MD Woman Guilty Of Killing Mother, Grilling Her Body Parts

HYATTSVILLE, MD — A Maryland woman has been found guilty of killing her mother, whose dismembered and burned body was discovered by police in trash bags in the basement of her Hyattsville home in May 2023.

Jurors deliberated for just over an hour before finding Candace Craig, 46, guilty of first and second-degree murder in the death of her 71-year-old Margaret Craig, Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy announced Friday.

Craig was also found guilty of tampering with evidence and improperly disposing of her mother’s body.

"Words cannot express how devastated I was when I heard about this case, how angry I was, how committed my office was to getting justice," Braveboy said during a news conference outside the courthouse. "And as with any case, it is not easy. There was a tremendous amount of evidence in this case. It took a lot to put everything together."

According to prosecutors, Craig killed her mother by suffocating her with a trash bag following an argument over fraudulent credit card charges and discrepancies in the older woman's bank account.

To dispose of the body, Craig and her daughter, 21-year-old Salia Hardy, bought grilling supplies and a can of gasoline, but when Craig tried to burn the remains behind the home the fire spread and neighbors called the fire department, Hardy testified during the trial.

Hardy and Craig moved the remains inside the home the next day. Craig bought a chainsaw on Amazon and cut up her mother's body in the basement, Hardy testified. She then grilled parts of her, using seasoning to mask the smell, prosecutors said.

On June 2 shortly after 1:30 p.m., Prince George's County police officers were called to the home in the 200 block of Hill Road in Landover, for a welfare check. The family member who contacted police said he had been unable to reach Margaret Craig for several days and was worried about her.

Another family member noticed a foul odor in the basement when she stopped by that day. When police made the welfare check, officers noticed the odor of decomposition and saw what appeared to be brain matter and suspected dismembered human remains in trash bags, WUSA reported.

Court documents revealed that "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."

In an interview with police, Craig blamed the murder on her two younger daughters, both of whom have disabilities, the Washington Post reported.

"You have three young girls who knew — who now know — that their mother killed their grandmother, dismembered her body, tried to set her on fire and then tried to blame them,” Braveboy said. "This — it’s almost unbelievable, but it happened. It happened."