Candace Craig, on the left, Salia Hardy, on the right, and Margaret Craig, inset. (Prince George’s County Police Department; Screengrab via WRC-TV)
The death of a grandmother in Maryland last month is far more gruesome than initially known, as evidenced by the charging documents in the murder case against the victim’s own daughter. Margaret Craig, 71, was killed by unknown – and maybe unknowable – means on May 23, but there’s evidence that a chainsaw and a barbecue grill were involved and evidence of motive, authorities in Prince George’s County say.
Candace Craig, 44, stands accused of murder in the first and second degrees over the slaying, which police believe was motivated by the elder Craig discovering and threatening to report her daughter “for fraudulent use of her credit card,” detectives wrote in statements of probable cause obtained by Law&Crime.
Those allegations against the younger Craig come by way of the defendant’s own daughter, Salia Hardy, 19, the charging documents allege. Hardy, who is charged with accessory after the fact for both counts of murder against her mother, allegedly told police about the initial attack being fueled by those credit card fraud allegations.
On the next day, Hardy allegedly continued, she came home and “discovered [her grandmother’s] remains in a blue bin in her bedroom.”
By this time, Candace Craig was allegedly able to enlist her daughter into helping her cover up the crime and the two “began to dismember the [grandmother] with a chainsaw,” the police report says. Then, the pair allegedly tried to “burn her remains on a grill and a fire.”
Days later, a male relative began to wonder. He called 911 last Friday and said he “had not communicated with Margaret Craig for several days and was worried for her welfare,” the charging document says.
Officers showed up at the house on Hill Road in Landover just after 1:30 p.m. and the missing woman’s daughter answered the door. She allegedly allowed them inside the residence to conduct a search.
“When the officers entered the basement, they immediately smelled the odor of decomposition,” police alleged in a weekend press release.
The charging documents include even more macabre details.
“Upon entering the basement, officers immediately recognized the smell of putrefaction and observed blood and tissue on the floor near three white plastic trash bags,” the documents say. “Officers observed in an open trash bag what appeared to be brain matter.”
Margaret Craig’s body was finally found, law enforcement allege, cut into pieces, stuffed in trash bags in the basement of her own home.
A knife was found on the basement floor, police allege. An initial search of the residence also turned up a chainsaw cover, “cutting utensils, cleaning materials, and blood spatter throughout the basement where the bags of human remains were located,” the charging documents say.
Later, after conducting a warrant-authorized search, police allegedly recovered several items said to be relevant to the case, including “a chainsaw with human remains on it.”
A witness also approach law enforcement at the scene of the crime and said that on May 27 they saw the mother and daughter near “a small fire in the brush” behind the house “burning what they believed to be human remains.” Police later located the burn site.
The granddaughter allegedly waived her Miranda rights to implicate her mother in the crime; the mother, however, denied any involvement whatsoever, the charging documents note.
According to D.C.-based NBC affiliate WRC-TV, both Craig and Hardy denied the allegations against them during a Monday hearing.
They were both ordered held without bond.
“To say it’s disturbing is an understatement,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said at a press conference this week. “It’s horrifying.”
Prosecutors reportedly said the state of the victim’s body will make it a challenge for an autopsy to determine exactly how she died.
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