WINNIPEG — The theory of an alternate, unknown suspect being responsible for the murder of Candace Derksen highlighted week one of Mark Grant’s retrial for the crime.
Grant was convicted of killing Derksen in 2011 by a jury but that verdict was overturned and a retrial was ordered.
The jury in that trial was not allowed to hear evidence of an alternate suspect.
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During week one of Grant’s judge-alone trial, his lawyers introduced evidence pointing to that possibility.
A retired police officer was questioned about the connection between Derksen’s case and a reported abduction several months later.
According to the report of the 12-year-old female victim, she was taken by a single man while walking home from school on a Friday afternoon.
RELATED: Timeline of the 33 year long Candace Derksen case
She was taken to a boxcar close to where Derksen’s body was found. She was also tied up, like Derksen, though she was unharmed.
There was also the exact same kind of chewing gum found at both scenes.
A letter was also shown to the judge that was sent to CJOB radio host Peter Warren in 1987, two years after Derksen’s body was found frozen in an industrial storage shed.
The letter contained information that could’ve linked the author to the crime, argued Grant’s lawyer Saul Simmonds.
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That included a reference to her not being sexually assaulted, a fact not released to media that wasn’t “common knowledge” the court heard.
The retrial judge has yet to rule if this evidence of another suspect will be admissible and become part of her decision.
Crown prosecutors have spent the first week calling civilian and law enforcement witnesses including a friend of Derksen’s who was one of the last people to see her alive.
A statement from the man who found Derksen’s body inside the shed has passed away but his statement was read into the record as was a statement from Derksen’s mother, Wilma.
Several police officers testified about how evidence was collected from the scene in the 1980’s.
Next week, more technical and scientific evidence will be presented by the crown, including testimony from DNA experts and the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Derksen’s body.
The trial is slated to last for more than month.
