CANADA • Candace DERKSEN, 13 (1984) ~ Winnipeg MB

Trial starts in 1980s Winnipeg schoolgirl death
Hearings begin on 26th anniversary of discovery of girl's body
January 17, 2011 | 7:04 AM CST


Mark Edward Grant's first-degree murder trial in the Winnipeg
death of Candace Derksen begins Monday. (CBC)

A first-degree murder trial for a man accused in one of Manitoba's most notorious homicide cases began Monday in a Winnipeg courtroom.

Mark Edward Grant, 46, has pleaded not guilty to killing schoolgirl Candace Derksen more than 20 years ago.

Derksen's mother, Wilma, told CBC News on Monday that the trial is "an unbelievable gift" because the family always wanted to know what happened and why.

They have always tried to find meaning in Derksen's death, rather than fight for justice, Wilma said.

"It's the big question: what happened? And why? Why Candace?" she said.

"I don't know if we'll ever have any of these answered, but I think it's the quest for knowledge and understanding right now that will keep me going."

Derksen was 13 when she vanished while walking to her East Kildonan home from the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate on the afternoon of Nov. 30, 1984.

Her disappearance triggered a massive search that ended on Jan. 17, 1985, when her body was found — wrapped in blankets and with hands and feet bound — in a rarely used supply shed near the Nairn Overpass.

Police said she died of exposure but considered her death a homicide.

The shed where the body was found was less than half a kilometre from the Derksen family home.

Despite an intensive police investigation at the time, the case languished until the file was assigned to a newly formed cold case unit within the Winnipeg Police Service in 2006.

Investigators reviewed the file and garnered new leads resulting in Grant's arrest in May 2007. He was committed to stand trial in the Court of Queen's Bench in the fall of 2009.

Wilma said she never expected to see this day after the case went cold.

"We gave up hope almost immediately because there just didn't seem to be any clues — nothing, nothing made sense to us," she said. "I think one, two years [after Derksen's death] we gave up hope of ever knowing.

"So this is just amazing that we even have hope of knowing anything."

No testimony is expected in the first few days of the six-week-long trial as Crown and defence lawyers argue several preliminary motions in the absence of jurors.

A publication ban prohibits the publication of any information given at those hearings.

The teen's mysterious disappearance sent ripples of fear through the city, and later waves of grief through her family after her body was discovered.

In its wake, Wilma began advocating for greater resources for families of missing kids. She also wrote books on her family's search for answers.


Death prompts creation of safety agency

Wilma started a program called Child Find Manitoba that expanded onto the national stage, later becoming the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

The national child safety organization's stated goal is to reduce child victimization by providing programs and services to the Canadian public.

Derksen's memory looms large in the work the centre does, its executive director said.

"Candace is absolutely interwoven in all aspects of our work," said Lianna McDonald.

"Because of her case, we have evolved into the important charitable organization that we are today."

Wilma has been actively observing the legal process ever since charges were laid.

She told CBC News she's just anxious for the truth to come out, but she's also nervous.

"It isn't easy, but I think above all … I am a mother and this is about Candace. I have to be here; I don't think I have a choice," Wilma said.

"She is here, too, in spirit. So I want to be with her."

When the court proceedings end, there's one final thing Wilma feels she has to do.

"I want to visit Candace's grave and just close it, no matter what happens."


Timeline of the Candace Derksen case

* Nov. 13, 1984 — Candace Derksen, 13, fails to arrive at home after school. A missing persons report is filed and police and community members begin actively searching for her.
* Jan. 17, 1985 — Derksen's body is found in a shed less than 500 metres from her home. A homicide investigation is opened and police begin interviewing potential suspects. No arrests are made.
* April 1995 — Wilma Derksen incorporates Child Find Manitoba. The group provides services to families that didn't exist when Candace disappeared.
* 2006 — The homicide probe is turned over to a new Winnipeg police unit investigating cold cases. Police say new leads are established and pursued and the investigation is given the official title of Project Angel.
* May 25, 2006 — The Canadian Centre for Child Protection is formed.
* May 16, 2007 — Winnipeg police Chief Jack Ewatski and Insp. Tom Legge announce the arrest of Mark Edward Grant.
* Aug. 24, 2009 — Grant pleads not guilty and his preliminary hearing begins in provincial court.
* Sept. 15, 2009 — Grant is formally indicted on a charge of first-degree murder. He remains in custody.
* Jan. 6, 2011 — 12 jurors and two alternates are selected for Grant's trial.
* Jan. 17, 2011 — Grant's trial begins, 26 years to the day after Derksen's body was found.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2011/01/16/man-trial-derksen-grant-day-one-advancer.html#ixzz1BM0ZrQ2x

********** **********

Derksen murder trial to start
January 19, 2011

Prosecutors are set to open their case Thursday against a man accused of killing Candace Derksen 26 years ago.

