Pain and suffering

Sometimes there just isn’t a happy ending to the story. Hope as you might, pray as hard as you can and the story still ends in tragedy. On Monday, hopes were dashed when the body of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu was found in a suitcase dumped into an irrigation pond north of town.


Through the searches, the hours of volunteer work and the police investigation there was that slim chance that Sandra was still alive and would return home. Vigils for Sandra’s safe return turned into moments to mourn her loss. Everywhere I looked you could see the pain and suffering etched into faces of strangers who would make the trip to a memorial in front of her home to remember the slain girl.



It has been a hard few weeks for Tracy and those members of the media gathered to cover the story. What started as a missing person’s case on a Saturday morning has morphed into a manhunt for a murder. There has been a rollercoaster of emotions from the frantic first hours of the search to the somber announcement of her body’s discovery.



It is hard, you can’t imagine how hard covering the grief associated with this story. How many times can you point a camera at a crying family? How many times can you stand at a vigil amid the sobbing and not feel saddened yourself? So you steel yourself against the knots forming in your stomach and look through the viewfinder. The hardest part is talking to these grieving strangers as they weep for a murdered little girl. Sometimes I just can’t bring myself to ask their names and leave them to their sorrow.

Along with the grief that covers this story is the fear gripping the town. Standing across the street from the entrance to the mobile home park where Sandra was last scene I wonder if the killer still lurks there? In the darkness of Clover Road with crime scene tape strung around a small church I wonder what could have happened there? An eerie calm surrounds the searches as FBI crews pour over the scene. It almost seems surreal, surely his could not be happening in my hometown.

But with an army of television cameras everywhere I go and the face of an innocent girl staring back from light poles and business windows I know this really is happening in my hometown. Tracy has been beset with one crisis after another as of late. I keep waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel but everything seems so bleak behind the camera these days.


The night they made the announcement that Sandra’s body had been found I rushed from the press conference to the mobile home park. There a small memorial was already forming for Sandra. After a taking a few pictures of the mourners gathered in the candlelight I walked down the block and called a friend. I was about ready to lose it and I just needed to hear a friendly voice. Sometimes it gets to be just too much to bear.

Faith

It has been nine days since Sandra Cantu disappeared from the mobile home park and a different feel has crept into the story. On Saturday I found one search team after another as they scoured the land north of town. Crews checked irrigation canals, ditches, heavy brush piles and weed-filled fields. Volunteers crisscrossed the city putting up photos of the missing girl. But today an eerie quiet seems to have descended on the search.

I covered my fourth candlelight vigil tonight as community members gathered to pray for Sandra’s safe return. As candles flickered in the darkness one theme shined through. Faith was the topic for those gathered to keep hope for Sandra’s return alive.

It has been easy to get depressed covering this story. Every day since her disappearance the story has dominated the news and most of my time at work. I have covered the search through the garbage, the search along the river, the search in farmland and fields. Despair starts to creep in as no results are found.

At the vigil tonight the question was asked how can a little girl just disappeared, what kind of evil exists to do this and how could God let this happen to our town? The answer is hard from some, faith. Faith that that Sandra is still alive, faith that she will return alive. Those attending were urged not to let their faith falter and give up hope but to keep looking.

As the vigil ended they vowed to return every night to lift their candles high as they keep the will that they will find Sandra bring her home. It’s all about faith that can move mountains and keep hope alive.

Night search

At home tonight I heard an unusual sound. At first I thought it was the CHP helicopter as it made a pass during a search for missing girl Sandra Cantu but I was surprised to see a Coast Guard HC-130 flying low making a series of low passes along the Grant Line and Clover Road areas. It made about 6 passes over the town before it headed north. I am sure it was part of the search for the young girl, a sign that the search is expanding.

Anthem

I saw a story today that a Florida singer wrote a song inspired by the search for the missing girl Sandra Cantu. It’s funny how we can rally around a song in times of trouble. Sometimes the music helps us remember and helps come together for a common goal.


I use to like a song called “Anthem” a song from the soundtrack of the movie Jonathan Livingston Seagull”. Listening to it now tends to remind me of some of the awful things I have had to cover through the years like funerals, fatal accidents and grief.


