00:00:04
(tense music) - [Vivica]
Observing the signs. - She brings her
legs in quite tightly
00:00:10
and she wrings
her hands together. - [Vivica] Detecting
changing stories. - [Tim] Who wrote this note?
00:00:16
- [Melissa] I have no idea. - Who wrote the note? - [Tim] Who do you
think wrote this note?
00:00:21
- It was a
repetitive question. - [Vivica] Spotting
when to hold back, and when to close in.
00:00:27
- [Tim] I think
you're our witness. - [Melissa] You think
I'm the witness? - She's no longer the helper.
00:00:32
She is now the suspect. (ominous music) - I'm Vivica A. Fox. As an award-winning actress,
00:00:39
I know how to play a part and convince audiences
I'm someone else. I can spot the signs
when someone is playing a
role
00:00:47
and not being honest. We'll expose the lies
and uncover the shocking
truth on our journey to discover
00:00:54
the secrets of
the interrogation room. - No matter how much
physical evidence you have,
00:01:01
you always want a confession. (apprehensive music) - [Vivica] In the small town
of Tracy, California,
00:01:17
Homicide Detective
Timothy Bauer has called a 28-year-old
woman into the interrogation
room.
00:01:23
- [Tim] I wanna make this
clear. You're not under
arrest. You know that?
- [Melissa] Yeah.
00:01:27
- [Tim] Okay, anytime you
wanna leave, you can.
Not a big deal. Okay, if you don't wanna talk
about anything, you can
leave.
00:01:31
(light pensive music) - [Vivica] It's been a week
since the cops have received an
emergency call.
00:01:39
(phone dialing) (phone ringing) - [Vivica] When eight-year-
old Sandra Cantu went
missing,
00:02:02
her mom Maria's call to
police sparked a major
investigation. - [Tim] Sandra Cantu
lived in a trailer park
00:02:09
here in the city of Tracy. She was very fun loving kid. She made friends very, very
easily, very vibrant kid.
00:02:18
- When a child
goes missing, it's the job of
the Federal Bureau of
Investigation to assist.
00:02:24
Details of a missing child are immediately entered
into a national database that is monitored by the FBI.
00:02:32
In Sandra's case, this meant
that the Tracy Police
Department received expert advice
00:02:37
on the same night
she vanished. (eerie music) - [Tim] Within about four
hours of Sandra missing,
00:02:46
we enter her into
a national database. And so, shortly
after midnight, I was contacted by the FBI,
00:02:54
and they were wanting to know what assistance
we needed from them. - [Vivica] When Sandra Cantu
disappeared
00:02:59
on March 27th, police and volunteers
launched an intense search. The FBI provided local cops
with the profile of the
suspect,
00:03:09
advising they needed
to look for a man who Sandra may have known. - Profile typically is
a white male,
00:03:17
25 to 37 years old, might possibly
know the victim. So we pull our sex registry
list for our city
00:03:26
and interview them to either
rule them in or rule them out as part of the investigation.
00:03:31
- [Vivica] In those
first few days, the team focused on
five male suspects who lived in the same
trailer park as Sandra.
00:03:39
Meanwhile,
the close-knit community prayed for
the little girl's return. - When anytime
a child is missing,
00:03:47
everyone is on
a heightened sense of alert. - Every parent is
going to be fearful--
00:03:53
Who's out there? What's gonna
happen to my child? And there's a
sense of urgency.
00:03:59
- [Vivica] 10 days later came the news that
nobody wanted to hear. - [Tim] On Monday, April 6th,
about 10:15 in the morning,
00:04:09
a farmer located a suitcase
in a pond just outside the city limits. - Inside the suitcase,
00:04:20
cops found Sandra's
decomposing body. (sombre music) The missing person's case
was now a murder
investigation.
00:04:37
On the same day that
Sandra disappeared, a neighbour
had her suitcase stolen. Melissa Huckaby
lived just down the street
00:04:46
from Sandra Cantu's family, and her daughter Madison
was friends with Sandra. Like the rest of
the community,
00:04:53
she was desperate to help
find the little girl's
killer. (sombre music) Police asked Melissa Huckaby
00:05:06
to provide a statement
about the stolen suitcase. (sombre music) - [Tim] You know, just plain
putting it out there,
00:05:16
we need your assistance
in however way you can help
us in figuring
this whole thing out
00:05:20
and figuring, you know, what
happened and that kind of
thing. So... So the house
you're staying at,
00:05:26
you live with your grandma
and grandpa, right?
- Yes. - And he's the one that's
the pastor of the church,
right?
00:05:28
- Yeah.
- Okay. - [Paul] The purpose of
a police interview is to get to the truth,
00:05:34
to find out
what's actually taken place. - [Melissa] I was
doing the bulletin board
for the Sunday school.
00:05:40
- [Paul] So it's to obtain
the best evidence
from that person, whether they be
a suspect or a witness.
00:05:44
- [Tim] So you said
one of your suitcases was missing or something? Or what was it?
- [Melissa] It was stolen.