Mark Edward Grant, 46, is charged with first-degree murder.

Derksen’s parents were in court Monday and Tuesday as prosecutors and defence lawyers argued preliminary matters in the absence of the jury. The proceedings are protected by a publication ban and cannot be disclosed until the trial is concluded.

Derksen, 13, disappeared while walking home from Mennonite Brethren Collegiate on Nov. 30, 1984, sparking a massive search effort.

The search ended Jan. 17, 1985, when an Alsip’s Industrial Products employee found Derksen’s frozen body in a rarely used tool shed near the Nairn Avenue overpass, about 500 metres from her home. Her hands and feet were bound behind her back, making it impossible for her to escape. She died of exposure.

The Crown is expected to call 34 witnesses during the six-week trial, including three DNA scientists.
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/winnipeg/2011/01/18/16941426.html

********** **********

DNA to be key factor in 26-year-old murder case
January 20, 2011

WINNIPEG - It's been 26 years since Candace Derksen was left to die in a tool shed on a cold Winnipeg night.

But the passage of time doesn't mean the case against her accused killer is a complex one, a jury was told Thursday.

"The evidence is fairly straight-forward," Crown attorney Mike Himmelman said in his opening address to jurors in the first-degree murder trial of Mark Grant.

Derksen, 13, disappeared while walking home from Mennonite Brethren Collegiate on Nov. 30, 1984. Her frozen body was discovered Jan. 17, 1985 in a tool shed at Alsip's Industrial Products, near the Nairn Avenue overpass.

Himmelman alleged Derksen was still alive when Grant bound her hands and ankles together behind her back and abandoned her in the tool shed. The temperature that night dropped to -25 C.

Because Derksen died while being confined, her death is first-degree murder, Himmelman told jurors. He alleged Grant's DNA was found on the twine used to bind Derksen's limbs. Several hairs found at the scene were later identified as belonging to Grant, Himmelman said.

Read more...
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2011/01/20/16970196.html


Jury hears evidence in schoolgirl murder trial
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2011/01/20/mb-derksen-murder-trial-jury-winnipeg.html

********** ***********

Winnipeg schoolgirl died painlessly, court told
January 21, 2011 | 2:16 PM CST

Candace Derksen died painlessly within 24 hours of the time she entered the brickyard shed where her body was found 26 years ago, Manitoba's former chief medical examiner testified Friday.

"She lost consciousness pretty fast, but it may have taken hours before she died," Dr. Peter Markesteyn said at the trial of Mark Edward Grant.

Grant, 47, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly abducting the 13-year-old girl on her way home from school Nov. 30, 1984, and leaving her bound hand to foot in the shed where she froze to death.

Markesteyn said in such cases the organs in the human body cease to function and eventually the heart stops, but long before that happens victims lose consciousness. "There is no pain sensation whatsoever," he said.


The supply shed near the Nairn Overpass where Candace Derksen's frozen body was found on Jan. 17, 1985.

Manitoba's chief medical examiner from 1982 to 1999, Markesteyn said he performed approximately 10,000 autopsies during his career. After he retired he worked for the United Nations and travelled to the former Yugoslavia to investigate war crimes.

He said he found no major injuries on Derksen's body and no signs she had been sexually assaulted.

"This child was otherwise healthy … I certified the death as a result of hypothermia as a result of exposure."

Derksen was wearing a light jacket and jeans when she left home that day in 1984, but overnight the temperature plunged to – 25 C.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2011/01/21/mb-derksen-murder-trial-dna-winnipeg.html#ixzz1Bj0ifoSc

**********
Last Updated: Friday, January 21, 2011 | 7:52 PM CST

Schoolgirl's last contacts testify at murder trial

The last people who saw and spoke to Candace Derksen before the 13-year-old disappeared over 26 years ago testified at a murder trial Friday in Winnipeg, describing how she was seeking a ride home from school.

