Man cleared of 1984 murder makes Vancouver court appearance on new charges

Wilma Derksen and her husband Cliff speak to media about Manitoba's Court of Appeal overturning the murder conviction for Mark Edward Grant in the 1984 killing of their daughter Candace Derksen at their Winnipeg home, Wednesday, October 30, 2013. (John Woods / The Canadian Press)

VANCOUVER — Mark Edward Grant, who was acquitted of the 1984 murder of 13-year-old Winnipeg schoolgirl Candace Derksen, made a brief video appearance in a Vancouver courtroom today on charges of unlawful confinement, sexual assault, assault with a weapon and uttering threats.

An agent for his lawyer Bobby Movassaghi says Grant has consented to remain in custody in order to discuss a bail plan.

Grant, 62, appeared on screen wearing red prison sweats and glasses with faint facial hair and a bald head as his case was put over until Feb. 2.

Details of Grant’s case are under a publication ban and he’s been put under a no contact order with the alleged victim.

Grant was found not guilty of second-degree murder in 2017 in the death of Derksen, who was last seen walking home from school in November 1984, after he was granted a new trial by the Supreme Court of Canada following a guilty verdict in 2011.

Vancouver police said last week that the charges against Grant are connected with an alleged incident in the city’s Downtown Eastside on Jan. 8.

Police said they responded to an early morning call that “a woman in her sixties had been sexually assaulted by a man inside a residential building close to East Hastings Street and Columbia Street.”

Derksen’s frozen body was found six weeks after she went missing, with her hands and feet bound, in an industrial shed, and Grant was arrested in 2007 and found guilty in 2011 based on DNA evidence from the twine used to bind Derksen.

The Supreme Court of Canada, however, overturned the conviction two years later, leading to a new trial in 2017 where the DNA evidence was ruled to be flawed due to deterioration between the death and Grant’s first trial.

Wilma Dirksen, Candace’s mother, said the family has “carried on” in the years since Candace’s murder, but after news of Grant’s arrest in Vancouver, she wonders what may come to light in the new case against the man accused and later acquitted of her daughter’s murder.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2026.