00:05:49
- It was stolen?
- Yeah. - I wanted to develop some type of rapport
and relationship with her
00:05:54
that she trusted me. Did you report it stolen? - [Melissa] I had called, before we even had found out
that Sandra was gone.
00:06:03
(camera whirring) - [Vivica] Melissa Huckaby
explains that she had mistakenly left
the suitcase on her driveway
00:06:08
in the trailer park when she packed up her car
to go to church. When she got there,
she called her grandma.
00:06:16
- [Melissa] I asked her
where my suitcase was, if she went
outside and check, because it dawned on me that
I didn't have it.
00:06:24
'Cause after I unloaded
everything, in my car-- - [Darren] I think
a lot of the interview,
00:06:27
she was quite relaxed. There was nothing
to suggest that she was implicated
or involved.
00:06:32
- [Melissa] I told her, I asked her if she thinks
that I should-- - [Vivica] Investigators
want to establish
00:06:38
if there's
any connection between Melissa Huckaby's
stolen suitcase and the one they discovered
in the irrigation pond
00:06:44
containing Sandra
Cantu's body. - [Tim] I wanna
show you a picture of two different
pieces of luggage.
00:06:51
One's a black suitcase,
and one's another piece that possibly could go with
it or something like that.
00:06:55
Tell me if you recognize
either one of these or if they look like yours. Take a look at this one
right here.
00:07:02
- [Melissa] I have that one.
- [Tim] Okay, that's one? - [Melissa] Yeah.
(eerie music)
00:07:06
- [Vivica]
It's a breakthrough. Melissa Huckaby confirms
her suitcase looks identical to
the one Sandra was found in.
00:07:18
- She's been interviewed
briefly, for 30 minutes or
so. - [Tim] Let me
turn this thing on.
00:07:23
- [Paul] And then she's
allowed to leave the station. - [Tim] Your car, where
are you parked? Downstairs?
00:07:26
- [Melissa] It says
"police parking". - Having answered the
questions about her suitcase,
00:07:31
Melissa Huckaby
leaves the station. But even as
she's traveling home, the cops are
uncovering new evidence
00:07:38
that raises more questions about this young mother's
connection to the murder
of Sandra Cantu.
00:07:44
Within 24 hours, Melissa Huckaby will be back
in the interrogation room. Coming up,
00:07:54
why a mystery note could be
a key to solving this crime. - There is a note that
only somebody with
intricate knowledge
00:08:01
could have written. - [Vivica] And the revelation that leads to
a change of heart.
00:08:06
- Just admit to
me you're lying. 'Cause if you're lying
about this, I know you're lying
about other things.
00:08:16
- [Tim] All right.
Thanks for coming. - [Melissa] Oh, no problem. (light pensive music)
00:08:23
- [Vivica] 24 hours after her
first interview with the
police, Sunday school teacher
Melissa Huckaby
00:08:28
is invited back into
the interrogation room. - [Melissa] Oh,
they go to my church.
00:08:33
- Chatting with
Detective Bauer, she reveals a background
in Criminal Justice Studies.
00:08:37
- [Melissa] Criminal Justice. I went to Fullerton College
for Criminal Justice for two
years.
00:08:41
- [Tim] When was that? - [Melissa] That was when I just got out of high school
in '99.
00:08:46
- Detective Bauer plays
her personality traits absolutely superb. She's almost flirtatious
with him.
00:08:54
(Melissa laughs) - I'm not gonna tell you
the dates. You said '99. - [Melissa] Well,
you don't look old.
00:08:59
- [Tim] Yeah. Well.
(Melissa laughs) - [Maleary] The
best skill that an investigator, detective,
00:09:03
interrogator should have is communication. You should have
the ability to talk and listen
in equal measure.
00:09:10
- Melissa Huckaby
has been invited back to police headquarters to talk about the day after
Sandra Cantu went missing.
00:09:20
That night, the local
community held a candlelight
vigil in the hope of finding
little Sandra alive.
00:09:26
While it was going on, Huckaby says she found a note blowing on a pathway
in the trailer park.
00:09:32
- [Tim] It was
a Saturday evening. Melissa Huckaby went to
the manager's office
00:09:39
just next to the entrance
of the trailer park, to report her suitcase lost
or stolen from the previous
day.
00:09:47
While she was walking
to the manager's office, she located a note that
she found was suspicious
00:09:54
laying on the sidewalk, and then she picked up the
note and gave it to us. She became upset,
started crying.
00:10:05
Kind of appeared frantic to
a couple of our police
officers that were at
the trailer park.
00:10:11
- It's not surprising
the note caused distress. Written on it
was Sandra Cantu's name
00:10:16
and the words "stolen
suitcase" and "witness". It also gave the names
of two streets,
00:10:25
which would eventually
lead cops to Sandra's body, locked in a stolen suitcase belonging to Melissa Huckaby.
00:10:33
- [Tim] What'd you see? - [Melissa] I saw, like,
a little paper on the ground and I just kicked at it,
00:10:40
and it had some, like,
dirt on it and I saw the word "Cantu"
on the top. And so I, like,
picked the note...
