SEARCHING FOR SANDRA-Stacy Dittrich

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the screen and beyond the camera's view. Just two weeks after she celebrated her eighth birthday, Sandra Cantu disappeared. Within days. Panic gave way to horror when investigators report that Sandra's neighbor, twenty eight year old Melissa Huckabee had been arrested in charge with the rape and murder of the young girl. Sandra's death at the hands of a trusted adult female

sent a powerful message to parents everywhere. The days of warning against stranger danger are long gone, having been replaced by an even darker era where stereotypes no longer exist and families can never be sure who exactly to trust. The book that we're profiling this evening is Searching for Sandra, the Story behind the Disappearance of Sandra Cantu, with my special guest, journalist and author Stacy Dietrich. Welcome to the program,

and thank you for agreeing to this interview. Stacy Dietrich, Hi, Dan, thank you so much for having me on. Well, thank you very much. This is I've been doing this for a little over three years now. This isn't and this is a unique story. Even though we've probably covered everything, this is quite unique. And I think obviously this story was huge in America and worldwide. Almost everybody can relate to this, and you've brought this story home with this

fascinating book. So let's start off with just a little bit. I think it's important. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about your background, because I said journalists and author, but give us a little bit about your background that we will see a little bit later is very important to this.

in fiction because of my background. Essentially, what had happened is when my agent was shopping you know, my fiction series around, they were coming back and saying, oh my gosh, she's a police officer. You know, can we get her to do you know, these specific cases? You know, it would be great to be coming from an aspect of somebody who knows how the investigations work and and whatnot. And that's kind of how I ended up down this path,

this particular book, the Standard Cantu case. What had happened is I had wrote another true crime that's actually coming out after this one. It's called Have You Seen Me? And it's a compilation of the nation's most prolific child murders and abduction dating back to the eighteen hundreds. It's a compilation of those cases that have really changed our

laws and tightened our child abduction laws and whatnot. And you know, I just have to touch on that because just some crazy stuff that you know, personally I didn't even know about, was you know, every day you hear about child abductions and people saying, you know, this world is so crazy, it's not like it used to be. Well, you know, there are cases that preceded Limberg, the Limburg baby abduction and murder, which people say, oh, that was

the crime of the century. Well, you know, there was actually a case thirty years prior to the Lindberg baby abduction and murder that just put this nation at a standstill, and even overseas in Europe. It actually involved you know, the circus promoter P. T. Barnum and just just amazing that, you know, even back then, when it comes to our children, you know, our children are off limits no matter what. And you know, it has been that way since the dawn of time and it continues to be this way.

But that particular book was was just this elevation and escalation of all these child abduction and murders that changed laws. Well, essentially, I had included the Sandra can suit case in that book because it was literally deemed a statistical anomaly by the They literally could not go back in history and find one case where a female solely, you know, without the aid of a boyfriend or conspiring with her boyfriend or whatever. But a female solely abducted a child, raped her,

and brutally murdered her. They had nothing to compare this to. So I included that case in the book. And what had happened is when my agents submitted the Happy semi book, the publisher came back and said, yeah, we'll do that, but we would like her to write an entire book on the Can two case. At that time, the Can two case was really gathering steam. It was, you know, it was bouncing off Casey Anthony. It was, you know, constantly in the media. Melissa had been arrested, and people

just couldn't figure out. I mean, at that time, you know, I've appeared as a consultant, you know, law enforcement analyst on CNN and Fox News and h and you know, even myself at the time along with the other talking heads, were like, there's no way she did this by herself, this with boyfriend motivated. You know, maybe she had a boyfriend that was a sex defender and she's covering for him. You know, we were all making these outlandish excuses when ultimately all of us were wrong.

eighty thousand according to the records. Tell us sixty miles east of I believe of San Francisco. Tell us about Tracy, California. What kind of community is it, what's it known for, what's it typically feel like? Set the sort of stage for us for this.

