After failing to return home while walking home from school, thirteen-year-old Candace Derksen was reported missing on November 30, 1984. Seven weeks later, her frozen remains were found in a shed less than 500 metres from her home.
Following a lengthy police investigation, Winnipeg police announced a breakthrough on May 16, 2007-the arrest of Mark Edward Grant. In 2009, Grant was formally indicted on a first-degree murder charge. In January 2011, Grant went on trial for the first-degree murder of the Manitoba teen, a case that came down to duelling DNA experts.
On February 18, the seven man, five woman jury returned with the verdict after two and half days of deliberations. The jury did not find Grant guilty of first degree murder but of second degree murder instead. A second degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least ten years.
For the first time on March 21, the public had access to the police interrogation of Grant shortly after his arrest in May 2007. Now, twenty-six years after Derksen’s frozen remains were discovered, Global News takes a look at one of Manitoba’s most notorious murder cases.
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