Charges against a man accused in a historic Saskatchewan murder case have been stayed.
Last July, Dennis Henry Hahn was charged with first-degree murder and unlawful confinement for the 1985 murder of Frances Wendland in Rosthern.
Prosecutors stayed the charges on Wednesday, saying they did not feel there was a reasonable likelihood of conviction in the case.
France's daughter Kerri Wendland told CTV News she's sad about the decision but remains hopeful there will be justice in her mother's case.
“I'm incredibly grateful for the hard work the RCMP put into this case. They're my heroes,” she said.
Kerri was one of three girls who were locked in a basement during the killing.
According to police, two masked men broke into France’s home in Rosthern on Dec. 14, 1985. They locked her two daughters, aged seven and eight, along with a 10-year-old friend who had been sleeping over, in a basement bathroom.
Court records show Wendland was then tied up with packing tape — her neck, chin and mouth tightly bound.
When the girls got out of the bathroom, they found the woman dead in a bedroom.
Pathologists who testified at a previous trial in the case determined Wendland died from neck compression.
In 1990, police arrested Donald Marlow and a jury convicted him of first-degree murder for being an accessory to the killing.
Court heard Wendland's estranged husband, Larry, used Marlow to hire two men to kill her.
Larry Wendland, who married the couple's babysitter a year after the killing, committed suicide in 1989.
--- with files from The Canadian Press