You know, I expected a bigger city feel, where in fact, you know, you know, we will staying in San Francisco and drove an hour east into the Central Valley, so it's just, you know, nothing but brown hills and windmills and then you finally come into like civilization again, and here's Tracy, and it really has this small town feel to it. And I didn't expect that with a city that had a population of that, but it really is

a very quiet, small town feel. They just had a brand new police chief come in and I think Chief Season was a police chief somewhere in Kansas and had only been the chief of police in Tracy just a few short months before Sandraw Cantu was kidnapped. And you know, Tracy was a very quiet community. You know, they definitely have their share of crime, but for the most part, nothing significant. And in the months leading up to the

disappearance of Sandra Cantwo. They took a one two three punch like no department in the world could ever prepare them for sure.

and he runs into this gym screaming for fault. And what had happened ultimately is he was older than that, but due to the emaciation, you know, these people thought this was was a little boy, and through Tracy's investigative efforts, they tracked where this boy was being held. I'm sorry, Dan, I'm trying to get my foggy memory back. Basically was my own book, but I think believe he was a runaway.

But he was picked up by a couple on the highway and they essentially went back and helped him captive and tortured and starved this kid for months. And you know, the Tracy Police department obviously just just couldn't even believe the story. They were like, no, this doesn't happen here. And when they eventually located the home that he had been held in, and the conditions were just utterly ranted. They just had never up until that point for them,

they just had never seen anything like that. It was a really horrific case.

thousand and eight. And then we have in March again something that really close to home as a law enforcement person, tell us about and tell us and introduced to Tony Sheneman too, because he's very central figure in this as well. Wow, he is an internal affairs, investigation and media media relations, so tell us about him please.

And I've obviously dealt with many law enforcement agencies through my career, but I was just very intrigued by them. But Sergeant Sheneman is the public information officer, and you know, we as cops, you know, we all band together every year and do some fun stuff or whatever. And on this particular day, they did the Polar Bear or was it the special Olympics. Something was it. The post.

Went back to their hotel room and were cold and tired, and their phone started ringing, and you know this this was the night of the Oakland police murders where basically four Oakland police officers lost their lives from a rope shooter, which is that time, this is of course, prior to Christopher Dorner, was the largest mass shooting of police officers

in California history. And they immediately packed their bags and fled back to Tracy because you know a lot of you know police officers you know in San Francisco, Bay Area, Oakland and whatever, and it's no different here, you know, in the Columbus Cincinnati area. Those the cities are expensive, cities are expensive to live in, and cops, you know,

notoriously do not make a lot of money. So police officers tend to go to you know, outer suburbs as much as an hour hour and a half away to make the lifestyle that they can you know, keep up with. So one of the slain Oakland officers was Sergeant Mark Dunakan, who happened to be a neighbor of Sergeant Showmen, and you know he was devastated. You know, they had coached soccer together with their kids and whenever, so, uh start at Sheneman was was a big part in planning Sergeant

Dunagan's funeral. You know, they have this huge procession from Oakland to Tracy, which, like I said, is about an hour. And the irony of this whole thing is you've got the shackle boy and on the day of Sergeant Mark Dunakan's funeral, you know, you've got half the city of Tracy lining the streets to the Tracy Mausoleum for this huge, huge funeral procession of this plane officer. It was literally during the time of Sergeant Dunakan's funeral is the same day and time that Sandra Cantu was taken.

was going to go to a neighbor's house. It was a new girls in the neighborhood and in the new home, and she was gonna go over there, but her mother told her, make sure you're back for dinner. So we're talking about four pm. Take it from there. She tell us a little bit about.

