Articles labeled: California

The tragic kidnapping and killing of a bright and spirited 8 year old girl turns even more bizarre as the suspected killer turns out to be the mother of a 5 year old girl whom Sandra played with. The suspected killer also happens to be the grand-daughter of the Pastor of the church Sandra and her family attended. The profile of the suspected killer is very unusual.

(04-11) 07:59 PDT TRACY — A Sunday school teacher was booked early today on suspicion of murder and kidnapping in the slaying of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found in a suitcase in an irrigation pond.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested at 11:55 p.m. Friday after she drove to the Tracy Police Department to be interviewed.

“She revealed enough information that we had probable cause to arrest her for both kidnapping and murder,” Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told reporters. During her interview, “she was very relaxed for a bit, then she became very emotional, and then she became relaxed again, and then became resigned to what was happening,” Sheneman said.

Juan Francisco Nunez has been convicted of felony involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the death of his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son, Jesse Alvarez. The boy died after Nunez buried him in sand at Pismo State Beach, and the boy suffocated. Nunez admitted burying the boy to police, but said he didn’t think the boy would get hurt. Nunez’s defense attorney had claimed that it was just a “horrible accident” that warranted a misdemeanor charge instead.

The body of an 18-month-old reported abducted by her mother has been found, causing the mother to change her story. She now has told police that the baby’s death was an accident.

A 2-year-old was struck and killed by an SUV in East Los Angeles after the boy ran into the middle of the street. He had been playing on the sidewalk when he suddenly ran into the road and directly into the path of a Chevy Tahoe.

The driver was reported to only have been going between 10 and 15 mph, but the boy was no match for such a large vehicle. Police are still trying to find out why the young child was left unattended outside.

14-year-old Amber Dubois disappeared on February 13th, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

A 6-year-old California girl was killed after a television fell on her.

The downturn in the economy has taken a grim toll. A California man who was reportedly very upset after losing his job went on a rampage and shot and killed his wife and five children before turning the gun on himself.

A California boy has been charged in the death of 2 year old Jennifer Yang.

Diane Downs, the Oregon woman who rose to infamy in 1983 after shooting her three children, has had her parole request denied. Good.

One of the most famous child killers in American history, Downs cried several times — burning through a stack of Kleenex — as she answered questions via closed-circuit television from the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, Calif..

The three-member Board of Parole struggled to keep Downs on topic during the nearly three-hour hearing that ranged from sad to bizarre. At one point, Downs said she was now married, but later retracted the statement. She talked about her astrology sign and offered alternative ways she could have gotten rid of her children — had she wanted to.

After being held prisoner for almost a year, a 17-year-old boy finally managed to escape and find help.

Authorities were still investigating the boy’s alleged imprisonment and abuse by a California couple, but details of his escape were becoming clearer Wednesday, police said.

Law enforcement officers also were trying to determine how the aunt and one-time guardian of the teen knew the couple accused of holding him against his will for nearly a year.

Caren Ramirez was arrested Tuesday in Berkeley, a day after the boy walked into a gym and begged managers to hide him. He was covered in soot, had a chain on his foot and was wearing only boxer briefs.

Police arrested a couple who lived near the gym in Tracy and booked them on suspicion of torture, kidnapping and child abuse. Tracy is about 60 miles east of San Francisco.

A 2-year-old who managed to get out of his crib, leave the house, and wander into the street was fatally struck by a car.

Officials say the boy walked in the dark for nearly three-quarters of a mile before he was struck and killed.

According to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, a witness saw Kotie Cash Robinson-Peay walking west in the eastbound lanes of Bear Valley Road about 3:00 a.m.

The witness tried to warn oncoming motorists, but a 2007 Toyota Scion traveling west on Bear Valley Road hit the child.

Authorities are seeking the person(s) who rented a California hotel room where police found the body of a preschool aged girl.

At about 2 p.m. officers arrived at the Motel 6 off Highway 1 in Watsonville to check on a child who was left in a room.

They found the girl whose identity and cause of death are unknown.

Police said they are seeking a person of interest: An Hispanic woman driving a Jeep Cherokee who may be schizophrenic.

A Merced, California teen has been sentenced for up to 9 years in prison for the beating death of his toddler cousin.

The boy, who isn’t being named because he’s a minor, was sentenced to life, plus two years and four months, in Merced County Juvenile Court for the death of King Steven McCowan, according to Deputy District Attorney Mark Bacciarini.

Because the defendant wasn’t tried as an adult, the sentence means the teenager cannot be held in the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice past age 25, Bacciarini said. He could also be paroled before he reaches that age.

Last month, the teenager confessed to a charge of committing an assault resulting in the death of a child. Had he been tried as an adult, he could have faced life in an adult prison.

“It’s an absolutely tragic case that I think in a lot of ways was totally preventable,” Bacciarini said.

A couple described by the AP as “ultra-religious” (is that term in the AP stylebook?) are fighting to keep their brain-dead son on life support.

Motl Brody of Brooklyn was pronounced dead this week after a half-year fight against a brain tumor.

Doctors at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington say the seventh-grader’s brain has ceased functioning entirely. But Motl’s parents, who are Orthodox Jews, are refusing the hospital’s request to remove all artificial life support.

They say their son is alive because his heart and lungs are still working. A machine inflates and deflates his lungs and drugs help his heart beat.

Two sets of parents are angry that images of their children were used in an ad supporting California’s controversial Proposition 8. The proposition that voters will be voting on next week puts forth a change to the California constitution that would ban same sex marriage.

In their letter to the Yes on 8 campaign, the parents wrote: “We are absolutely outraged that you have chosen, without permission, to shamelessly hijack the images of our innocent children to promote a cause that we in no way, shape or form support. It is even more maddening that you have willfully and calculatingly edited the images of our children, with menacing music in the background, in a way that is completely contrary to their nature and harmful to them.”

The footage manipulated by the Yes campaign, without authorization from either the parents or the Chronicle, was originally captured on Oct. 10 when the children took a field trip with their classmates and several parents to share the moment of their teacher’s wedding to her longtime partner. All parents were notified well in advance of the trip which was organized by some parents, and, in fact, two families chose to have their children not participate under California’s broad opt out law.