DNA evidence in retrial of accused in Winnipeg teen’s death flawed: defence
WINNIPEG — The lawyer for a man accused of killing a teenaged girl in Winnipeg three decades ago told court Thursday the Crown’s evidence is deeply, fatally flawed.
In his closing arguments, Saul Simmonds said DNA samples the Crown has used against Mark Edward Grant are so tiny as to be infinitesimal, and could be from one of the many people who had visited the industrial shed where Candace Derksen’s frozen body was found with her hands and feet bound with twine in January 1985.
“There were numerous people who entered that shed,” Simmonds said, referring to workers at the industrial site, police officers and others.
“We know that certain people touched the twine … there were dozens of people in this (investigative) process.”