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up from school, which wasn't far away. On that day, she came home she had a snack of macaronie cheese, which I believe is very significant. And Sandra was known in the park as being a very outgoing, friendly little girl. People would comment that, you know, they'd be out doing yartwork and Sandra would come skipping along and be like, oh, you know, can I help you water your plants or

do this? And I hate to say that there was all almost a sadness to it, but that was relayed to me from some people that they felt that, you know, being there were so many family members in the trailer that Sandra just wanted to get out and you know, talk to people and be social with people. And ultimately, as they're nearing the mausoleum to Bury Sergeant Dune again is when the video of Sandra skipping down the street

was shot. And that's significant because Sandra's grandfather, they had had some issues with vandalism or whatnot, so he hadn't installed surveillance cameras on the front of their trailer. The last thing we see of Sandra is she is literally smiling and she's skipping down her road right in front of her own home as if she's going home. And then to the right something distracts her and she years off to the right and leaves the frame, and obviously

to the right is Melissa Huckabee's trailer. Melissa Huxby livery across the street.

constantly getting fired from jobs. She was having huge relationship problems. Whenever she would tend to date a man, she would ultimately file a civil protection order claiming he was abusing her. She had actually gone into criminal justice and did a ride along with the Tracy Police Department. So that's pretty ironic. Yes, she was a suspect in an arson down in Orange

County where she has lived. And something really significant to me that the investigating detective Tim Bauer said was that Melissa could not and would not be in a three party relationship. She would not do it. If she dated a guy and he had the best friend that he hung out with, you know, she would put the kebash on that. If it didn't go her way, then she

would start causing problems and founding restraining orders. And you know her ex husband with even their own child, Johnny Huckabee, she didn't like the attention given to their own daughter, Madison, and just just very strange, you know. Like I said, she accused the police officer of raving her, which turned

out to be completely unfounded. Melissa had to be the center of attention in any circumstance that she was in, whether work, whether the trailer park, no matter what, it had to be about Melissa, and you know if it wasn't, you know, there were consequences to pay.

and be hospitalized. And you know what was really significant is all these you know, red flags popped up after she graduated high school, and you know, I talked to her family and they were very like, well, we would have never had a million years thought or saw this coming.

And it's like, really, you know all these and I actually get into extreme detail in the book on prior to circumstances where Melissa has shown, you know, clearly that she's unstable, and her parents, basically because of her instability, shipped her up to Tracy to live with her grandparents. So we knew something was wrong with her. They knew, you know, and even to keep her own child with her.

I mean, I'm not a grandparent, but I have daughters, and you know, seriously, if I would ever God forbid see one of my children as adults behaving in the manner that she would. I would do whatever I could to get my grandchild. And their solution to this was two ships Melissa to her grandparents trailer in Tracy, California.

home for dinner. So then what happens? Who goes out? What happens? Exactly? Give us the chronological order of events after four pm or so?

point she was supposed to be back for dinner. I believe it was around six fish and she didn't show up. And at that point, I believe it was Sandra's siblings went out looking for her and ultimately did not find her. At that point, Maria Chavez makes the nine one one call to the Tracy Police Department that her daughter is missing. Anytime we have missing children, we are extremely diligent in our response time and first and foremost, and I can't

tell you how many times that I've done this. We searched the house literally, laundry baskets, cover whatever, we and I just want to throw this out there. I a good friend of mine and a fellow deputy was working that day and we got dispatched to him as some child and it turned out to be his house. Imagine him driving home, you know, he about rest and we were all going through that home with a fine tooth comb for twenty minutes and couldn't find this little girl.

There is a pond nearby. I mean, he is just sobbing, broke down, sobbing, and one of the deputies, you know, there's the playroom with all these dolls lying around, and she was just a little bitty thing, I think a year and a half at the time. And finally when the deputies walked in the playroom and looked down and was like, oh my God, said the love of God, she's asleep on the floor, we all thought she was a all I mean, but that's how tricky it can

get with the missing children. But ultimately, and in Sandra's case, you know, they did what they were supposed to do. They showed up, they checked the trailer. The bad thing is is what the detective said to me, And this is true and people may not like that I say this, but he said, you could swing a bat in that trailer park and hit a pedophile or somebody with child pornography.

And that kind of amped up the investigation, kind of heightened it specifically because Sandra was not in her home, not in any in the friends that she had been in, had never not shown up before. It was completely out of character. So basically, you know, at the time, the first responders, the uniform patrolmen are searching this trailer park

or talking to Sandra's mom and whatnot. And you know what I write in the book was Sergeant Tony Schenneman, the PIO that has helped organized Sergeant Dunnakan's funeral, was that he was exhausted, you know, from the shackle boy case to the funeral that same day, literally just came home and just peeled his clothes off and fell into bed.