00:10:47
- The note is probably
the most important part of the investigation
at this point.
00:10:53
- [Vivica] It's a startling
piece of evidence, and it's attracting interest
from local TV and press.
00:11:00
- I know there's been
speculation on the news about, like, a note
being in the suitcase
00:11:04
or being by
my suitcase, or... - [Tim] That's what
the news is saying?
- [Melissa] Yeah.
00:11:10
- [Vivica] Maybe it's
the criminology student in
her, but Melissa Huckaby
seems almost excited
00:11:14
to be involved with the case. - [Melissa] A lot of people
texting me everywhere.
00:11:19
Oh, down in Orange County,
people are... 'Cause they know,
they've been watching the
news.
00:11:24
And they're like,
"Hi, you're all over the
news." And I'm like,
"I don't even watch the-"
00:11:29
- I think her ego
is percolating a little bit, and she's really
feeling good about herself.
00:11:32
- [Melissa] I left for an
hour, not even an hour, to go get my prescription
at Walgreens
00:11:36
and I had 22 messages
on the phone. - [Vivica] It's taken a week for Melissa Huckaby
to be interviewed.
00:11:44
That's because she was
admitted to the hospital after swallowing
razor blades. She said this
happened by accident
00:11:50
while she was sleepwalking. While she was being treated, the suitcase
containing Sandra's body
00:11:56
was pulled out of the water, making news headlines. - [Tim] Did you ever see one
of those pictures on the
news?
00:12:02
They kept showing
it on the news. - [Melissa] I didn't
see it on the news. I just saw it on the picture
that my mom sent me.
00:12:11
- [Tim] We had one of our
undercover officers standing, unbeknownst to Melissa,
00:12:14
in the doorway
of her hospital room. - When the police
observed her in the hospital,
00:12:21
when the body was found, I think the primary reason
for their observation was to gauge her reaction.
00:12:29
- And she just kind of
blurted out spontaneously, "That looks like
my suitcase."
00:12:33
- [Melissa] I saw it
on the news later on, and it didn't look like
my suitcase.
00:12:38
It didn't look like
my suitcase at all. - [Vivica] Huckaby's lie
sows a seed of doubt
00:12:44
in Detective Bauer's mind, and he probes a bit deeper about her relationship with
her daughter's friend Sandra.
00:12:51
- [Tim] Why did they
pick Sandra that day? - [Melissa]
She just wanders around.
00:12:56
She's lonely.
She wanders around by
herself. She doesn't play with
a lot of the other kids.
00:13:01
I know a lot of kids- - [Tim] As a detective
in a case like this, it's my job to try to have
00:13:06
the best understanding I can
of Melissa. - [Melissa] And she gets
along better with Sandra.
00:13:11
- [Vivica] One detail
that emerges is that Melissa Huckaby
seems to have issues
00:13:15
with Sandra's friendship
with her daughter Madison. - [Melissa] Sandra kind of
has a tendency
00:13:19
to be a little bit bossy, and try and get Madison to, like, get into things
she's not supposed to.
00:13:25
- Oh, really?
- Yeah. - She did not like that, in her view, that Sandra received more attention
in that trailer park
00:13:34
and appeared to be more
likeable or more fun-loving or more charismatic
than her own daughter.
00:13:44
- [Vivica] This revelation
persuades Detective Bauer to ramp up the pressure
on Huckaby.
00:13:47
(tense music) - [Tim] Do you find it ironic
that YOU found that note? Nobody else found it.
00:13:55
- [Melissa] Yeah, I do.
To be honest, I do. - [Tim] And do you
find it ironic that
00:13:59
it talked about
a stolen suitcase and your suitcase was stolen? - [Melissa] Yes.
00:14:04
- Officer Bauer starts to
press around who wrote the
note. - [Tim] Who wrote this note?
00:14:10
- [Melissa] I have no idea. - "Who wrote the note?" - [Tim] Who do you
think wrote this note?
00:14:18
- It was a
repetitive question. - [Tim] I mean, IF you had to
speculate or estimate or-
00:14:23
- [Melissa] Looks like
a kid wrote it. - [Maleary] At this point,
Huckaby realized
00:14:28
that she's no
longer the helper. She is now the suspect. - [Tim] The only person that
could have found this note
00:14:36
either wrote this note
or who knew wrote this note. That's why they
put "witness".
00:14:41
And you're the closest person
to that witness because you found this note. - You can physically see
her whole being change
00:14:50
as a result of the
questioning that he was
giving. - [Tim] I think
you're our witness.
00:14:54
- [Melissa] You think
I'm the witness? - [Tim] Yeah, I think you're
the person that can help us.
00:14:58
- And her posture's
quite telling because she
withdraws inwards. She brings her legs
in quite tightly
00:15:04
and she wrings
her hands together. - [Melissa] Do you think
that maybe somebody knew that
it was my suitcase,
00:15:13
and then maybe put the note
where I was? No?
