...."Neighbors referred to the church on West Clover Road as being "little used" and said they only saw cars there about twice a week. According to the church web site, services are held on Wednesday nights and on Sundays. The pastor, Lane Lawless, has been at the church since 1981, and has served at churches in Hayward and Mountain View."
Overnight, crime scene tape was also strung around Clover Road Baptist Church, which will be searched later Tuesday, said Sgt. Tony Sheneman with the Tracy Police Department at a news conference Tuesday morning. The church pastor, Lane Lawless, lives in the Orchard Estates mobile home park.
News10 talked to Lawless and his wife Connie. The pastor said he spent all night talking to police. He said they were being questioned because they know the Cantu family and Sandra and live just a few doors down from them.
"They're just covering every base they're going to cover," said Connie Lawless. "We were close friends with her. We lived just down the street. That's the only reason."
When asked if he had anything to do with the girl's disppearance, Lane Lawless said, "No."
Sheneman said many calls and inquiries have been made about what people can do for the family. He said cards can be sent to the Tracy Police Department, 1000 Civic Center Drive, Tracy, California, 95376, where a liaison is working with the girl's family.
Donations should be sent to the Carole Sund-Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation at 301 Downey Avenue, Modesto, California, 95354, attn. Sandra Cantu. As of Monday, the foundation's reward to find Sandra was over $30,000.
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Police Closing In on Suspect Second-Grader Was Missing for 10 Days, Lived in a California Mobile Home Park
By SARAH NETTER
April 7, 2009
Police say they are closing in on a suspect in the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found stuffed into a suitcase Monday, 10 days after the second-grader vanished from the mobile home park where she lived. "It's not as big a mystery as it was," before, said Tracy, Calif., police Sgt. Tony Sheneman to ABCNews.com, "and we believe we're getting significantly closer."
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Lawless’ name is the fourth to have come up in the missing person-turned murder investigation. Police served search warrants on 60-year old martial arts teacher Frank Wohler, who lived behind Sandra’s home and said he kissed her on the lips two years ago just to be nice.
Christian Sinclair, 49 — who’s depicted in court records as abusive and alcoholic — was arrested last week for obstructing the investigation. Police searched his home, too.
Sinclair’s friend, David Slayter, 44, was then taken to the police station for questioning last week as the FBI and Stockton and Tracy police searched his home and took out several items.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by msfittz Does he have sons? What are their names?
They have three grown children together — Brian, Brett and Joni, “who are all involved in God’s work” — and nine grandchildren.
Quote:
Originally Posted by passionflower So little Sandra played with the pastors grand daughter!!!!!
which one of the sons child.???
I'm not sure, passionflower.
They have three grown children together — Brian, Brett and Joni, “who are all involved in God’s work” — and nine grandchildren.
San Joaquin County Coroners officials said that they have completed an autopsy on remains believed to be those of missing 8-year-old Tracy girl Sandra Cantu.
Sheriff's department spokesman Deputy Les Garcia would not comment on any findings made during the autopsy. He said officials will wait on toxicology reports and tissue sample analysis before they rule an official cause of death. Those tests could take anywhere from four to eight weeks, he said.
Pastor Lawless says he's cooperating with the investigation. He told Kate police seized computers, phones, and other items from the family's trailer located in the same mobile home park where the Cantu family lives.
Computers? Could he possibly be tied to the "Tracy 60"?
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 would have made 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 hundreds of tips regarding Sandra's disappearance.
Posted: 9:41 pm PDT April 8, 2009 Updated: 1:27 pm PDT April 9, 2009 TRACY, Calif. -- An envelope addressed From Sandra To My Killer was discovered early Thursday at the site of a memorial to slain eight-year-old Sandra Cantu, but authorities said it would likely slow, not help, the search for her killer.
At a morning news conference, Sgt. Tony Sheneman said the evidence team was taking everything and anything into consideration in their search, but added that some false leads were simply slowing their progress. http://www.ktvu.com/news/19134275/detail.html#-
By Mike Martinez
San Joaquin Herald
Posted: 04/09/2009 09:59:50 AM PDT
Updated: 04/09/2009 06:40:56 PM PDTTRACY A public memorial service has been scheduled for Sandra Cantu, the 8-year-old Tracy girl who was found dead Monday after disappearing March 27 from the mobile home park where her family lives.
The service will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday in the gymnasium of West High School. The family is also planning a private service. more at link:http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_12107417
TRACY, Calif. (AP) - A local resident says he saw a man "acting real strange" at an irrigation pond three days before 8-year-old Sandra Cantu's body was found in a suitcase pulled from the water.
~snip~
The 19-year-old Memory reported that he thought it was odd to see a beige Chevrolet Silverado truck...~snip~
Memory says the driver - a white man in his late 40s or early 50s wearing a white baseball cap and dark T-shirt - appeared to be looking down at the ditch beside the road, which is not well-traveled.
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