And it was just a matter of hours that his phone rang and it was one of the officers that said, I think we've got a problem here, and he said, you know, you just lay there and you're exhausted, and you think this just can't happen like this, you know, three times in a row. And he got out of bed and went to the scene and realized, my god, you know, this is this is bad, this is really bad.

And it was just that constant chain of events that this department, in this community we had gone through so back back that everybody was just you know, totally un heightened alert.

them in this trailer park alone here. So tell us how extensive this trial, I mean, this search was you talk about you went through all the sex offenders, then you went down the possible pathways, the school pathways. Give us how extensive this search really was.

it right away. But essentially word about spread through Tracy and you had volunteers coming out by the hundreds, And essentially what happens in a missing kit case is like I said, you will initially do a full thorough search of the home, and you will that you that your ground zero, and you take it from there. You know, any friends or anybody se defenders. You know, if I'm an officer and there's a sex offender three tours down from a missing child, I'm going to call their probation officer.

Because probation officers don't need search warrants. They can search the house. I'm going to say, give me a permision. That's all there is to it. But most sex offenders, if they literally aren't, they're like, come on in. You know, I didn't do anything. They're scared, you know, They're like, come on in, stretch my house. I didn't do anything. And then, of course you've got so many irrigation ponds and canals and things around that particular area, which is

always a huge concern for law enforcement. And you know, Melissa was not even a thought. And those those first three days they were searching, there was at one point, I believe one of the volunteers found a small T shirt in the landfill and they really started to focus in on a landfill. But you know what, ultimately, Melissa, you know, being wanting to be the center of attention that she is, she you know, jumped herself right in there as usual and drew attention to herself. So but

it was just unbelievable, unbelievable. They had search and rescues from other counties and national search and rescues, and everybody was basically searching for Sandra. You know that that full city, one way or another took an active part and looking for this little girl.

So the dye teams could not search these irrigation ponds, you know, for totally put risks to the officers divers, but especially he was driving, you know, he he would check the ponds and do his daily duties, and he happened to see something in the middle of one particular irrigation pond. He had been watching the news, obviously, he had been, Like I said, the whole community, the whole nation was aware of what was going on. He was

concerned for his children. He actually said he would not allow his children to play in the front yard ever since Sandra Cantu disappeared. And he was able to pull the suitcase to the banks. It was it was a large, you know, one of those larger suitcases, and it had you know, courts wrapped around it. And when he pulled it up, he was able to determine that, Oh my god. I his first thought was, oh God, I hope this

little girl isn't in the suitcase. He immediately called authorities who went out there, and I'll tell you it was. It was a long time. And again just to reiterate how wonderful the Tracy Police Department is that you know, everybody wanted to, you know, open the suitcase, open the suitcase, but you know, they did their due diligence and they took their time and that's what you're supposed to do.

They processed that entire scene before that suitcase was even removed from the bank, and ultimately, you know, and tragically, the suitcase was transported to the San Joaquin County Corner's office and that is where it was opened, and that where it was that's where it was determined that it held the remains of Sandra Cantu.

Shaddy and Whitehall Road. Well, she runs up to an FBI agent absolutely hysterical. Oh my god, Oh my god, oh my god, look what I found. And obviously that was odd. What somebody just dropped this, you know, between two trailers. They wouldn't put it on a car or whatnot. So that piqued their interest a little bit. They went back and interviewed her, and ultimately Melissa had actually reported her suitcase stolen. She had said that she had this huge Eddie Bower suitcase in front of her house and

it was stolen. And a reporter from the Tracy Press found out that she had reported this and called her and Melissa's like, oh yeah, that was my suitcase that was stolen. Well, little did she know up until this point, Melissa had already been Tracy police and FBI had already been had already wired Melissa's phone calls and were monitoring her phone calls. Also because she had swallowed razor blades and gone to the hospital. They also realized that in January.