The schoolgirl's body was found, bound and frozen, in an industrial area in January 1985. Mark Edward Grant. 47, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

David Wiebe, a schoolmate and friend of the teen, recounted how, on the day that Derksen disappeared — Nov. 30, 1984 — they had engaged in a playful snowball fight. He said he also apologized to her because he didn't have a driver's licence and couldn't give her a lift home.

Wiebe said Derksen told him it was not a big deal and she was just going to walk home.

The trial also learned, through a statement provided by Derksen's mother, about two very brief phone calls the girl made the same day.

Wilma Derksen outlined how the day had begun normally, with her daughter heading off to school. Candace called home in the afternoon to see if a family shopping excursion — one of her favourite activities — was likely that day and whether she could get a ride home.

Her mother explained that, with two younger children underfoot at home, she couldn't make it and Candace's father was also not able to get her, so the girl would have to walk home. It was the last conversation between mother and daughter.

Grant was arrested and charged in May 2007 and committed in the fall of 2009 to stand trial in the Court of Queen's Bench.

The trial continues Monday.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2011/01/21/mb-derksen-trial-last-contacts-110121.html#ixzz1BjnECeTg

**********

Sadness, gaps on journey to justice
A day of mixed emotions for girl's bereaved parents

It was a day they feared might never come. And one they couldn't wait to end.

Such were the mixed emotions experienced Thursday by Cliff and Wilma Derksen, whose 13-year-old daughter, Candace, was abducted and killed in one of Winnipeg's most notorious mysteries.

Now, 26 years later, the couple had a front-row seat as Mark Edward Grant's first-degree murder trial began.

"It was hard today. I lost it in the morning," Wilma said. "It just brings back all the emotion of the day. The horror that Candace would have gone through."

Grant, 47, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He was arrested in May 2007 based on new DNA examination of evidence collected at the scene.

"Sitting in that courtroom, it just felt real good that justice was happening," Wilma said outside court. "It brought validity to the seriousness of the crime. After all, at one point, they thought this was a prank."

Read more...
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/sadness-gaps-on-journey-to-justice-114349454.html

********** **********
Trial into schoolgirl death enters 2nd week
January 24, 2011

snipped...

The seven-man, five-woman jury has heard she briefly spoke to a schoolmate outside the school and stopped at a Talbot Avenue convenience store to call home from the store's phone.

A former school friend and his mother also spotted Derksen as they drove by her in the street, jurors heard.

"We both waved and she waved back at us," Adis Abdi, who would have been 12 at the time, said.
Calls made from store

Jurors were also given a copy of a statement from Wilma Derksen, Candace's mother, which described the day she disappeared as "normal" up until she was late coming home from school.

The statement said she received two calls minutes apart from her daughter after classes that afternoon.

"'Hi Mom,'" Wilma Derksen stated Candace said in the first call. "And then she giggled."

Candace had asked for a ride but circumstances prevented either Wilma or her husband from picking her up.

"She definitely didn't seem upset at not getting a ride," Wilma's statement said.

When Candace didn't come home, Wilma said she drove to her school and then returned home again to phone friends to see if she was with one of them. By mid-evening, the girl was still missing and police were called.

The shed where she was eventually found seven weeks later was less than 500 metres from the Derksen family home.

The man who found her, then an employee at the company that owned the shed, has been unable to testify due to medical reasons. The Crown read a statement from him into the record on Friday.

"I thought it was a doll," the man told police upon finding Derksen lying fully clothed.

She was wrapped in blankets on the shed's dirt floor, her hands and ankles bound with twine.

The man then realized it was too big to be a doll, the statement said. He went back to the office to tell his boss what he found, court heard. Police were then called.

Read more

********** **********

Candace Derksen murder trial hears from owner of property where body was discovered
January 27, 2011

The Candace Derksen trial continued on Monday, hearing testimony from the owner of a property in Elmwood where Derksen's body was found.

Derksen, 13, disappeared while walking home from school in November of 1984. Her frozen body was found in the shed weeks later.