- No. - [Darren] The whole body's
been withdrawn inwards
00:15:22
and that's a key point of it. You know, she knows
she's caught, really. (ominous music)
00:15:30
- My problem is we have
a dead eight-year-old girl found in a suitcase that
looks exactly like yours,
00:15:37
and that suitcase,
where it was stolen from, is the same place where that little girl Sandra
was last seen,
00:15:42
your daughter's best friend. - [Vivica] Just as things
are starting to heat up,
00:15:48
there's an interruption.
(door knocking) - [Tim] Hold on a minute. - You have a phone call.
- All right.
00:15:55
Hold on real quick.
I'll be right back. - [Melissa] Okay. - Any time a detective
leaves the interrogation
room,
00:16:04
there's a purpose behind
them leaving the room. The detectives are going
to talk to each other
00:16:12
and discuss a new direction, a new strategy going forward. - [Vivica] Huckaby is left
on her own
00:16:19
for more than five minutes. It's a deliberate tactic
to increase the pressure.
00:16:27
- [Robyn] It is certainly
going to leave the suspect to feel isolated, alone, start to think about
what they've said,
00:16:35
try and come up with strategy
in their mind. - [Vivica] When
Detective Bauer returns,
00:16:41
Melissa's mood
seems to have changed. - [Tim] All right, sorry. - [Melissa]
I'm ready to leave now.
00:16:49
It's not eight something,
it's 10 something. - [Tim] No, it's nine... Oh, crap.
- Yeah.
00:16:55
- [Tim] Okay, give me
a couple more minutes. I'm gonna ask you something. I'll tell you about something
I found at your house.
00:17:00
- [Melissa] Okay. - They've now turned to
presenting evidence to
Melissa. - [Vivica] It starts with
the paper note
00:17:11
Huckaby said
she found on the street. - [Tim] We found,
in Melissa's bedroom, a notebook that
had some ripped-out pages.
00:17:22
I looked at that
spiral notebook that we took, and there's a couple
interesting things we found.
00:17:26
We were able to
take that notebook and match the paper
from the notebook as the same exact paper
00:17:34
as the note that Melissa
found on day two of the case. - [Tim] And I took the paper
and I put it on it,
00:17:43
and it covered up 'IN'. The exact same design. Dude, I'm not kidding you,
I'm being dead serious.
00:17:54
- They go to her house,
find a notebook that the page
was torn out of. They find the imprint where
she had written, on the below
page.
00:18:04
- [Tim] This is where
Sandra was found. Exactly what this note says. EXACTLY what this note says.
00:18:10
(light music) - [Vivica] It's been three
hours since Melissa Huckaby stepped into
the interrogation room,
00:18:19
and attention turns to some crossed-out words
on a post-it note. - Now, let me show you.
00:18:28
In the glove compartment
of her vehicle, we located a
blue sticky note. Two of the words that
were written on it
00:18:34
were Whitehall Rd
and Bacchetti Rd, which was the intersection
where the suitcase was found.
00:18:42
- [Tim] This is the paper. Do you know what kind
of piece of paper it is? - [Melissa] Post-it note.
00:18:47
- [Tim] What colour? - [Melissa] I don't--
Turquoise. - That's another
psychological effect.
00:18:52
Blow up the note big. Make it a lot larger
than it actually is and it overwhelms them.
00:18:58
- [Tim] Do you know
where I found this? - [Melissa] In my car? - [Tim] Where? - [Melissa] In the dashboard.
00:19:05
- [Tim] What does it say? - [Melissa] It says
the two street names. - [Ciolino] The goal of
any interrogation
00:19:11
is to get
an initial confrontation that you've been lying. We want that one little lie.
00:19:17
It might not be the big lie, but just admit to me
you're lying, 'cause if you're lying
about this,
00:19:22
I know you're lying
about other things. - [Tim] What's this word
right here? - [Melissa] That is...
00:19:32
Bacchetti.
- Mm-hmm. Bacchetti what?
- And Whitewall. - [Tim] And what? Whitehall.
- [Melissa] Whitehall.
00:19:38
- He was showing her
that she lied, we knew it, and it was the biggest sign to show that she was lying.
00:19:46
And from that point,
she started to crumble. - [Tim] What? (pensive music) - [Vivica] Huckaby now claims
00:20:14
that having found the note
with the street names on it, it prompted her to
go and look for Sandra,
00:20:19
and that this was the reason
for the Post-it note in her
car. - [Melissa] I don't know
why I didn't tell you that.
00:20:25
- [Tim] Well,
let's talk about it. Why? - [Melissa] Well... - [Tim] Possibly. - [Tim] Mm-hmm.
(Melissa sobbing)
00:20:51
- Every time a suspect
starts to change their story in an interview, it makes them
less and less believable.
00:20:58
The detective knows that
he's onto something. Now her resolve is weakening. - [Vivica] Now that
she's admitted to
00:21:07
lying about the note, Detective Bauer wants to know about Huckaby's visit
to the local church
00:21:13
on the day Sandra
disappeared, the visit that gives
Melissa her alibi. - [Tim] What did you do
when you went to the church?