In January, three months before Sandra Pantu went and saying the same, a little girl had been drugged in that trailer park, and she had been with Melissa Huckabee, and ultimately, for whatever reason, the investigators were looking at the mother, that the kid accidentally gone into the mother's medication or whatnot,

they called children's services. Melissa was never even questioned, even though he had said Melissa took me through McDonald's and got me a lotter and the water tasted funny, and that little girl had the same drugs in her system that Sandrew Sandra Cantu had flashed forward to the beginning of March, three weeks before Sandra Cantu was abducted and murdered. Melissa had a boyfriend by the name of Daniel Plowman,

who ultimately broke up with her. She had asked him to meet her so they could discuss the nature of their relationships. The following morning, Daniel was found in his car in a parking lot and arrested for DUI. He was found to have these same drugs that the little girl in January had depends the day of the vines that he had an assistant and Sandra and two head

in the system. Not remember anything, he remembered Melissa giving him something to drink, so you know, they start to pull all this together and ultimately a search on Melissa's computer after she was arrested. This was so premeditated. She had looked up waterways and ponds in San Joaquin County. She had researched the sex offenders in San Joaquin County.

She had actually pulled up a CNN article of a father and I believe it was an Israel that murdered his child, put her in a suitcase, and jumped her in a pond. This was all on Melissa's computer. She was clearly planning looking for an alibi. I believe that the girl in January was a test case to see how the drugs would affect her when she drugged her seemed to be ex boyfriend Daniel Plowman at the beginning of March. That was her way of getting in on

record that he had those drugs in his system. I believe that Melissa was trying to set up Daniel Plowman for Sandra's murder to get back at him because he broke up with her. And on top of all this, she hated Sandra. She hated her. Sandra represented everything that her daughter wasn't. Sandra was a beautiful little girl. She had nice clothes. She'd come over to play with Melissa's daughter, Madison and say, oh, you know, look at my nice new shirt. Madison was very introverted. Was not a cute

little girl. I hate to say that. And Melissa hated her, she really hates hit her. And that is just my opinion that she had planned all this from January. She wanted to take She wanted to get rid of Sandra and blame Daniel in the process. And she figured it was a double bonus get rid of both of them because they both wronged her in some way. That's what I believe.

it's you know, it's quite heinous. What the sexual assault with a rolling pin on this young girl. Do you think that's that would account for these sex offenses or did you find did the police find any evidence with the computer checks that she had any predilection for being a sex offender herself.

so off the wall. She admitted to murdering Sandra, but she said, standing in court in front of Sandra's mother, said I never sexually assaulted her. And told the detective when they were invest their interviewing her, she goes, yes, I accidentally killed her, but I never rachel touched her. That's gross. Like Melissa knows that child rapists are the lowest of society, so she didn't want to be thought of as dirty as a child rapist, but she's okay

to admit that she quote accidentally murdered Sandra. And by accidentally meaning Sandra's in a suitcase laying there unconscious, Melissa wrote because she crawled in there. Melissa was claiming that Sandra came over crawled in the suitcase to scare Melissa didn't know she was in there. Drove to the church, brought the suitcase in, and saw Sandra there suffocate, and Melissa gets so upset. She drinks this concoction that she's given two other people of the benzo diazatine with water

and spits and it somehow lands in Sandra's mouth. I mean, it's so ridiculous. One of the things that I picked up on is that Melissa's grandmother found a rag in the laundry room the night Sandra went missing, and it appeared to be vomit with like macaroni noodles, And I thought that was very interesting because Sandra had eaten macaroni and cheese for her after school snack. And to this day, the lead detective in the DA they don't know if exactly what transpired or how Melissa got Sandra to the

church or whatever. But I honestly think that Melissa probably had this rag soaked with these drugs and put it over Sandra's face and to where she vomited on the rag before putting her on the suitcase and transporting her to the church. But you know she also had Sandra had a noose around her neck. She was sexually assaulted. You know, it was so brutal. It was so brutal,

and this woman she wouldn't take responsibility for. She actually stated that she had contemplated putting the suitcase with Sandra's body in front of Sandra's trailer where her mother would find it.