Wayne Alsip testified on Monday that he called 911 after an employee came and told him he thought there was a body in a shed on Alsip's property on Jan. 17, 1985.

He then went to the shed, where he saw Derksen's frozen body, covered with a parka, Alsip testified.

Defence lawyer Saul Simmonds questioned Alsip about the parka, which Simmonds said wasn't taken into evidence by police.

Read more

----------------
DNA evidence under scrutiny in Derksen murder trial
January 27, 2011

The issue of DNA evidence formed the focus of testimony in the Candace Derksen murder trial on Thursday.

Mark Edward Grant has pleaded not guilty to the charge of first-degree murder in the death of 13-year-old Candace Derksen, who disappeared on her way home from school in 1984 and was found dead weeks later in January 1985.

Retired RCMP inspector Donald Ogilvie began testifying Thursday about his extensive experience in 1985 working with the hair and fibers evidence section of the RCMP in Winnipeg.

Last week, the Crown argued that Mark Edward Grant's DNA was found on the twine and said seven of his hairs were found at the crime scene.

Ogilvie testified he was presented with evidence from the shed where Candace Derksen was found during the investigation.

He examined the evidence, including machinery and logs from the shed and items of Derksen's clothing for hair and fibers, mounting the hairs he found on microscope slides.

More than 20 years later, the condition of the slides is very different from how he left them, Ogilvie testified.

Ogilvie said that the sticky material he had used to mount the hairs on the slides had dried out and in some cases, parts of the hairs were sticking out of the slides, with more hairs present than there appeared to be in 1985.

Read more

********** **********

Accused was living with girlfriend when Candace Derksen disappeared, court hears
January 28, 2011

Around the time Candace Derksen went missing, the man accused of her murder had walked away from police custody and was living with his 14-year-old girlfriend, court heard on Friday.

Mark Grant was 21-years-old when 13-year-old Derksen went missing in 1984. She was found dead weeks later.

Grant is charged with first degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.

At his trial on Friday, jurors heard from witnesses who knew Grant at the time. Two former friends of Grant were the first witnesses who testified about knowing him personally.

William Crockford testified that he lived on Talbot Avenue in an apartment attached to the Redi Mart where Derksen was seen on the day she disappeared.

Grant was a friend who would sometimes stay over at the apartment, where many people would often gather to drink at parties that would last for days, Crockford said.

"Usually, if we'd go to the bar, we'd invite the bar back," Crockford said in court.

Crockford testified that Grant was dating 14-year-old Audrey Manulak.

Manulak, whose last name is now Fontaine, was the next witness to testify Friday.

Fontaine said that she met Mark in 1984 when she was 14-years-old. She ran away from home three times that year and on one of those occasions she lived with Grant.

Fontaine could not recall the exact dates that she lived with Grant. However, she testified that it was while Grant had escaped from police custody in late 1984.

Crown attorney Brian Bell told the jury that Grant was in custody in 1984 and that he was taken to hospital and from there he walked away.

Fontaine testified that a while Grant was away from custody, he called her at her mother's home and they met up.

Then, she ran away and stayed with Grant for one or two nights in a place she described as "a hole in the ground."

Fontaine described the place they stayed as a concrete dugout near the train yards around Main Street and Higgens Avenue. She said it was underground, with a ladder that led down into a concrete space where Grant stayed and kept personal items, including a hotplate and a ghetto blaster.

Read more

Candace Derksen Case

...............
............................................................................ ..........Mark Edward Grant - guilty

Guilty verdict in 1984 schoolgirl murder
February 18, 2011

WINNIPEG - After 26 years, a five-week trial and three days of tension-filled deliberations, Wilma and Cliff Derksen finally know who killed their daughter Candace.

Before a courtroom packed with relatives, friends and media, jurors convicted Mark Edward Grant of second-degree murder.

"We never thought there would be any resolution to that mystery of 26 years," Wilma told a throng of reporters late Friday night outside court. "We're totally amazed."


Wilma and Cliff Derksen outside the courtroom
after Mark Grant was found guilty of second degree murder in the
death of Candace Derksen more than twenty years ago.
(Chris Procaylo, QMI Agency)

Candace, 13, disappeared while walking home from Mennonite Brethren Collegiate on Nov. 30, 1984. Her frozen body was discovered six weeks later in a tool shed at Alsip's Industrial Products, near the Nairn Avenue overpass. Her wrists and ankles had been tied behind her back with twine.

