PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — Family members testified Thursday about the last time the saw and spoke with Margaret Craig, the 71-year-old whose grisly death is at the center of a murder trial that began this week in Prince George's County.
Craig's daughter, 44-year-old Candace Craig, stands accused of murdering her mother and then dismembering her body with a chainsaw in an effort to dispose of the evidence. Craig's 19-year-old granddaughter, Salia Hardy, pleaded guilty earlier this year to being an accessory to murder after the fact and is awaiting sentencing.
Editor's Note: Details in this story may be considered disturbing. Read with caution.
Officers were first called to the home in the 200 block of Hill Road in Hyattsville the Craigs shared just after 1:30 p.m. on June 2, 2023, for a welfare check for Margaret after a neighbor reported not speaking with her for several days.
Two days earlier, according to testimony Thursday, one of Margaret's nephews, David Wilson, visited the home after not being able to reach his aunt, who he called "Auntie Joycie." Wilson said he and Margaret would regularly chat on Facebook Messenger about the news of the day on MSNBC.
Wilson told jurors he walked around the wooded area in the rear of the house while he called out Margaret's name. He said he was worried she had wandered away from home. While looking for her, Wilson said he noticed a new burnt spot on the ground, which he took a video of with his cell phone.
On June 2, another family member, Jillian Philbert, visited the home and noticed a foul smell in the basement. When police arrived to make the welfare check, Philbert pointed them to the basement.
There, according to charging documents, officers immediately noticed the odor of decomposition and saw blood near three white plastic trash bags. When they looked inside an open bag, they discovered what appeared to be brain matter and suspected dismembered human remains.
While walking out of the basement, officers said they noticed a knife on the ground. When they returned, the knife was allegedly missing.
A forensic investigator arrived and confirmed the bags contained human remains.
According to the charging documents, investigators later found a chainsaw, cutting utensils, cleaning materials, and blood spatter throughout the basement. Investigators claim human remains were on the chainsaw when it was seized from the home.
Hardy, according to charging documents, waived her rights and told police she overheard her mother fighting with her grandmother on May 23. She explained the fight appeared to be over fraudulent charges on her credit card, which Margaret blamed Hardy for and threatened to report her granddaughter.
Hardy reportedly told police her mother then attacked her grandmother, whose body she reportedly found the next day in a blue bin in her bedroom.
Investigators say Candance and Hardy then began to dismember Margaret with a chainsaw and attempted to burn her remains on a grill and a fire at the back of the home.
A witness approached detectives and claimed to have seen the mother and daughter burning the human remains after noticing a small fire in the brush behind their home on May 27. They called 911 at the time but when crews arrived, they could not locate the reported fire.
The trial was set to resume with further testimony from crime scene investigators Monday morning. If convicted of the most serious charge against her, first-degree murder, Margaret Craig could face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.