Daughter found guilty of murdering and dismembering mom, burning body on a barbecue grill

Nov 05, 2024

A sick Maryland woman has been found guilty of murdering her mother — then getting her daughter to help hack up the body and try to get rid of it by grilling parts on a garden barbecue.

Candace Craig, 45, was on Friday found guilty after an eight-day trial of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and tampering with evidence and disposing of a body in an unauthorized place, WUSA9 reported.

Her 71-year-old mom, Margaret Craig, had confronted her for committing credit card fraud in June 2023 — and was choked to death when she threatened to turn in her daughter to the police.

Candace Craig then roped in one of her own three children, 19-year-old daughter Salia Hardy, to dispose of the body, with the teen testifying against her mom after pleading guilty earlier this year to her own role in the gruesome crime.

Hardy said she found her grandmother’s body stuffed inside a blue plastic container in her bedroom in Hyattsville — and then helped her mom chop up the body with a chainsaw and then try to dispose of some of it by grilling body parts on a grill in the backyard.

The grandma had already been dead for more than a week when police found her rotting remains while conducting a welfare check after alarmed neighbors reported not seeing her.

The killer daughter allowed officers into the home and basement — where they immediately smelled “decomposition” and saw blood spatter around white plastic trash bags.

The bags held “what appeared to be brain matter” and Margaret Craig’s mutilated remains — with cops also finding cutting tools and a chainsaw, with the latter still covered with human remains.

It was a gruesome crime “that really rocked the entire region,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said after the conviction.

“This is a giving, caring, loving, compassionate and understanding woman, who was killed, who was asphyxiated by her daughter,” Braveboy said.

“And make no mistake, Miss Candace Craig absolutely committed this crime, and she is now being held accountable,” Braveboy said.

“Killed, dismembered, her body burned, her body grilled — it was insulting for this 71-year-old woman who was a hardworking woman.”

Salia Hardy pleaded guilty earlier this year to being an accessory to murder after the fact for helping dispose of her grandma’s body.

Both are set to be sentenced at later hearings, with the dates not yet scheduled.