Grant, 47, stood trial charged with first-degree murder. The second-degree verdict suggests jurors did not believe Grant planned to kill Candace.

Wilma said a second-degree murder conviction was no less satisfying. "I think the jury was tremendously courageous in their decision," she said. "They did a fantastic job in putting that all together."

Wilma said the trial answered questions about Candace's last hours that have remained a mystery for decades.

"It's amazing to me how healing those answers are," she said. "The way the story has come together has completed us in a way I never expected. We are starting afresh. The last five weeks have changed us in a good way. I'm calling it my million-dollar therapy."

The case against Grant hinged on DNA connected to seven hairs found at the murder scene and on the twine used to bind Derksen's limbs -- DNA the Crown said positively linked Grant to the killing.

Defence lawyer Saul Simmonds argued Grant was the victim of sloppy science and evidence contamination.

At the same time Simmonds was arguing the Crown couldn't prove Grant's DNA was found at the crime scene he provided seemingly innocent explanations for how it could have been left there. Simmonds said there was no evidence to prove Grant never worked at Alsip's or that he might have handled the twine while making sandbags for flood relief.

Crown attorney Brian Bell urged jurors to ignore such "red herrings."

"Please don't speculate on what you don't know, focus on what you do know," Bell said Wednesday in his closing address to jurors.

Saturday, the Derksens will visit Candace's gravesite.

"We'll lay down roses and we are going to cry again and we are going to move on. Start something new. Start a new life," Wilma said.

Jurors deliberating Grant's fate did so with no knowledge of his violent criminal past, which included three convictions for rape in the past 23 years.

Grant will be sentenced at a later date to life in prison. The only question to decide is when he will be eligible for parole.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2011/02/18/17336496.html


http://www.justice4caylee.org/t8931p105-canada-cases

********** **********

Girl in rail car told eerie tale
Was found bound, but later recanted kidnapping claim
February 19, 2011



Jurors were not allowed to hear testimony from a Winnipeg woman who claimed in 1985 she was kidnapped by a stranger in eerily similar fashion to Candace Derksen -- then recanted the story 26 years later.

Queen's Bench Justice Glenn Joyal made the pivotal legal ruling one day before Mark Grant's first-degree murder trial began last month. It can now be reported publicly for the first time because jurors have rendered a verdict in the case against Grant.

Defence lawyer Saul Simmonds had filed a motion to put a woman on the witness stand, believing it would prove Grant was innocent of killing Candace. That's because Grant was in custody on other charges at the time the woman, just 12 years old in 1985, was allegedly attacked, meaning he couldn't possibly be responsible for either crime if there was indeed a proven link.

She was discovered by a bystander in the fall of 1985 lying inside an empty railway car on Gateway Road in East Kildonan. She was screaming "Mommy, Mommy," her wrists and legs were bound and there was a plastic shopping bag put over her head. The then-12-year-old told police an unknown man had abducted her around 4 p.m. on a Friday as she left Valley Gardens Junior High School to walk home.

Police were immediately on high alert, considering 13-year-old Candace had been snatched from her East Kildonan school around 4 p.m. on a Friday in November 1984, only to be found frozen and bound inside an industrial storage shed in January 1985.

The distance between where Candace and the other girl were found was approximately five kilometres. There were Wrigley gum packages found at both scenes, a connection police were quick to make note of. Even the knot used to tie up the girl's arms with plastic tubing was noted to be similar to the one found on the twine around Candace's arms.

"These are the kinds of similarities which should be called into court. Is (the gum wrapper) potentially a signature? The police certainly thought so," Simmonds argued on Jan. 19. "We're talking about someone who would have to be a 12-year-old genius to create this kind of copycat situation."

Investigators went so far as to take the girl to a memorial service for Candace to have her scan the crowd for their potential attacker in case he was soaking in the public grief. She also gave a detailed description of the man and his vehicle, which led to a composite sketch being created.

READ MORE

********** **********

Derksen murder conviction to be appealed
February 21, 2011


Mark Edward Grant, 47, was convicted of second-degree murder in connection to the death of Candace Derksen, 13.

