Twisted Maryland mother and daughter take it upon themselves to dismember the family matriarch with a chainsaw, after dismembering the body parts after a fight over a credit card, they said the police.
Margaret Craig, 71, had been dead for more than a week when police made the gruesome discovery Friday at the relatives’ Hill Road home in Landover during a welfare check.
“When officers entered the basement, they immediately smelled decomposition,” the Prince George’s County Police Department said. he said in a statement.
A preliminary investigation by homicide detectives has determined that Margaret’s daughter, Candace Craig, 44, allegedly killed her mother on May 23.
The next day, her 19-year-old daughter Salia Hardy allegedly helped Craig dispose of her grandmother’s body.
According to police, Craig opened the door and allowed police to search the elderly woman.
In the basement, “they observed blood and tissue on the floor near three white plastic garbage bags,” according to charging documents obtained by the WJLA news outlet.
Cops said they also found “what appeared to be brain matter” inside one of the bags and observed a knife on the floor, which later disappeared.
Additional cutting implements, the cover of a chainsaw, cleaning materials and blood spatter were observed throughout the putrid-smelling cellar.
When interviewed by detectives, Hardy allegedly told them her grandmother had accused her mother of credit card fraud and threatened to turn her in to the police. WTOP news channel reported.
The two women began arguing, and the dispute escalated into a physical attack that led to Margaret’s death, according to the records, which do not indicate how the woman was killed.
The next day, Hardy discovered his grandmother’s body stuffed in a blue plastic container in his room and allegedly helped his mother dispose of it.
“After that, [Candace Craig] and her daughter dismembered the body, I believe using a chainsaw, and then tried to dispose of the body parts with fire on a grill and in a bonfire,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jessica Garth said.
When police arrived 10 days later, the rotting remains had been mutilated beyond recognition, but prosecutors said they were confident DNA tests would confirm the body parts found at the crime scene belonged to the grandmother .
“To say it’s disturbing is an understatement,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said. “It’s horrifying.”
A little over two years before the carnage, Candace posted a sweet Mother’s Day message on her Facebook page, saying her mother was “the number one woman in my life.”
“I hope you have a great and peaceful day,” she wrote on May 9, 2021. “I can’t say this every day, but I love you so much to the moon and back.”
Hardy chimed in, writing in a comment: “Happy Mother’s Day Grandma and Mom,” followed by three heart emojis.
Candace has been charged with first and second degree murder.
His daughter faces an accessory after the fact count.
The mother is due in court for a preliminary hearing on July 3.
Both she and Hardy are being held without bond.
Español de Venezuela 
English