A judge has acquitted Mark Edward Grant in the second degree murder of Candace Derksen.
Grant, the Manitoba man accused of killing Derksen in 1984, was in court to hear the decision Wednesday.
Grant, 53, has been in jail since he was arrested in 2007 in connection to the young girl’s death.
“I am not satisfied…that the crown has proven Mr. Grant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Judge Karen Simonsen said in court.
In Simonsen’s 130 page written decision, she places a focus on the DNA evidence linking Grant to the murder.
“To summarize my assessment of the DNA evidence, I accept the testimony of the defence experts that the data and conclusions of Molecular World are seriously flawed.”
Molecular World was behind much of the DNA testing that eventually lead to the arrest of Grant in 2007.
While he was convicted in 2011, Grant was ordered a new trial largely on the basis of DNA.
DNA questioned
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During the retrial, Grant’s lawyer, Saul Simmonds, challenged the validity of DNA evidence the police used to connect Grant to Derksen’s death. He said the DNA tests on twine gathered at the murder scene in 1985 were flawed and contaminated and there is none left that can be re-tested.
He asked the judge to either throw out the evidence or release his client and end the retrial.
Dr. Frederick Bieber, a Harvard professor who specializes in DNA, worked with the FBI on American DNA standards and helped identify victims of the 9/11 attack. He testified as an expert witness in the trial earlier this year.
“There are so many problems in this case file that relate to the DNA testing performed that I would consider the results fatally flawed,” he said.
Bieber told the court he found so many different problems with how Thunder Bay lab Molecular World handled the case file that in his opinion the whole report and its conclusions had been undermined.
“It’s among the most egregious departures from proper lab practice that I think I’ve ever seen,” said Bieber.
Derksen, 13, disappeared after leaving school and walking to her Elmwood home in Winnipeg on Nov. 30, 1984. She was found weeks later bound with twine and frozen to death in a supply shed near her home.
Grant’s retrial started in January, without a jury this time, and closing arguments were wrapped up in May.
On Wednesday afternoon, a judge handed down her verdict.
“He should be released shortly and he obviously has a lot of time to catch up on and put his life back together,” Grant’s lawyer, Saul Simmonds said on the court’s footsteps.
Wilma and Cliff Derksen
“To tell you the truth, there was a bit of relief. I’m hoping the Crown doesn’t appeal,” Candace’s mother, Wilma Derksen said after the verdict was handed down. “In any case, we’re out of here. It’s been 33 years and this just means it’s over for us, the process is over.”
“Of course there was a bit of disappointment that it didn’t arrive at the conclusion that we had personally arrived at.”
In her blog on Tuesday, Derksen said she planned to light 33 candles in honour of the 13-year-old –a light for every year since she was killed.
“We’re going to light 33 candles and its going to burn and the wax is going to drip and somehow that is going to be important because this is about light, not cursing the darkness but creating the light,” Derksen said Wednesday.
But to get to this day, this new verdict, this decision… has been a long journey filled with old questions.
WATCH: Judge allows crucial DNA evidence to be used in Candace Derksen murder retrial
Alternate suspect theory
Grant’s lawyer also argued there was a similar abduction of a 12-year-old girl that occurred in 1985 after Derksen’s body was found. At the time, Grant was in jail for a break-in his lawyer argued.
The judge in Grant’s original trial did not allow his defence lawyer to present this evidence to the jury. This was one of the main reasons a retrial was ordered.
Grant’s lawyer said there are “a host” of connections between the Derksen crime scene and abduction and the one that happened in 1985.
They both occurred on Friday afternoons, the same gum wrappers were found at both scenes, she was found close to where Derksen’s body was located and there were no sexual assaults in either incident.
His lawyer said it’s possible someone else other than Grant was responsible for Derksen’s death.
WATCH: Mark Grant’s lawyer discusses new trial into 30-year-old murder
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