CrimeWatch

TRACY (CBS 5 / AP) ― Prosecutors said Monday they may include rape and molestation allegations in their murder charge against the woman suspected of killing an 8-year-old Tracy girl and putting her body in a suitcase.

Melissa Huckaby, a 28-year-old Sunday school teacher, was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sandra Cantu.

Formal charges have not been filed, but San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himmelblau said Monday that a murder charge against Huckaby could include the special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and murder in the course of a kidnapping.

A conviction on any of the special circumstances would make Huckaby eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole, Himmelblau said. The district attorney's office hasn't determined whether to seek the death penalty, he said.

Sandra disappeared on March 27. A massive search ensued and pictures of her were posted all over Tracy, a city of 78,000 people in the Central Valley.

On April 6, Sandra's body was found in a suitcase by farmworkers draining an irrigation pond located only a few miles from the girl's home in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park. That suitcase belonged to Huckaby, police said.

Huckaby lived with her grandparents five doors down from Sandra in Tracy. The little girl was a playmate of Huckaby's 5-year-old daughter, Madison.
 
Sources close to the investigation told CBS News on Sunday that police believe Sandra was murdered inside the Clover Road Baptist Church, where Huckaby taught Sunday school.

It was not immediately clear if the alleged rape and molestation also took place there.

Himmelblau wouldn't provide details on any evidence leading prosecutors to consider the sexual assault allegations.

"I was hoping that wasn't the case," Sandra's aunt, Angie Chavez, said through tears. "I'm in shock. The whole thing is unimaginable."

In the days after Sandra's body was found, investigators searched the church, where Huckaby's grandfather, Clifford Lawless, is the pastor.

Investigators also interviewed the pastor and seized items from his home. Her family has said they do not know what police were looking for.

Huckaby's relatives have described her as a loving mother with a strong religious upbringing.

Emily Fontes of Seattle, Washington, said she and Huckaby were best friends at upper-middle class Brea Olinda High School in Orange County in the late 1990s.

Huckaby babysat and worked as a nanny for a local family, and also participated on the high school dance team, Fontes said.

Huckaby didn't seem to have career goals then but talked occasionally of becoming a police officer. She talked about problems at home and sometimes wanted to stay with her friend, but Fontes said she was sure it was typical teenage problems involving boys and parents.

"I can't comment on who she is now," Fontes said. "All I can say is that this girl I knew then could never in a million years do something like this."

After high school, Huckaby bounced back and forth between Southern California and Tracy.

In 2002, she worked as a cashier at a grocery store near the mobile home park. The following year, in May 2003, she filed for bankruptcy, listing just over $5,000 in assets and more than $26,000 in debts. She was 22 and expecting her first child.

According to court documents, Melissa Lawless owed more than $17,000 in medical expenses, including two debts to ambulance services and $10,000 to a Tracy hospital. She earned a total of $10,525 in 2002 while working at the grocery store.

She left the market in 2004. Around this time, she married and had Madison. But she soon divorced.

Brian Lawless said his daughter never raised her voice at her own daughter: "Never yelled. Never struck her."

In 2006, Huckaby was convicted of petty theft in Los Angeles County. Her sentence from that case wasn't clear.

Separately, in January, she pleaded no contest to a petty theft charge in San Joaquin County Superior Court. She was sentenced to 3 years probation on the condition that she participate in a county mental health program.

She had been scheduled to go to court April 17 to report on her participation in that program.

Huckaby was hospitalized for several days during the week leading to her arrest with an unknown ailment that her family said was possibly stomach bleeding.

She was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Stockton in the killing of Sandra. A decision on which, if any, special circumstances to include in the charges hasn't been made, Himmelblau said.

Huckaby was in custody without bail at the San Joaquin County Jail, where jail staff was monitoring her mental health and not allowing visitors. Himmelblau was not aware if Huckaby had an attorney.

Tracy police did not return messages seeking comment.

"The allegations are so far outside what I know about my niece," said Huckaby's uncle, Brett Lawless, 48, of Lakewood. "Of course there are doubts in my mind. But we understand the police doing their jobs might have some probable cause."

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)