Sandra Cantu, 8, Missing From California Home

31 March 2009, 11:15 AM. By Alex Alvarez

. 26 Comments

sandra_cantu_3.31.09Eight-year-old Sandra Cantu has been missing from her Tracy, California mobile home park since last Friday. Her mother, Maria Chavez, believes she was kidnapped and went on the Today show to ask for help in bringing her back.

A surveillance camera installed by Sandra’s grandmother shows the little girl, dressed in a pink Hello Kitty t-shirt, leaving home after school to go visit a friend. Police have been searching cars entering and leaving the park, but remain optimistic that she is alive. 

A private foundation is offering $5,000 for information leading to Sandra Cantu’s return.

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26 Comments

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  1. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    Whom ever got this child and holding her against her will is not a member a productive member of our state of Caiifornia and should be put away for a life time and not allowed to EVER get back out on the street to take or harm another child. The laws in this State should be changed to one Strike and your out for child abuction No child or parent should ever have to go thrugh this. And only we citizens can stop it by working together and making the laws change….

    • (+1)
      Guest wrote

      I’m sorry, but putting these people away for the rest of their lives is not the answer. For some of these creeps, this would basically amount to a life of leisure. These people need to be executed in the most immediate fashion and haste.

      • (+1)
        Guest wrote

        You are ABSOLUTLY RIGHT why cant we make some of the laws reguarding this sick people….. they will never execute them. But just remember the pain and fear they have caused these children for the REST OF THEIR PRECIOUS LIVES. That is if they live! TOO MANY FRICKEN WEIRDO’S OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In every state……..EXECUTE THIS FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        • (+1)
          Guest wrote

          I agree, they don’t deserve to live on our money for the rest of their pitful lives..the big killer of it all, is that these _____ have rigths that is the most discusitng part .

          I hope they find that poor girl..how scary it must be.

  2. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    Public Hanging! We need more deterence.

  3. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    first of all, this mom’s parenting skills need to be questioned.

    there are over 80 sex offenders within a 5 mile radius from this child’s home.

    who in the right mind would go out and let their child go to a friend’s house ALONE when there are so many criminals close by? this mom was just begging to have her child abducted. i’m not saying it is right, but she had it in for herself. it’s just like leaving an iphone in a gold case with diamonds on it in the middle of a shopping mall to be stolen.

    for the kids sake, i hope they find her and the wackjob that took her. also for the kids sake, i hope they arrest this mom for child neglect.

    • (+1)
      Guest wrote

      don’t blame mom,,, if these 80 offenders were not on the street
      this would never have happened.

    • (+1)
      Guest wrote

      If there are 80 sexual offenders near her home then why are we not asking the hard questions from our government. Like why do these freaks deserve to ever be free. Why would anyone knowingly open the prison door so a sex offender has the chance to do this again?

  4. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    Are you serious? WHO KNOWS WHO IS LIVING NEXT DOOR ….MUCH LESS A 5 MILE RADIUS! Put an APB out on your heart, and if you find it…CPR - QUICK!!! Cut this poor, heartbroken woman some slack. She knew her daughter returned from school, as well as what time (amazing in 2009), her daughter reported she was going to a friends’ home, which reveals an involved mom, who teaches and practices rules and regulations within the household. Barring the use of a GPS “chip”, what do you suggest, following children within the neighborhood as they play hide and go seek with friends? Some times there are going to be a few walks down the sidewalks of life alone.

    Agree, change the laws to read “anyone caught hurting a child will spend a lifetime in hard labor in order to support the lifetime of therapy it will take to undo the damage to the victim and the family”.

  5. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    to the guest who so ignorantly put that this mother was begging for her child to be taken: HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT! First and foremost who are you to criticize this mother you dont know her living situation or anything about her to say that. Do you know if she had the resources to find out about the 80 or so sex offenders living in the radius of her home. It’s not common knowledge that they are there. How would she have known unless she had access to this information. The reality of it is she lives in a trailer park which is literally surrounded by sex offenders most of these trailer parks are low income people who do not have the resources to access this kind of information. So before you speak in regards to a person’s parenting skills maybe you should know all the facts about a person before speaking! If you have nothing nice to say then don’t say it at all.

