Candice Derksen, of Winnipeg, vanished while walking home from school on Nov. 30th, 1984. She had attended the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate in East Kildonan. Her frozen body was finally found with her hands bound with twine to her ankles in a two by three meter supply shed. The cause of death: exposure.
At the time, Mark Edward Grant was not even considered a suspect. His fourteen-year-old girlfriend, a run-away at the time, had called the police. She told them she was sure she had seen Candice Derksen walk out of a convenience store on Talbot Avenue. Mark Edward Grant and his young girlfriend spent a couple of nights in the earthy shed previous to this horrific incident. However, the girlfriend recanted her story later on in court.
Twenty-six years later, the police charged Grant with first-degree murder.
A trial, which was expected to last six-weeks, gave hope to the suspect. Possibly, there was one in a thousandth chance for redemption. Especially, sitting alongside his feisty lawyer who fought each fiber of evidence. Six or seven strands of hair, intertwined in the twine, which Grant used to bind his victim, later evidenced his guilt. The DNA testing proved the hairs belonged to Grant.
Back in 1984, there were no labs nearby to investigate simple bits of clues with DNA testing or the use of forensic science. However, these tiniest bits of evidence were kept on file. A few years ago, the cold-case crime unit started up in Winnipeg. Even though the hairs were old, and possibly frayed, the slim evidence was sent to Thunder Bay, where the DNA testing could be done. With the results, Grant was charged with first-degree murder. The jury, however, came up with a second-degree murder charge. At least one of the jury members must have not been quite satisfied to pound a first-degree murder charge on Grant.
The press, due to information from the hearing, said that Candice Derksen did not suffer. She was not raped. In spite of this, anger riles in my temples, when I hear such cynicism.
How could she not have suffered?
First, Candice Derksen is grabbed by a young man in his early twenties, and forced into a freezing shed just 500 metres from her home.
- There, she is bound with twine, and abandoned.
- She probably screamed, but to no avail. The shed sat in a brickyard, and was rarely used.
- She was 13 years-of-age, with her whole life ahead of her, including dreams and visions for her future.
- The nightmare finally ended in her death. A child faced death alone in an extremely cold, dark shed.
In my opinion, she suffered more than we could ever know. Imagine yourself in her position! And what about the parents and other close family members?
There could be absolutely no closure until twenty-six years later. How hard must that have been? And to add insult to injury, the parents had to re-live the brutal memory over again.
Then, after all this time someone dares to declare, “She didn’t suffer”. Maybe this statement, somehow relieved the parents, but I found this statement appalling.
Source:
CBCnews "Winnipeg Man Convicted in Derksen Death." cbc.ca Feb 19, 2011
