Cliff Derksen, a longtime advocate for the families of crime victims and Candice Derksen’s father, died Sunday.
Cliff and Wilma Derxen founded Candace House in 2018 in memory of their daughter, who was killed nearly four decades ago.
The couple “dreamed of a place that could provide comfort, care and shelter while interacting with the judiciary for families like theirs,” Candice House posted on her Facebook page, announcing Cliff Derksen’s death.
“He gave so much to his community and to every person he met. His laughter, his art, his stories and his heart will be so deeply missing.”
His daughter, Candice, was 13 when she disappeared on her way home from school, the Mennonite Collegiate Institute brothers, on November 30, 1984, in the Elmwood area of Winnipeg.
Candice Derxen, seen in a photo of the undated file, was found tied up and frozen in a shed in Winnipeg in early 1985 (Family photo)
Her frozen body was found almost seven weeks later in a storage shed in an industrial area near Nairn overpass, less than 500 meters from her family home.
She was wrapped in blankets and her arms and legs were tied with twine. The cause of death was exposure.
No one was accused of her death until 2007, when police arrested Mark Edward Grant on the basis of a DNA match.
A jury convicted Grant of a lesser second-degree murder charge in February 2011, but that sentence was overturned in 2013 by the Manitoba Court of Appeals, which said the judge made a mistake by not allowing the defense to present evidence pointing to another possible killer, an unidentified man who tied up a second girl in 1985 when Grant was in custody.
A new lawsuit was filed, and on October 18, 2017, a court in Queen Karen Simonsen’s court found Grant not guilty, calling the DNA evidence “fundamentally wrong.”
A sculpture by Cliff Derxen sits on a shelf in Candace’s house. (Marian Klovak)
Cliff Derxen was an artist and art teacher, and some of his work adorns the walls of Candace House. He said he used his art to process his emotions after his daughter was killed.
CBC News contacted Candace House for comment.
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