It’s All Maya!

The body of 8 year-old Sandra Cantu was found stuffed in a black  suitcase in a collection pond that was less than two miles from her home.  Sandra was last seen on March 27 a few minutes after 4 in the afternoon when she left a friend’s home in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park where she lived.  Video from a surveillance camera shows the little girl skipping down the street without a care in the world as the last time anyone had seen her before she vanished.

The Tracy police, the FBI, along with search dogs, divers, horses, and hundreds of volunteers had been combing the area for the past ten days looking for the missing child.  On Monday April 6, farm workers found a suitcase floating in the pond as it was being drained for irrigation.  Tracy Police were called in and after an extensive investigation of the area took the suitcase to the county morgue.  It was there that the suitcase was opened and the body of little Sandra still wearing her pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, which is what she was reported wearing on the day that she disappeared, were able to help in identifying the child immediately.

Police have honed in on several suspects.  One is Frank  Wohler, a 60 year-old who runs the Delta Kajukenbo School of Self-Defense.  Two years earlier the family reported Wohler to the police when he was seen kissing Sandra, then 6 years-old, on the lips.  The exchange took place at the neighborhood pool and Wohler admitted to kissing the little girl.  The other suspects have not been identified by police.

An outpouring of grief by the family, friends of little Sandra, and the community have left a 20 yard long memorial filled with stuffed animals, cards, flowers, balloons, and messages to the family mourning the loss of this young life.

Maya Muses:  Yes, people would rather not talk about these issues which are a cancer to our society and era.  Or has this always been the case?  The fact that the world has become smaller due to technology and because the means of hearing what goes on in the world has become more available to us; is this what makes us more aware?  Regardless, statistics show that it’s not the complete stranger who most often takes the child, although that is the one whom most parents fear because the outcome is very often fatal.

According to the U.S. Deaprtment of Justice:

797,500 kids under 18 are reported missing in the US every year.

203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.

58,200 kids were the victims of acquaintances/non-family abductions.

Only 115 children were abducted by complete strangers/slight acquaintances.