Mark Edward Grant is planning to appeal his conviction in connection to the death of Winnipeg schoolgirl Candace Derksen.

"You can count on it," Grant's defence lawyer, Saul Simmonds, told CBC News on Monday.

He said the appeal can only happen after the sentencing process, set for next month, has been completed.

"The jury has left [Grant] very disappointed in their verdict. Obviously, from our perspective, the matter will have to go further," Simmonds said.


The supply shed near the Nairn Overpass where Candace
Derksen's frozen body was found on Jan. 17, 1985. (CBC)

After an emotional and at times complex five-week trial, a jury weighed the evidence for two days before convicting Grant, 47, of second-degree murder on Friday evening.

He faced a first-degree murder charge, but the seven-man, five-woman jury found him not guilty in favor of convicting him of the lesser offence.

Derksen was found hog-tied and frozen to death on the dirt floor of a rarely-used supply shed in a brickyard about 500 metres from her family home on Jan. 13, 1985.

She vanished off the street while walking home from school on Nov. 30, 1984. Her disappearance triggered a massive community search, and struck fear into the hearts of many that a predator was on the loose.

Derksen's death remained a public mystery until May 2007 when police came forward with new forensic evidence linking Grant to the murder scene.

Jurors did not make a recommendation to the court about when he may be eligible for parole.

The second-degree murder conviction carries with it no chance of parole for a minimum of 10 years, but the court could elect to raise that as high as 25 years.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2011/02/21/mb-appeal-derksen-murder-verdict-grant-winnipeg.html

********** **********

Mark Edward Grant to be sentenced April 27 for freezing death of Winnipeg teen
March 10, 2011

WINNIPEG - A man convicted in the freezing death of a Winnipeg teen in 1984 is to be sentenced April 27.

Mark Edward Grant was found guilty by a Queen's Bench jury last month after a trial that focused on DNA evidence.

A life sentence is mandatory for second-degree murder.

It will be up to chief Justice Glenn Joyal to set the number of years Grant will have to serve before he is eligible for parole.

Candace Derksen was just 13 and on her way home from school in November 1984 when she disappeared.

Her frozen body was found six weeks later in a brickyard shed.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/mark-edward-grant-to-be-sentenced-april-27-for-freezing-death-of-winnipeg-teen-117742833.html

Schoolgirl killer showed 'unspeakable cruelty'
May 26, 2011


Mark Edward Grant was sentenced to 25 years without
parole for leaving Candace Derksen in a shed (above) to die.

Mark Edward Grant must serve at least 25 years in prison for the 1984 murder of 13-year-old Candace Derksen, a judge has ruled.

Grant showed "unspeakable cruelty" when he hog-tied the girl and left her to die in a tool shed on a cold winter night nearly 27 years ago, said Justice Glenn Joyal.

Grant, 47, was convicted of second-degree murder following a jury trial last February.

He showed no change in emotion Thursday as he was led out of court in handcuffs.

The mandatory sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. Defence lawyer Saul Simmonds had argued Grant should serve no more than 14 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

Simmonds said Grant had a troubled upbringing marked by both physical and sexual abuse. He said Grant was a law-abiding citizen in the 18 months prior to his May 2007 arrest.


Joyal said he could not ignore Grant's lengthy criminal record, which included multiple acts of aggression and violence.

"That record does not entitle him to leniency," Joyal said.

Grant has already spent more than 20 years behind bars. Crown attorney Brian Bell quoted from a number of prison and psychiatric reports from the past two decades which described Grant as a violent offender "committed to ensuring his own gratification." Grant has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and often refuses to take his medication because "it interferes with his sexual functioning," said one report.

Another report said Grant has "an entrenched anger against people, women in particular." The same report quotes Grant as saying "Women are all the same, they deserve to be treated like dirt."

Derksen was 13 when she disappeared while walking home from Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute on Nov. 30, 1984. Her frozen body, with her wrists and ankles tied with twine, was discovered six weeks later in a tool shed near an overpass.

Outside court, Candace's mother, Wilma, said she had "conflicted" feelings about the sentence.

"We grieve," she said. "This is putting another life away, and this doesn't bring Candace back."

Grant is expected to appeal.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2011/05/26/18198886.html