Mother tried cooking chicken to cover up smell of grandma’s murdered body, daughter testifies

A Maryland daughter who allegedly witnessed the aftermath of her mother murdering her grandmother testified that the defendant used a chainsaw to cut up the remains and burned them on a grill before setting a small fire that neighbors helped put out before firefighters arrived.

Candace Craig, 46, is on trial for murdering her mother, Margaret Craig, 71. The defendant’s 21-year-old daughter Salia Hardy — charged with accessory after the fact to murder — testified on Wednesday against her mother as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, local The CW affiliate WDCW reported.

Margaret Craig was killed on May 23, 2023, at her home near Hyattsville, a Washington, D.C., suburb. Hardy reportedly testified she heard her grandmother scream and her mother told her something had fallen in the basement and not to go in her grandmother’s room. The following day, when she was home alone, she went into the room and discovered her grandmother’s body in a bin with a trash bag over her head. Candace Craig did not tell her daughter what happened to her grandmother but said they had to get rid of the DNA by “using acid, burning the boy or chopping it up,” Hardy testified, according to the outlet.

Days later, with grilling supplies bought at Home Depot, including a can of gasoline, Craig started to burn her mother’s remains on the grill — trying to cover the smell by also cooking chicken — but started a fire that prompted neighbors to arrive to help extinguish the flames and put out a call to the fire department, Hardy testified. But the body was not discovered then.

The following morning, mother and daughter brought the remains back inside after they “had time to cool off,” Hardy told jurors, WDCW reported.

Craig cut up her mother with a chainsaw in the basement, her daughter testified. The remains were stuffed in trash bags, authorities said.

Officers discovered the remains while responding to the home 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,” the Prince George’s County Police Department said in a press release.

“Candace Craig answered the door and allowed patrol officers access to the home to search for Margaret Craig,” police said. “When the officers entered the basement, they immediately smelled the odor of decomposition.”

Law&Crime previously reported that officers saw blood and tissue on the floor near three white plastic trash bags. One had what appeared to be brain matter. Authorities said they also found a knife on the basement floor and a chainsaw with human remains on it.

Maryland Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Pamela Ferreira testified that investigators found 67 segments of remains but not every piece of the body, local Fox affiliate WTTG reported. The remains showed evidence of being burned and dismembered by a mechanical saw. The death was ruled a homicide by undetermined means, the outlet reported.

Law&Crime’s Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.

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