Covering the latest candlelight vigil I found out that song has become the anthem for the search for Sandra. “Somewhere Out There” from the movie An American Tail is played at the end of the vigils as community members raise their lights and pray for her return. I don’t think I well ever listen to that song again with out thinking about a missing little girl.

Missing

I thought things couldn’t get much worse in this town. From the story of the tortured teen to the parade of perverts to the random shootings and stabbings I thought Tracy had reached its plateau of despair. It couldn’t get worse I thought. Saturday I found out I was wrong, it could get worse, much worse.

The first sign I knew something bad had happened in town was the CHP helicopter circling overhead. They are a like a bad omen of a news event unfolding. Eight-year-old Sandra Cantu vanished from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home park last Friday evening touching off a massive search effort. Saturday morning a nearby hotel parking lot became the base of operations for the search as volunteers and search crews fanned out across the city to find the young girl.


The first hours were a flurry of action. Empty fields were searched; emergency response teams went door-to-door in nearby neighborhoods and missing posters sprouted around town. As darkness came a candlelight vigil hoped for a safe return.



Five days have passed with no sign of Sandra. Driving to a press conference this morning the town seemed different. The first things you notice are the missing posters. They are everywhere around town, on cars light poles, business window and counters. Sandra’s face stands a quiet vigil as the search continues.

As the days grow since her disappearance the media interest in the story has increased. A handful of news crews on the first day have grown to the dozens or so camera trucks parked across the street from the mobile home park entrance. The story has reached the national news as even some of my work on the search has made it to the Associated Press service. Driving to different assignments around town I pass their trucks with satellite dishes, such an odd site around town. The only time they are on our roads is when there is some sensational event or tragedy befalling us.


The news is not any better now than the first day. This morning after the press conference I headed to the waste transfer site where volunteers sifted through loads of incoming garbage in hopes of finding some clue to Sandra’s whereabouts.


It doesn’t seem fair that our town has seen so much drama and angst as of late. From the loss of another soldier in the war, to the various acts of violence and perversion it seems we have had our fair share and then some of pain and suffering. I think I need just one week where nothing bad or sad happens so I can catch my breath but I know that isn’t the way the world works. Police officers at one of the press conferences vowed they would not give up the search. This is their community and they would strive to bring her home. Whatever happens here good or bad, I echo their words, this is our community and we never give up.

Meow

There is something just not quite right about being assigned to shoot a state wrestling champion wearing a powder blue with polka dots uniform with word “meow” emblazoned across his headgear. I don’t think these assignments up I only go where I’m told.

And people wonder why I sob silently on my camera bag every night.

Close encounter

Thank goodness I have an accidental death insurance when I go out on assignment. I was hoping these guys would have landed just a tad further away. It's like I tell everyone, if I die on assignment I am partial to oak. No fancy satin liners, just a nice oak box.

Yard waste

I stumbled across this nightmare on assignment in Manteca. I can't believe this place hasn't been sealed off as a public hazard yet. If it ever catches fire I won't have to hurry it will probably burn for days.

Water wonderland

You know you are in store for a spectacular hike when the first sound you hear stepping out of the car is the sound of water roaring through a creek. This Sunday’s hike took us to the waterfalls of the Uvas Canyon County Park in Morgan Hill.





The water flow was grand as the water traveled through Swanson Creek and spilled along the hiking trail. We followed the Waterfall Loop Trail and caught the sights of the water cascading through the rocks.





What amazed me the most were the colors along the trail and the creek. Crystal clear water splashed and covered the rd and orange rocks and followed the moss-covered stones in the creek bed. Water foamed white along the falls in stark contrast to the black rocks on the hillside.





We spent hours on the trail, as every turn on the trail revealed another falls in the creek. We stopped for a lunch of salami and cheese in a light drizzle as the water pounded from a nearby waterfall.





It has to be the prettiest hike Alice and I have been on together. Tucked away in a quiet canyon Uvas Canyon County Park is a gem among the hills and trees and well worth a photographic adventure along the creek.