Many think girl’s case should have been treated as abduction

TRACY, Calif. (AP) — Police called the disappearance of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu a missing persons case, not an abduction, for 10 days — until some farm workers drained an irrigation pond and found her body stuffed in a suitcase.

Some residents and a law-enforcement expert say authorities in Tracy should have publicly expressed more urgency about the case and warned of the danger that could be lurking in their Northern California community. But police say that despite their initial uncertainty about Sandra’s fate, they did everything they could, scouring the area, calling in reinforcements and exploring theories 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.

“We had no indication of an abduction,” he said. “We wanted to be as careful as possible.”

Sandra’s body was found Monday a few miles from her home. Police have interviewed hundreds of people and served more than 15 search warrants, including one at a local church, but say they have no suspects so far.

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.

Hundreds of volunteers and police searched for the girl and pictures of her smiling face were posted all over town, but some wonder if a different approach by police might have made a difference. Three days after she was last seen, Sheneman had expressed confidence that she was “alive and well.”