00:21:21
You went the church for
about two and a half hours. - [Melissa] Yeah, for
about two and a half hours.
00:21:26
- [Tim] Did you ever
leave the church? - [Melissa] Umm... Not that I remember.
00:21:32
- He's picked apart her lies and he's left the best bit
to last. It's the closing scene
of the show.
00:21:41
- [Tim] When you
enter in the keypad,
do you know what that does? It's like, what happens
when you call a phone?
00:21:45
- [Ciolino] He's got her,
because she hit the alarm
code and they've got
the security company records.
00:21:51
- [Tim] It has
a timestamp on it, right?
- [Melissa] Yeah. - And only she had that code.
00:21:56
- [Tim] I can show it to you
like this through evidence, or you could just
tell me about it.
00:21:58
Um... But you weren't at
the church the whole time. I know that, and
you know that.
00:22:08
You left the church. - He moves slightly closer.
He leans in a lot more. The voice tone
of the policeman goes up
00:22:15
and the voice becomes louder. So he is pushing Huckaby
to give him the truth. - [Tim] Your car left
the church parking lot
00:22:21
for a significant
amount of time on that Friday the 27th. - [Ciolino] Now she's
really screwed.
00:22:30
And now we'd moved into
the mode of "How do I minimize
this damage?" - [Melissa] To tell you
the truth, right now
I think I want a lawyer
00:22:40
because I'm not...
with it right now. - [Tim] You're not with it? - [Melissa] I'm not
feeling very well.
00:22:47
- [Tim] You don't
wanna talk anymore? - [Melissa] No. - [Vivica] Almost instantly,
00:22:53
all conversation
in the interrogation room comes to a halt. - She asked for a lawyer,
and Bauer, appropriately,
goes,
00:23:01
"Done. Can't help you.
I'm out of here." (paper rustling) - [Maleary] With the
theatrical movement of
exhibits,
00:23:10
the closing up of books... it was well exaggerated. It gave her the view
that Officer Bauer had
enough.
00:23:20
- [Tim] You know,
we're not gonna talk anymore
'cause you want a lawyer. But I'll tell you this,
we can't make any of this up.
00:23:26
Okay? (tense music) - [Vivica] Melissa Huckaby
is left in the room again, but this time
it's only for a few minutes.
00:23:42
- [Tim] Melissa, let me
see your purse real quick. - [Vivica] And this time
when he returns,
00:23:46
Detective Bauer is not alone. - [Tim] Can you stand up? - Are you arresting me?
- Yep.
00:23:52
Turn around that way. Put hands behind your back. - They cuff her up.
She gets hysterical.
00:23:59
- [Melissa] Oh, my God.
(sobbing) I didn't even do anything. - [Tim] You're under arrest
for Sandra Cantu's murder.
00:24:05
- [Melissa] Oh, God. - [Tim] Go downstairs
and process you. - [Melissa]
This isn't happening.
00:24:11
(indistinct) - Despite Melissa
Huckaby's arrest, the job for this
investigating team is far
from over.
00:24:20
To secure a conviction, the
police will need a
confession. There's still a way to go
in this interview.
00:24:25
(apprehensive music) - [Melissa] This is not
happening to me. I didn't... - [Vivica] Coming up, Huckaby
makes a surprise return
00:24:32
to the interrogation room. - In her mind is that
"I got some big problems, but I could figure
my way out of this one."
00:24:40
- [Vivica] And
Detective Bauer is challenged with a whole
new version of events.
00:24:54
- [Vivica] In
Tracy, California, The discovery of eight-year-
old Sandra Cantu's body,
00:24:58
dumped in a suitcase, landed Melissa Huckaby
in the interrogation room. - [Melissa] To tell you
the truth right now,
I think I want a lawyer.
00:25:06
- He had got into her head. - Once she asked
for a lawyer, Detective Bauer is required
to stop any questioning.
00:25:13
In order to keep her
at the station, he's forced to make a formal
arrest and put her in a cell.
00:25:19
But after just 10 minutes, she asked to return
to the interrogation room. (apprehensive
music continues)
00:25:26
- [Tim] We're not
playing a game, are we? - [Melissa] No, I just...
I didn't murder her.
00:25:30
I don't know why
you think I did it. I wanted... (sniffles)
- Hold on. Don't talk yet.
No talking yet. Hold on.
00:25:37
- Once she realized the sort
of seriousness of her
position, she totally
just withdrew inwards.
00:25:42
- [Tim] You want a tissue?
- [Melissa] Yes. - [Darren] You could see
there's complete sadness,
00:25:46
astonishment on her face. - Listen, I need you to
tell me about what happened when you and
Sandra are at the church.
00:26:02
- [Tim] You were. Remember,
we're trying to get the whole evidence thing now? I don't wanna beat that
thing into the ground.
00:26:09
- [Maleary] Throughout
the process, Huckaby was fishing for
information and evidence.
00:26:14
- [Melissa] You said
you had a video and you were gonna show me, before I told you
I want a lawyer.
