John Jefferson
Left inset: Candace Craig (Prince George’s County Police Department). Right inset: Margaret Craig (WRC/YouTube). Background: The home where Margaret Craig was killed (WDCW/YouTube).
A Maryland woman is heading to prison for killing and dismembering her 71-year-old mother with a chain saw — later blaming it on her daughters — in a case that left prosecutors at a loss for words Wednesday during her sentencing hearing.
“This happens in movies and books, not in real life,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Shauna Coleman, with the Prince Georges County State’s Attorney’s Office, according to The Washington Post. “The fact that she would do this to her own children … her own mother, is beyond the realm of words.”
Candace Craig, 46, not only murdered and chopped up her elderly mom Margaret Craig on May 23, 2023, at her home near Hyattsville — apparently over a credit card dispute — but she also tried burning her body on a grill with help from her daughter, Salia Hardy, who was charged and pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder. The pair also cooked up some chicken on the grill to try and cover up the smell of Margaret Craig’s burning flesh, according to prosecutors.
Hardy, 21, has learning disabilities that make her more susceptible to being coerced, per her lawyer.
Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Karen Mason described Craig’s actions Wednesday as “something so unimaginable” while sentencing her to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Coleman refused to share the gory details out of respect for the victim.
“I would instead like to preserve the memory of Margaret Craig,” Coleman reportedly said.
Last October, Hardy testified against her mother as part of her plea agreement, local CW affiliate WDCW reported.
She reportedly claimed that 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. 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 body or chopping it up,” Hardy testified, according to WDCW.
Days later, with grilling supplies — including a can of gasoline — bought at Home Depot, Craig started to burn her mother’s remains on the grill, but she instead started a fire that prompted neighbors to arrive to help extinguish the flames and put out a call to the fire department, Hardy testified. The body was not discovered until later though.
The following morning, Craig and Hardy brought the remains back inside after they “had time to cool off,” Hardy told jurors, WDCW reported. Craig cut up her mother with a chain saw 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.”
Officers saw blood and tissue on the floor near three white plastic trash bags, with one containing what appeared to be brain matter. Authorities said they also found a knife on the basement floor and a chain saw with human remains on it.
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Maryland Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Pamela Ferreira testified during Craig’s trial 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.
“What we have here is a woman who led a good life and left this world in such a way,” Judge Mason said Wednesday. “And only you know, Ms. Craig, exactly what happened here.”
Law&Crime’s Jason Kandel and Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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