Do California police have a lead in the tragic death of little Sandra Cantu?

After the body of the eight-year-old girl was found stuffed in a suitcase in the Northern California town of Tracy, news came today that authorities have honed in on a nearby church. ABC News reports that police seached The Clover Road Baptist Church and Pastor Lane Lawless was interviewed for about three hours. Lawless lives in the same trailer park that Sandra did and his granddaughter often played with the second-grader. But police aren’t calling Lawless a suspect, and insisted hundreds of people are being interviewed.

The pastor’s wife, Connie Lawless, told ABC7 in San Francisco that they are cooperating. "Well, they took the usual stuff, phone, computers, things of that nature," when police searched their home. "We were very open to them taking anything they wanted to take."

Authorities also searched Sandra’s home for clues. "Investigators are looking at additional information they received since yesterday (Monday) and, hopefully, that will lead us to Sandra’s killers," Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told CNN.

Many in the close-knit town of Tracy have been crushed by the horrendous crime. And, sadly, while the killer remains at large, most are also gripped with fear, and sometimes looking twice at the neighbors they thought they knew so well.

"You don’t know your neighbors," Penny Morgado, a 64-year-old retiree who lives in Sandra’s trailer park, told The San Francisco Chronicle. "You only know what they want you to know."