Police Say Cold Case of Slain Teen Could’Ve Been Solved Sooner With Better Lab

By TAMARA KING

WINNIPEG (CP) – Police say they could have cracked the decades-old cold case of a slain Manitoba teenager more than five years ago if the national RCMP lab had been better equipped.

The evidence that was re-examined by a private lab in Thunder Bay, Ont., and led to the arrest of convicted sex offender Mark Edward Grant had been sent to the RCMP’s facility in 2001, said Winnipeg city police Insp. Tom Legge.

“The exhibits were returned to us. There was either an inability or an incapability to proceed further in examining the exhibits,” he said Thursday, a day after Grant was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Candace Derksen.

The 13-year-old disappeared while walking home from school Nov. 30, 1984. Her bound and frozen body was found weeks later in an industrial storage shed less than 500 metres from the family’s home.

An intense investigation both before and after her body was found, came up empty. It wasn’t until a new cold case unit delved into her death again that forensics and DNA evidence were re-examined.

Legge said there are several North American labs that do work the national RCMP lab isn’t capable of – but going the private route takes more money and time.

“Obviously it delays if there’s an incapability at the national lab to get the results we need.”

Legge admitted the police department plans to send other recent cases to private facilities too.

While Legge wouldn’t specify what sort of tests were lacking at the RCMP lab, John Bowen, a director with the facility, said Winnipeg police were looking for mitochondrial DNA analysis – testing done largely on hair or bone – something the Ottawa lab doesn’t offer.

“With the number of cases that we see requests for mitochondrial DNA analysis … none of us saw that this would be something we should set up on our own or in a group,” said Bowen.

Winnipeg police were also looking for a second type of test that looks at male chromosomes, or Y-STR analysis, which the RCMP doesn’t offer either, he said.

Bowen said scientists were involved in other forensic tests on the Derksen case.

He acknowledged the lab’s failure to provide timely analysis, a problem documented earlier this month in a highly-critical report from auditor-general Sheila Fraser.

Bowen said they’re working to address the shortcomings by adding staff to labs in Ottawa and Vancouver and opening a third site for DNA analysis in Edmonton.

“We agree we need to improve our response times,” Bowen said.

Fraser’s report found in urgent cases, the forensic service can process material in fewer than 15 days.

But rush requests account for just one per cent of service requests.

In the other routine cases – including murder and other violent offences – the service is “unable for the most part to meet the 30-day target it has set for them,” the report said.

Calling DNA a necessary tool in modern policing, Legge suggested the RCMP lab needs to be up-to-date.

“I would hopefully think the public and the politicians … would ensure that our national lab in Canada has full capabilities,” he said.

“Whether that’s a question of funding, we’d hope they’d have the proper tools at their disposal to ensure they can help the police services out across Canada.”