WINNIPEG — Mark Grant is on trial for the second time in the killing of 13-year-old Winnipeg teen Candace Derksen in 1984. Here is a timeline of the decades-long case:
Nov. 30, 1984: Candace disappears on her way home from school.
Jan. 17, 1985: Her body is found in a storage shed near her house. She had been tied up and left to freeze to death.
2001: RCMP test the twine used to bind Derksen, as well as hair found at the scene, but results are inconclusive.
2007: A private lab, Molecular World in Thunder Bay, Ont., tests the twine and hair again.
May 16, 2007: Police charge Mark Grant, a man with a long criminal record, with first-degree murder.
Jan. 17, 2011: Grant's murder trial begins, 26 years to the day after Candace's body was found.
Feb. 18, 2011: Grant is found guilty of second-degree murder.
Oct. 30, 2013: The Manitoba Court of Appeal overturns Grant's conviction. It says the trial judge erred in not allowing the defence to present evidence that pointed to another possible killer —an unidentified man who tied up a 12-year-old girl in 1985 while Grant was in custody.
March 20, 2015: The Supreme Court of Canada upholds the Appeal Court ruling. The Crown announces later in 2015 it will seek a new trial against Grant.
Jan. 16, 2017: A second trial before judge alone begins for Grant on a charge of second-degree murder — one day shy of the 32nd anniversary of Candace's body being found.
The Canadian Press