00:26:21
- She's concerned about
self-preservation. "Tell me what other
evidence you have."
00:26:24
- [Melissa] I want you
to show me or prove to me that I did it,
because I didn't do it.
00:26:31
- [Tim] You were at the
church for about an hour, a little bit more than that,
00:26:34
and then your car's seen
going eastbound on Clover towards Tracy Boulevard, and then the light turns green
and you go northbound on
Tracy.
00:26:42
Then you go under the freeway
and you start driving north out towards Howard Road.
00:26:52
- [Tim] I'm really positive.
I'm serious. - [Melissa] And that's
what you're basing
00:26:57
me murdering her on? - [Tim] No. There's more. - So I think she
underestimated our ability
00:27:03
to collect the
correct evidence, and she underestimated
our ability to persevere.
00:27:09
- [Melissa] I seriously
don't remember. - [Tim] You don't remember
driving your car?
00:27:13
- [Melissa] No, I don't. - So you just...
- I do have blackouts. - [Tim] But you can't drive
if you ever blackout.
00:27:21
- [Melissa] No, I don't. - [Ciolino] Now the excuses
start coming out of her
mouth.
00:27:25
"I'm blacking out.
I have medication. "I don't remember doing it. "I have no recollection."
00:27:29
(mysterious music) - [Vivica] Only now
does Detective Bauer reveal his most damning
piece of evidence,
00:27:38
that despite her denials, Melissa Huckaby was seen at the location where
Sandra's body was found
00:27:44
in the crucial time period. - [Tim] Between
5:30 and 5:40, two people saw your car
stopped on Whitehall Road.
00:27:57
They saw you come from out
the bushes on Whitehall Road and someone asked you why.
00:28:06
- [Tim] Mm-hmm. What were you doing, Melissa? (Melissa sobbing) - [Vivica] Finally,
Melissa Huckaby admits
00:28:23
she's to blame
for Sandra's death. (Melissa sobbing) - [Maleary] To delay the most
vital evidence to the last
00:28:30
is a great tactic. By saying that
there is eyewitness evidence to support the fact that
Huckaby had disposed of the
body
00:28:40
was so overwhelming that there was nowhere
for her to turn. - [Tim] Why is it an
accident? You tell me.
00:28:49
I'll listen.
(Melissa sobbing) - [Melissa] I can't
live with myself. I deserve to just die.
00:28:56
- I think in that moment,
it's like relief. The fact she's finally able
to let out that real emotion.
00:29:03
So I do feel,
in that particular moment, she was, you know, showing
remorse and a willingness
to...
00:29:09
It's almost like the
beginning of the end, really. (Melissa sobbing) (light mysterious music)
00:29:19
- [Vivica] Huckaby says
she can now explain how Sandra's body
ended up in her suitcase.
00:29:26
A key piece of footage from cameras installed
outside of Sandra's own
trailer recorded the little girl
heading home
00:29:33
on the afternoon
of March 27th. - [Tim] She's seen skipping
to her trailer. Right before she skips
and passes her trailer,
00:29:42
she turns and goes
to Melissa's house. - [Melissa] And she
came up to the car and I didn't know that she
was there until I turned
around.
00:30:00
- [Tim] Mm-hm. - [Tim] Sandra
wasn't outside? - [Melissa] She
wasn't outside. - [Tim] Where was she?
- [Melissa] I didn't know.
00:30:32
(light mysterious music) - [Vivica] Huckaby
now changes her story. Instead of claiming she left
her suitcase on the driveway,
00:30:41
she now says she drove to
the church with the suitcase, not knowing
Sandra was inside.
00:31:05
- [Tim] What did
she look like? And she couldn't breathe
and she wasn't waking up.
00:31:17
She didn't have
a pulse or nothing. - It's perplexed me, because
how does the suitcase
00:31:23
get from her house to the
church without her noticing
that there's something that's
moving inside the suitcase.
00:31:29
- [Tim] Did you take
her out of the suitcase? - [Melissa] Well, I just...
- [Tim] How did you giver her
mouth to mouth?
00:31:35
- [Tim] And what did you do? (ominous music) - [Vivica] Huckaby then
claims she panicked,
00:31:50
and put Sandra
back into the suitcase. She drove to the irrigation
ponds used by local farmers.
00:32:21
- [Tim] No, you don't.
You're telling the truth. (Melissa wailing) - The reason he suggested
that it was an accident
00:32:28
is that to get
any form of confession... ...would be better
than no confession.
00:32:34
Then they can work with that and prove her lies once more, and make sure that this
becomes a murder charge.
00:32:45
- [Vivica] But Huckaby is
confessing to an accident, and there's a lot
about her story
00:32:50
that doesn't fit the facts. - [Tim] Tell me about
the cloth that we found on
her
00:32:56
when we opened the suitcase.
