Interview With an Accused Killer

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," April 14, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Now you get the inside story about that accused killer of eight year old Sandra Cantu.

Twenty-eight year old Sunday school teacher Melissa Huckaby is under arrest for the child's murder. Huckaby appearing in court today accused of rape, kidnapping, and murder. Police say a reporter for the Tracy Press named Jennifer Wadsworth helped break the case. Jennifer landed an interview with the now-accused killer that gave police some very important clues. Jennifer joins us live outside the jail where Huckaby is being held. Nice to see you Jennifer. And Jennifer, what happened? What brought you into this investigation?

JENNIFER WADSWORTH, TRACY PRESS: I was just doing my job. I just wanted to find out where this black suitcase had come from that Sandra's body was found in. And so I was calling a lot of people in the mobile home park where Sandra lived, and Melissa Huckaby was one of them.

VAN SUSTEREN: What did Melissa Huckaby tell you?

WADSWORTH: I asked her about the suitcase, first of all, and she said that she owned it, which was the first person I had ever heard claim ownership of the suitcase.

There were a lot of rumors pointing to who owned it, and all of the rumors pointed to her grandparents, Connie and Clifford Lawless. So they said it came from Lawless family. And when she answered the telephone, she said it was hers specifically.

So that was interesting to me. It was something I had not heard before. I am sure investigators knew it the whole, but it was new to the public, it was new to the media, so I was really excited about that.

VAN SUSTEREN: So you do your job and you report the story. And so where did the police come into this? Why were they so interested in what you had learned?

WADSWORTH: I didn't find out until the next day after she had been arrested. And police announced at a press conference that when they read the "Tracy Press" article, it confirmed that this woman had just been telling different stories to different people.

She had said one thing to police investigators during her first interview, another thing during a second interview. And then she said even different things to me. And she told stories to other reporters that did not match up with what she told everyone else.

So it just shed light on some of the discrepancies in her story and made her look suspicious to the police.

VAN SUSTEREN: What was your impression of her when you were talking to her?

WADSWORTH: A lot of people asked me that today, and I was impressed with how intelligent she sounded. She was very articulate and very detailed.

And it is hard to get people to describe things in detail sometimes, but when I asked what the suitcase looked, she said it is black, it's rolling, it has a charcoal trim and an Eddie Bauer logo. She got very specific, and as a reporter I was happy that she was offering so many details.

VAN SUSTEREN: Were you in court when she was in court?

WADSWORTH: Yes, I was in court today. Her first appearance since her arrest, everyone was really interested to see her. And she had a very emotional reaction. It was surreal to see the woman who was accused of these things, especially considering that I had talked to her a few days before I knew the outcome of what that interview would be.

VAN SUSTEREN: It certainly is a terrible homicide. They're all terrible, but, I don't know, seeing that child skip is very difficult.

Jennifer, thank you very much.

WADSWORTH: Yes.

Content and Programming Copyright 2009 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2009 CQ Transcriptions, LLC, which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and CQ Transcriptions, LLC's copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.