that he wanted to see whoever was responsible get the death penalty.
“It’s complete innocence taken for absolutely no reason,” Chavez said.
“When that word came in (the girl’s body was found), I heard screams that I’d never heard come out of human beings before,” he said. “Primal screams of love and fear like the worst horror movie you could ever watch.”