- [Melissa] Cloth? - [Tim] When we found Sandra,
when we opened the suitcase,
00:32:59
she was in there. You remember how... - [Tim] Yeah. - [Tim] Are you sure? - [Tim] Why was it tied
in a knot, in a circle,
00:33:13
like to go over her mouth? - [Melissa] No,
I didn't do that. I swear. - The officer
made it quite clear that
00:33:24
Sandra didn't die of
suffocation in the suitcase. - [Tim] How could someone die
00:33:29
and not have
any really visible marks? - [Tim] And how do you stop
someone from breathing air?
00:33:45
- He knows a lot more than
he's letting on to her. And with every statement
she's making, almost,
00:33:50
she's getting buried. I didn't do that.
I promise you. (siren wailing) - [Vivica] It's time
to confront Huckaby
00:34:05
with the findings
of Sandra's autopsy. First of all, the eight-year-
old had been drugged.
00:34:13
- [Tim] Listen, did you give
her any of your medication? - [Melissa] No. - Are you sure?
- Yes.
00:34:19
- The drugs that were found
in the body of the victim were the same drugs that had
been prescribed to the
suspect.
00:34:27
- [Vivica] Huckaby claims that when she realized
Sandra was dead, she tried to take
her own life.
00:34:47
- [Tim] Where'd
you spit it at? - [Tim] It landed on her?
- Yeah. - Where at? - [Tim] Inside the suitcase
while she was in there?
00:35:00
- She came up with
some spurious excuse that she spat the drugs out and that's how the drugs
had got into the child.
00:35:08
- [Vivica] But
the autopsy revealed something even
more disturbing. - [Tim] I think something
else happened at the church.
00:35:14
- [Melissa] What? - [Tim] What did you tell me you thought
might have happened to her?
00:35:20
- [Melissa] She was molested
or something. (tense music) She was?
I never molested her.
00:35:27
(tense music swells) - [Tim] The entire interview, that's the hardest
for her to say,
00:35:34
because you're talking about
her admitting to sexually assaulting a child of similar size and age
as her own daughter.
00:35:41
- [Melissa] I'm telling you
the God's honest truth that she was not molested. - [Tim] She was too.
00:35:48
We got our evidence back.
She was molested. But she wasn't molested
by a guy.
00:35:52
(tense music) - [Vivica] Of all the evidence
collected by the
investigators, it's these findings
which are the most horrific.
00:36:05
- [Tim] We located
a rolling pin at the church that was significant,
because through further
testing,
00:36:10
we discovered that
Sandra's DNA was on it. (sombre music) - [Tim] We have experts,
expert doctors, and examiner,
00:36:19
they can tell us
exactly what happened. And I think that
that part was staged.
00:36:29
(sombre music swells) - [Robyn] I think she used
her quasi knowledge
of criminal investigations
00:36:36
to believe that
the sexual assault would divert their attention
to a male, and therefore, they would
not be looking at her.
00:36:45
- [Melissa] I didn't do that,
I promise you. You could give me
a lie detector test right
now.
00:36:51
- [Darren] What some people
tend to do is they'll tend to use
grandiose language like,
00:36:55
"I swear on my kids,"
"I promise," you know, "trust me." You know, things like that.
00:37:00
So it's just an attempt
to hoodwink the officer. - [Tim] The scariness of
possibly being exposed
to the death penalty
00:37:07
didn't allow her
to admit to that. And I think she
was also exhausted
at the end of the interview.
00:37:12
- [Melissa] I didn't molest
her, I swear. (ominous music) - It's been a tough night
in the interrogation room.
00:37:20
And Melissa Huckaby's
admission of responsibility for Sandra's death
is a breakthrough.
00:37:26
But she's still insisting
it was an accident, and refusing to
accept any role in the sexual assault
of the little girl.
00:37:34
Coming up, the evidence
that exposes Huckaby's lies. - [Tim] We found an article
on your computer
00:37:42
about a four-year-old girl
that was put in a suitcase and she was found in
a body of water two weeks
later.
00:37:48
- [Vivica] And thoughts turn
to what happens next. - [Melissa] What will I
be charged with?
- [Tim] What do you think?
00:37:54
- [Melissa] I don't think
I should be charged with
murdering her. - [Vivica]
Unravelling the events
00:38:05
that led to the death of
eight-year-old Sandra Cantu has been a gruelling process.
00:38:11
Melissa Huckaby still insists that she did not set out
to kill the little girl. And she's scared about
what charges she might face.
00:38:21
(ominous music) - [Tim] When you leave here
and I leave here tonight, then I won't see you again
until we go to court. Okay?
00:38:31
- [Melissa] What am I
gonna be charged with? - [Tim] What are you
gonna be charged with?
00:38:35
What do you think you
should be charged with? - She holds out to
the bitter end in denial.
00:38:42
- [Melissa] I don't think
I should be charged with
murdering her. - [Tim] Let me
ask you something.
00:38:47
- [Lee] It's just amazing
that you could lie for that
long. - [Vivica] But a police
search of Melissa Huckaby's
computer
00:38:54
provided chilling evidence. - [Tim] We took Melissa's
personal computer and we were able to do
a forensic analysis
of her computer.
