Winnipeggers 'elated' by arrest in 1984 death of teen

People whose lives were touched by Winnipeg teen Candace Derksen are expressing surprise and relief thata suspect was arrested Wednesday in connection with her case, almost 23 years after she disappeared.

Mark Edward Grant, 43, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with first-degree murder in the death of the 13-year-old, who was last seen walking home from school in the East Kildonan area of Winnipeg on Nov. 30, 1984.

"I was actually quite surprised because I had sort of come to the conclusion myself that probably the case would not be solved," said Dave Teigrob, then vice-principal at Mennonite Brethern Collegiate, Derksen's school.

Teigrob, whomet with the teen just hours before she disappeared, told CBC News he'll never forget scouring the neighbourhood in the cold and darkness for the missing girl.

After Derksen's body was found the following January, bound and frozen in an abandoned machine shed less than a kilometre from her home, Teigrob said people in the area lived in fear. He hopes the arrest will put those fears to rest.

"To have that person brought to justice, I think, is a good thing for the parents and the students," he said.

Jack Ewatski, a homicide investigator in 1984 and now chief of Winnipeg's police force, said both police officers and Winnipeggers feel satisfaction with the break in the case.

The case "touched many of us within the police service that were involved to certain degrees, and there were many, many officers, some still with the service today, many that have retired," Ewatski said. "So I think all of us today that have had any involvement in this, and I would dare say people in this city who have even memories of this incident, are elated."

Officers worked around the clock

George Pike, a retired police officer who oversaw the Derksen investigation in its first six years, said he never gave up hope Derksen's killer would be found.

"I'm impressed with the investigators now and the investigators 23 years ago, and the work that was put into it all those years," he said.

Pike said his officers worked around the clock for the first six months under heavy pressure to solve the case, which at the time seemed like it might have been a random attack.

"Being a young girl involved, it really affected the investigators at that time and they really put a big effort into it," he said.

Investigators said Wednesday that Grant lived in the same neighbourhood as the Derksens and had been interviewed at least twice by police after the teen's disappearance.

Pike didn't recall Grant as a suspect but said he's pleased forensic science helped investigators connect a suspect to the crime through evidence his officers collected more than two decades ago.

Long criminal history

Grant has been convicted of numerous offences dating back to the 1970s, when he was a teenager.

When Derksen went missing, his record included a conviction for sexual assault as well as forgery, fraud, breaking and entering, escape and failing to comply with court orders.

Grant was sent to prison three separate times on convictions for sexual assault as an adult in the 1980s and 1990s. In one case, he was released on parole for only nine days before he was arrested again forassaulting another woman.

Parole board documents describe Grant as a man with a high risk to re-offend, having an "established pattern of violent and sexually deviant behaviour dating back to 1983."

He was most recently released from prison in 2004. He had applied for parole several times but was denied, in the end serving every day of his sentence.

Manitoba Justice's Community Notification Advisory Committee published a public alert about Grant in 2005; a police release on the alert warned that "adult females and children (both male and female) are at risk of sexual violence."