A Maryland daughter who claimed to have observed her mother murdering her grandmother testified that the defendant used a chainsaw to break up the remains and burned them on a grill before starting a minor fire, which neighbors helped put out before firefighters arrived.
Candace Craig, 46, is on trial for the murder of her mother, Margaret Craig, 71. Salia Hardy, the defendant’s 21-year-old daughter charged with accessory after the fact to murder, testified against her mother on Wednesday as part of a plea arrangement with prosecutors, according to local The CW station WDCW.
Margaret Craig was assassinated on May 23, 2023, in her house near Hyattsville, a Washington, D.C. neighborhood. According to Hardy, she heard her grandma cry and her mother told her that something had fallen in the basement and she should not go into her grandmother’s room.
The next day, when she was alone at home, she went into the room and found her grandmother’s body in a bin, a trash bag over her head. Candace Craig did not tell her daughter what happened to her grandma, but she did say they needed to get rid of the DNA by “using acid, burning the boy, or chopping it up,” Hardy testified.
Days later, with grilling supplies purchased at Home Depot, including a can of gasoline, Craig began to burn her mother’s remains on the grill, attempting to cover the odor by also cooking chicken, but started a fire, prompting neighbors to arrive to help extinguish the flames and place a call to the fire department, Hardy testified. However, the corpse had not been discovered at that time.
The next morning, mother and daughter returned the remains inside after “having time to cool off,” Hardy told jurors, according to WDCW.
Craig slashed her mother with a chainsaw in the basement, her daughter testified. Authorities say the remains were put inside trash bags.
Officers discovered the remains while attending to the residence for a welfare check on June 2 after a “911 caller advised he had not communicated with Margaret Craig for several days and was worried for her welfare,” according to a press statement from the Prince George’s County Police Department.
“Candace Craig answered the door and allowed patrol officers access to the home to search for Margaret Craig,” according to the police. “When the officers entered the basement, they immediately smelled the odor of decomposition.”
Officers discovered blood and tissue on the floor, near three white plastic trash bags. One had what seemed to be brain matter. Authorities discovered a knife on the basement floor, as well as a chainsaw with human remains.
Dr. Pamela Ferreira, the Maryland Assistant Medical Examiner, said that investigators discovered 67 fragments of remains but not the entire body, according to local Fox affiliate WTTG. The corpses exhibited signs of being burnt and dismembered using a mechanical saw. According to the site, the death was declared a homicide by undetermined causes.