00:39:03
We found an article
on one of the computers. There's about
a four-year-old girl
00:39:07
that was molested
by her grandfather and put in a suitcase,
in Israel. And she was found in a body
of water two weeks later.
00:39:16
I can get you the article. We printed it out. But it's kinda weird, it's
kind of similar to this case.
00:39:24
- [Vivica] The computer
search also revealed evidence of Huckaby's attempt
to cover her tracks.
00:39:30
- [Tim] She had another
search on the internet. And in that one
her search question was,
00:39:37
"What are the side effects
of swallowing a razor blade?" which we found significant
00:39:40
since she had
been in the hospital for swallowing a razor blade
for a few days.
00:39:46
She saw that
the investigation was possibly starting to
point at her. Her mindset was,
if she was in the hospital,
00:39:54
then maybe we wouldn't
come bother her, or maybe we would look at her
as being this injured person.
00:40:00
And it was kind of to
redirect our focus off of her onto someone else. - [Vivica]
Investigators discovered
00:40:07
Huckaby had even practiced
aspects of her crime, drugging another child
in the trailer park
00:40:12
and an ex-boyfriend. - We saw a pattern in that,
and that showed us pre
-planning.
00:40:19
The criminal
justice background that Melissa had
from her college courses kind of directed her actions
on why she did what she did
00:40:26
and wanted to make this
challenging for us, right, to make this kind of like
a drama that would unfold
00:40:31
and we would have to,
you know, figure it out. - [Vivica] Far from
a tragic accident,
00:40:37
this was starting to look
every inch like a premeditated murder. - [Tim] Why did you go on
around that video camera?
00:40:43
- [Vivica] But there's one
aspect of this gruesome case which Huckaby consistently
denies: the sexual assault.
00:40:49
- [Tim] Who assaulted her? - [Melissa] I don't know.
- [Tim] Someone did. I'm not making this up.
I'm not trying to make
this any worse than it is.
00:40:57
- I know.
- Someone assaulted her. If it wasn't you,
it was someone else. - She's still trying to
minimize what she did.
00:41:06
"Maybe there's hope for me."
And now she's thinking, "Well, maybe I won't
go to jail for life.
00:41:11
Maybe for 20 years,
and I'll be out in 18." - [Tim] All the evidence
led us to believe
00:41:17
that more than likely, the actual murder
and sexual assault occurred at the church.
00:41:25
- [Lee] She took the child
to the church and she murdered the child
at the church.
00:41:30
And then put the child
in a suitcase after the murder,
at the church. - [Officer] Put your
palms together.
00:41:35
(handcuffs click) - [Vivica] Melissa Huckaby
is charged with first degree
murder, kidnapping,
00:41:41
and sexual assault
against a minor. At trial,
this would've meant that Huckaby faced the
death penalty,
00:41:49
but it never went that far. - [Reporter]
This Sunday school teacher accused of kidnapping,
raping, and killing
00:41:55
an eight-year-old playmate
of her daughter pleaded guilty, Monday,
to murder. - Huckaby's lawyers
struck a deal
00:42:01
under which she
pleaded guilty to first-degree murder
and kidnapping in return for them dropping
the sexual assault
allegation.
00:42:11
- [Ciolino] Any good defence
lawyer is gonna say, "Hey, we gotta plead.
'Cause we go to trial,
00:42:16
"you'll never see
a crack a daylight again." - [Robyn] A conviction
is the most important
part of this case,
00:42:22
for the family
and for the community. It will also prevent
the family going through
the trauma of a trial
00:42:30
where the details of what
happened to Sandra would be brought up. - Had she been taken to trial
and found guilty,
00:42:38
she could have very well
have been sentenced to death. So she did the math and she
took the easiest way out.
00:42:46
- Thanks to the careful,
methodical work in the interrogation room, Sandra Cantu's killer
was brought to justice.
00:42:55
But the reason why a mother
and Sunday school teacher would carry out such a
terrible crime remains a
mystery.
00:43:04
- I've never been 100% on
my answer, but my theory is Melissa had this jealous,
attention-seeking personality
00:43:12
that really struggled with
other people getting
attention. I think she struggled with
the love that
00:43:19
the people at the trailer
park had for Sandra Cantu, not for Melissa's daughter.
00:43:24
(melissa speaking
indistinctly) - For me, there's gotta be more of a break
in this person's psyche,
00:43:32
and I do believe that
she wanted to kill this
child. I think that there was
a rage in this woman,
00:43:37
and she was gonna
kill no matter what. (light music) - [Tim] For Sandra,
you gotta remember her
00:43:47
skipping to her trailer. That, 100%, is how
Sandra lived her life. She was happy,
she was friendly,
00:43:59
and I think that's how her
mom would like her
remembered. - This was a shocking crime
00:44:06
that took away the life
of an eight-year-old child and devastated a community.
00:44:12
Sandra's family knows that
her killer is behind bars, but nothing can
bring back their little girl.
00:44:20
(light music ends) (apprehensive music) (apprehensive music ends)