  6. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    Execution is still not the answer, that goes out especially those of you who call yourself christian. We also should consider a GPS chip on the OFFENDERS, not the kids. Although my 2 yr old and his dog could use one now and then! Execution actually costs MORE than lifetime sentencing. Strange but true. So do away with execution, and learn from these sick fv<k$. Subject them to testing; Psychological and Pharmacological. Study them and discover what part of their brain is screwed up. These folks always turn out to have some physical or emotional abuse in their past, or at least most of them are chemically imbalanced. But don’t ever say that the mom invited this on herself! You’re a sick fv<k too for saying that. This may sound like a stretch, but you religious people disgust me. So hypocritical and well…wrong pretty much all of the time.

    -A realist who bids you peace.

    • (+1)
      Guest wrote

      To the realist who bids all but peace.
      How could you use Sandra’s abduction as an opportunity to bash Christians? It’s exactly this kind of attitude that causes so… much pain and suffering in the world. Than you have the audacity to claim peace! Look in the mirror to see who the hypocrite is! They come in every religion or no religion at all. There’s only one God, it’s how we fail to express the divine that causes so much suffering!

    • (+1)
      Guest wrote

      The only reason life sentences are cheaper than executions is because the tax payers pick up the tab for manditory appeals. So, no kill two birds with one stone …execute and save the tax payers money. I don’t appreciate paying for cable television, pizza night, insurance and higher education or training programs for offenders.

  7. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    I’m sure that the person(s) who’s responsible for this is/are very much like the people who have written these comments, full of ignorance and hate. What makes your sins any less than this? Why do you cast the first stone? I will pray for her safe return; I will pray that for her family and friends; and I will pray for the soul of the person(s) who did this. They are all going to need it.

    • (+1)
      Guest wrote

      As far as being full of hate. Guess what if someone took my child hate is the last thing they would have to worry about. I would enjoy very much the pain I would inflict on the scumbag. If it were YOUR child I wonder how much praying you would do for the creep that took her. What this country needs is less understanding and less prayer for the scum and more for the decent people

  8. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    GOD BLESS THIS LITTLE GIRL I HOPE SHE’S FOUND ALIVE. AND I BEG TO DIFFER EXECUTION IS ALOT CHEAPER THAN A LIFE SENTENCE. I GOT A FREE BULLET FOR YA

  9. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    Execution is not more expensive than imprisonment. I have worked in corrections for 23 years and that is an adsurd statement. I am worried about the poor Police Officer that arrests this guy. If he has to use force to make the arrest he will be grilled by the media and the public for everything from rude behavior to excessive force . He better hope he is the same race as the offender or there could be riots in the streets and Civil Rights Violation accusations. If it is considered to expensive to take his life, I will buy the bullet and donate it. The death penalty may not deter a killer from killing once but it fixes the hell out of it ever happening again.!

  10. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    I am ALL for this guy meeting God. Hell I will arrange the meeting.

  11. (+1)

    I agree with everyone that pedos are the scum of the earth. I couldn’t help but notice though, that the girl who seems to be a natural brunette appears to have blond streaks dyed into her hair now. Who on earth lets a little 8 yr old dye her hair? You see it all the time–women parading young girls in string bikinis on the beach and see some of the disgusting halloween costumes they buy for their daughters. We can’t do much about pervs but DAMN this idiotic behaviour by some mothers out there makes me want to puke. Heard too many times about the woman who let a man move in with her and her daughter only to have her daughter molested by him. Theres a 5 yr old girl 2 doors down from me that will talk to anyone and rides her bike all over the place while mom and dad sit in the house. Couldn’t find her one day and then found her 3 blocks away. I once found 2 3 yr old girls who lived 1/2 a block away and I’d never met–in my back yard playing. I felt like slapping their irresponsible dad up and down the street. Those girls would sit in the street in front of their house and not move so cars had to actually drive around them. When i was a kid I got a spanking just for riding my bike in the middle of the road even when no cars where around. I am NOT placing any blame on this girls parents but people need to treat a little kid like a little kid. Protect her and not let her do grown-up stuff until she is grown-up.
    Was a show about beauty pagents for little girls on TV the other night. At the beginning some moms said “Some think that what we are doing is wrong. There is nothing wrong with teaching your child to be confident”. Then it showed one mother teaching her 7 year old daughter “to be confident” by shaving the 7 yr olds legs so the tanning spray would work better, taking her to a salon and having her hair dyed, putting more makeup on that little girl than you’d see on a porn star then having that girl on stage dancing like a pole dancer in front of total strangers. Made me want to puke. I hate pedos BUT I dont care for parents who parade little girls around like Jon Benet Ramsey either. Look at what happened to her because of it.
    Now that summers coming if you see little kids in your neighborhood running around all the time unchaperoned call child protection or talk to their parents. We cant do much about a kid that was snatched 1000s of miles away but perhaps we can save one in our neighborhood from suffering the same fate.

