Remains believed to be those of Margaret Craig were discovered inside her basement. Photo / Candace Craig / Facebook
Remains believed to be those of Margaret Craig were discovered inside her basement. Photo / Candace Craig / Facebook
Warning: Contains disturbing content
Last summer, when Prince George’s County police officers asked Candace Craig about her missing mother, Craig told them she habitually ran away, an officer testified in court.
The two shared a home in the Landover, Maryland, area. Family members had reported to police that they hadn’t heard from her mother, 71-year-old Margaret Craig, in days, her family said.
Craig’s tale began to unravel as soon as police descended the steps leading into the basement of her home and smelled the distinctive odour of human remains. Officers found trash bags filled with the decomposing body parts of Margaret Craig. She had been burned, grilled and dismembered, according to court documents.
This week, Craig went on trial in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, where jurors will decide whether she is guilty of murder, tampering with physical evidence and disposing of a body in an unauthorised place. Her attorneys conceded that she lied to police, but insisted that does not make her guilty of murder, which requires prosecutors to prove she acted wilfully and deliberately. Prosecutors, meanwhile, cast the killing as cold-blooded and callous, with a grisly attempt at a cover-up.
Julia Hall, an assistant state’s attorney, said that around Memorial Day in May 2023, Candace Craig was supposed to be taking care of her ageing mother. Instead, Craig took advantage of Margaret Craig and killed her, pulling up the carpet from her bedroom and dumping it. Craig travelled back and forth to Home Depot to pick up supplies, including a chain saw, to dispose of her body, Hall said.
Candace Craig, 44, has been arrested on murder charges, accused of killing her mother during an argument, then trying to dispose of her body by cutting it up with a chainsaw and grilling the remains. Photo / Prince George's County Police Department
She even enlisted her daughter, Margaret Craig’s granddaughter, to help, Hall said.
“Candace took her own mother’s body, after murdering her, took her body to a wood line and tried to burn her,” Hall said.
Yahshuah Ford, one of Craig’s attorneys, asked jurors to be fair and impartial in their ruling.
“Reason must prevail over emotion,” Ford said. “Tampering with physical evidence is not murder. Unauthorised disposal is not murder.”
Police arrested Craig, 46, in June 2023. Prosecutors said the killing stemmed from an argument with her mother over fraudulent credit card charges. Craig was later indicted.
According to charging documents, on May 23, Salia Hardy, the daughter of Craig and granddaughter of Margaret Craig, overheard her grandmother threaten to report Craig to the police for fraudulent use of her credit card. Hardy, then 19, told police that Craig then attacked her mother.
The next day, Hardy found Margaret Craig’s remains in a blue bin in her grandmother’s bedroom. Afterward, Hardy and her mother “began to dismember the decedent with a chain saw and attempted to burn her remains on a grill and a fire to the rear of the residence,” according to the charging documents.
Hardy is charged with accessory after the fact. An attorney listed in online court records for Hardy could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Margaret Craig (left), 71, was killed in an unknown manner on May 23 after she allegedly threatened to report her daughter to the police for suspected credit card fraud. Photo / Candace Craig / Facebook
Prosecutors on Thursday showed the jury a smiling photo of Margaret Craig, affectionately known by family members as “Auntie Joyce,” seated on a couch next to a Christmas tree. She was from Trinidad and Tobago and loved Caribbean food.
Relatives knew something was wrong when Margaret Craig, who regularly spoke with them, wouldn’t return their calls. She was in fragile condition, having suffered from several strokes and was on medication, her nephew testified in court. She could also no longer drive.
Around May 21, the nephew messaged Craig to ask whether her mother was okay. Craig responded that she hadn’t heard from her, he said. Then, on May 31, about a week since he’d last heard from Margaret Craig, the nephew awoke from a deep sleep. He had dreamed something bad had happened to her – and he needed to get to her house right away, he said.
Margaret Craig’s car was in the driveway on Hill Rd and the windows of the home were open with the screens down in the summer heat when he arrived. Her nephew knocked on the door repeatedly to no answer and was later joined by other relatives, he said.
At the same time, he messaged Craig, “I’m on the phone with the police. They are doing a wellness check,” according to a message shown in court. “Sorry to scare you but this is not normal.”
Craig responded with a thumbs-up.
Candace’s daughter, 19-year-old Salia Hardy, has been charged with accessory after the fact for allegedly helping her get rid of her grandmother’s body parts. Photo / Prince George's County Police Department
When Craig eventually came to the door, she told her family that Margaret Craig had gone to a friend’s place and that she would go to the police once 72 hours had passed. Police officers arrived at the home as well, the nephew said.
“I’ll give it to Friday to see if she pops up, then I’ll report her,” Craig said to a responding officer, body-cam footage showed. “I’m hoping she’ll just come.” The officer left to respond to another call, he testified.
But by then, on June 2, someone had already gone to a police station to report Margaret Craig missing, according to prosecutors and charging documents.
Craig welcomed the officers at her door and allowed them to come in to check the home, body-cam footage showed.