her neck that came from the church. There was quite a bit of evidence in the church this is where it transpired. And generally I think she took her there because she could be alone.

which was very significant. You know, genuinely, when you get into these violent child murder rapists, they don't bother to do that. And Melissa dressed her back up. So that was that was pretty significant in terms of you know, her thought process. She knows exactly what she was doing, and you know, even she goes out and dunks the suitcase and a local couple was down the road happened to be driving by, and they don't typically see cars

out there. So the gentleman stops and you know, said are you okay or what are you doing out here? And you know, she was just as friendly as ever. She noticed a marine sticker in the back of this guan's car and says, oh, are you in the Marines? My brother's a marine. And just you know, she just dumps the body of an eight year old into a sewage pond, and that was her mentality, you know, But she's not very smart obviously, and you know, so this

was a very very strong witness. Ultimately, Melissa had no other option but to take the plea deal of life in prison or you know, there's there's just no no way around it.

blades and whatnot. And that's what led police to Melissa. How to be was her article that Melissa told her all this that came out in the newspaper the next day. And what was really interesting to me is when I interviewed the lead detective, he was pretty pretty negative about all that, which I thought was awesome. I'm like, you know, say it like it is, But he said, you know, this reporter actually went and said she did this and this. But by that time we had already had Melissa on

a wire. So her conversation that she wrote about in this article was nothing but a hillabeans us. So there was some conflict going on there that you know, behind closed doors, that people weren't necessarily aware of. I wasn't aware of it, which kind of was a wow moment for me, you know, doing research in the books.

you were pretty convinced it was a male offender. Tell us a little quip that you have in your book about your daughter and your daughter kind of arguing with you and and and being ironic.

we're supposed to do. And the day Sandra's body was found and obviously my daughters know, you know, they watched me when I do commentating and stuff, and I was kind of in shock, you know, standing in my living room, like, oh my god, I can't believe this. You know, I wish it would have been a better outcome, and this is upsetting account this poor little girl. And they had had initial reports that a light pickup truck with two

males we're seen leaving the scene. And I was like, oh my god, I hope they catch this monster or whatever. And my daughter was thirteen at the time, and she goes, you know how teenagers are with their attitudes. She's She's like, how do you know it's a he And I was like, what do you mean, how do I know? Of course it's a heat. She's well, you don't know that, and I'm like, of course it's a heat. What woman would do something this sick? She says, well, I think it

could be a woman. I just think you don't know what you're talking about. You know, real smart at to be like it too. And the boys. She didn't let me live that down. You know, she's still but I'm like, you know what, good for you? Because I told her, I said, you know what we should have been thinking, like you do you know, I said, in law enforcement, we are so trained from point A to B to see to this, to this to this, and this is what we got to look for and blah blah blah blah,

that our minds aren't completely open. And I'm the first to admit that. And that's why this book was so important. You know, the FBI, the law enforcement, everybody in San Joaquin was shocked because this does not fit the quote unquote profile. You know, this is not this is not how you're splits them in a crime. It's it was almost like being angry at Melissa. You shouldn't have done this because we weren't prepared for this. Does that make sense?

the stranger dangerous are over. But in terms of law enforcement, I hope that this book also opens their eyes that we need to be trained differently, that we need to not focus on one particular race or profil and we need to learn to open our eyes. I know that that's happened in San Joaquin after this unfortunate case. I just hope that it picks up, you know, nationwide, the worldwide.

how you identify. It might look good on TV fiction, but in reality you might not want to jump to conclusions. That's all.

obviously in my job you see everything. Family members, cousins, you know, neighbors. It's just, look, we got to use common sense nowadays. You know, so many people are medicated. We've got a huge mental health issue. And it's just you know, as parents, like I said, Melissa was like that, and I say this in the book, like that obnoxious neighbor that when you see her coming, you don't answer the door and you hope she doesn't see you. That

knows everybody's business. She's a little on the weird side. But you know, as a parent, if you you know, have a male or female or that principle that you think is a little weird and he calls and said, your kid missed the bus. I'll bring her home. Yeah no, I'm like my kids think I am like the most strictest crazy parent in the world. But you know what, you just have to be really diligent nowadays, and nobody says if you have to say that to.