  12. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    I think the pedos or sexx ofender o who ever try to rapt a kid shoul be deat becouse that people never is gonna change and they will get the oportunity to to it again…..I don’t understand why nobody try to change the law about it because every day every second one kid is been atact by this people…..and they know then they are gonna be free again i don’t understand that……..they poor kids are gonna be afected for his whole life and is nothing then people or doctors can do for the kids forgat what they been in to…..is so sad the LAW kind protect this peolpe……sucks…………..and for little cantu’s mom what she was doing….how mom let you little kid go some places whit out suppervision and older sisters did’t pay attention either what kind a life they have ….because i work all thay and clean house and cook and do lundry and everything and I tired but never…never are my kids without me never…..even i donth have enogh sleep or rest ……kids needs responsable parents special on this time you never can trust nobody is crayzy people everywhere on scholl, on church, your neighbor, your partner, your boyfriend, dont let people hurt kids no more…….

  13. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    I really hate to say this people. But some people trust people a little too much, I ask that no one put the blame on the mother or anyone else. It already happened. Now what can we do as human beings to make sure it don’t happen again. I think there was a huge lesson learned by everyone. Stop placing blame and do something to change it. all the time you spent placing blame you could have spent looking for this child. “So put up or shut up”..

  14. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    I really hate to say this but, whoever harmed 8-year-old Sandra Cantu should be charged with a minimun of a 10-year sentence in jail. It is so unfair to the FBI and the polices who are wonding where Sandra could be shortly after her dissapearance after 4:00 on March 27,2009. Sandra shall be found someday and that all of our prayers would bring her safe to home. GOD BLESS YOU SANDRA, God Bless you FBI, and Farewall, God bless all of you Tracy polices who have tried to find her. God bless all!

  15. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    Situations like these are tough. I do not believe her mom deserves to be blamed for her little girl’s abduction.

    I did notice the dyed hair, as well. In fact, that’s why I even went searching to see what was going on because I seen the dark haired photo. Nevertheless, I don’t think dyed hair makes her mom a bad mom. I have two daughters who are adults now, but I clearly recall using kool aid to color hair when they were small- play make up- you name it- we did it!! One thing I never did, though, was let them out of my sight. I trusted NO ONE- I still drive them crazy. I have spent a lot of time watching TRU TV, Forensic files and the news; it breaks my heart when I see the stories about children abductions. I also spend a lot of time thanking God for my children and His allowing them to be with me.

    I think God determines when we leave this earth and who goes to heaven or hell. Sadly, I feel in my heart that this little girl may have suffered a tortured death, but she’ll always be God’s little angel for she is safe now. My heart goes out to her poor mother; she’ll live with the guilt that there was something she could have done to save her baby. Persecuting this woman would more than likely be nothing compared to what she will put herself through. I believe that God should be the one judging all of us; He knows us better than anyone else- He knows our heart.
    A long time ago, my mom told me to ‘cry at a birth and rejoice at a funeral’. I thought she was insane for a long time…until I got old enough to understand the cruelty of the world. I don’t feel sadness for the dead, but for the ones who love them. Those who are dead are in a better place than those who are born into this hateful, cruel place. It’s time for God to come back when a child can’t even go out and play without someone garding her for her life!

  16. (+1)
    Guest wrote

    I wanted to say God Bless you Sandra. I am sorry about the outcome of this sweetheart. Having kids of my own. Who ever done this is a straight scum of the earth piece of shit. I hope you rot in hell for what you did to that little girl. you deserve nothing short of death with acid drops in each eye.Until you die scum.

    • (+1)
      Guest wrote

      Que dios t tenga en gloria princesita,descansa en paz

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