WINNIPEG – Exactly 32 years after Candace Derksen’s body was found in a Winnipeg industrial yard, the inside of a courtroom heard about the way police processed the scene.
Derksen was 13 when she went missing while walking home from school on Nov. 30, 1984.
READ MORE: Timeline of the 33 year long Candace Derksen case
Weeks later, on Jan. 17, 1985, her body was found frozen in a shed on an industrial property in Elmwood.
WATCH: Timeline of the decades long Candace Derksen case
On day two of Mark Grant’s retrial for the killing, court heard testimony from two retired Winnipeg police officers who processed the scene and moved the body.
Grant’s lawyer Saul Simmonds asked Allan questions about police procedure in the mid 1980’s.
Allan said there were no DNA protocols at that time and that neither he nor the officers who were at the scene wore masks to prevent spreading their own DNA.
RELATED: Candace Derksen murder case back in court, 30 years after she was found dead
Simmonds’ line of questioning highlighted how much more evolved protocols are now for officers around crime scenes.
“Back in the day, you were looking at fingerprints, fibres, hair samples where today you’re looking at DNA analysis, you’re looking at mapping the crime scene with GPS, the video that is also taken, the photographs,” explained Moe Sabourin, Winnipeg Police Association president.
“You look at today and you think could this technology have been available in this past, we may have solved a lot more crimes,” he continued.
DNA evidence was a crucial piece in Grant being charged with Derksen’s murder in 2007, more than 20 years after her body was found.
Grant was convicted by a jury in 2011 but the verdict was overturned after a lengthy appeal process.
RELATED: Candace Derksen’s family preparing for murder retrial more than 32 years after her death
His retrial for Derksen’s murder began on Monday. He is being tried by judge alone.
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