But the thing is, in a suburb, we might have the same idea, I mean, less so than years ago where people kind of hung around with each other in the neighborhood. We've gone past that. But again, I know what you're trying to warn against, But what exactly could people do other Again, you've you've just kind of scared the audience a little bit. But what as a people do you know?

nice supervision? All I'm saying is, you know, when my daughter was eighty, she was not allowed to run around the neighborhood. That just wasn't allowed, but specifically without me checking on her. And you know, like I said, you can't live your life in a shoebox. You can't be scared every day. All I'm saying is human beings were giving this amazing emotion or whatever it is called instinct. And as a parent, if something does not feel right to you as a parent, don't be embarrassed. Don't worry

about hurting somebody's feelings. Trust your instincts. That's the bottom line. You know, I see people oh gosh, you know, I just didn't feel right about that. But I don't want to seem rude. Hey guess what, you know? Your child has one life, and if your instincts or your gut is telling you something's wrong or something's not right. Hey, feel free to go ahead and follow that, because you know, nine times out of ten you're probably right. And that's

basically all I'm saying. I'm not saying, you know, my god, lock your kids in his room twenty four and seven, don't ever let him out. But just you know, as a parent, if something doesn't seem right to you, or somebody seems a little off to you, or you've got red flags popping up in your head, don't dismiss it. Don't dismiss it and say, oh, I'm just seeing teranoid. We live in a small town. Nobody does anything around here. Don't dismiss it.

is awfully young to be. You know, if it was your cousins, your sister, you know, family, and you knew that they were down the street, but new friends in the neighborhood and people in a trailer parking and she's only eight years old. I think that's probably.

She has a driver's license, and she is literally allowed just to drive into town and back. She's not allowed. You know. When I got my driver's license, I was driving to Cleveland and Columbus life within a week. And with her, it's like, no, you're driving five my off to school, and in fact that's the esa. It's just you know, and my youngest is ten. You know, like I said, they think we're the worst parents in the world,

but we're We're just doing what we do. You know, my husband's been a police officer for twenty three years. I've been doing it for twenty one year, and yeah, things are different, and you know, I don't know what to say. But you know, like I said, you know, basically it boils down to you at ay. Parents don't don't fall into the pressure of society and say, I don't want to feel rude. I don't want to come

off as being paranoid. But if this person bothers me and they just give me that weird feeling, you know what, again, that's your child. Always fall on the air of safety, you know, don't if you offend somebody's gifts, what's so what? You know? So what? It's your child. You know, somebody messes with my kid, I'm coming out with things and claws and I'm sorry if somebody's infended like that. Luckily

I have not come into that situation. But you know, it killed me that people they get this mentality, specifically in small towns where they're you know, in my job, you know, the home invasions and the robberies or whatever, and their doors are unlocked, and you know, one of the things I say to them is why are your doors a lot? We've never had any trouble around here. I've left my doors a lot for twenty five years.

Well that's just dumb. And you know, when I go pick up my kids from school, I see these little eighty bitty kids like five years old walking home. The streets are walking on it's completely empty. And you know it's me being me, but I look and I'm thinking, oh my god, why are they You know, no, if somebody ran and snatched that little boy, no one would see anything. And those are the towns that it happens that. It's not the big cities when you see significant child abductions,

you'll see a lot of them. Are these smaller towns where the police department is not necessarily educated or you know, not necessarily staff to where they should be, where these pedophiles and child molesters are able to blend in and plan and watch and whatever and go unnoticed. Those are the places that that tends to take place in. And that is what I really want to like drive home to people. You know, don't get complacent and think you live in a bubble.

the police department, and there are four of them. And I'm married to a police officer, so it's kind of a little bit in my blood. And I have the true crime book prior to this, which was Murdered Behind the Badge, True Stories of Cop two Kill. It's just essentially a compilation in history of police officers that off the depend to say the least, in committed murder. And then of course they're searching for Sandra.