By: 
The following statement was given to police on Jan. 23, 1985, by Wilma Derksen. She was asked to recall the details of Nov. 30, 1984, when her daughter, Candace, went missing.
"November 30 was pretty much a normal day for me. In the morning, I drove my husband to work at the Camp Arnes office and on the way we dropped Candace off at school. I went about my daily business. My nine-year-old was at school and the three-year-old was with the babysitter. I was home by 3:30 in the afternoon and just before 4 o'clock I received the phone call from Candace.
Her phone call was a little late because she was normally home before the time she called. Candace would often call on Fridays if she knew I had the car because we would go shopping before we picked up her father. When we spoke on the phone, Candace first said "Hi, Mom" and then she giggled. She told me that Dave had just given her a face wash in the snow and she seemed happy. She asked me to pick her up at school and reminded me it was Friday.
I told Candace that I couldn't pick her up because I was having problems with the two younger children. She said she wanted to come shopping that particular day because she was expecting a friend to visit for the weekend and she wanted to buy all the party foods like potato chips and pop. I told her that I would call her father and if he was getting off early I would drop by and get her. I called my husband but he had to stay at work until 5 o'clock.
Shortly after that, Candace phoned back and I asked her to walk home and said that way we could go out alone shopping during the evening. She said "Sure, Mom" and seemed to like the idea. She definitely wasn't upset about not getting a ride.
After the phone calls, I started cleaning up and didn't realize the time until about 4:40. I became concerned when Candace hadn't shown up yet and I bundled up the two younger children and drove over to the Camp Arnes office. We drove the route Candace takes home and were watching for Candace but didn't see her.
We stopped at the school and I checked the doors to find they were locked. I quickly picked up Cliff and we backtracked Candace's normal route home again. Again we didn't see her.
I was already getting worried and when we got home I phoned some of Candace's friends. I really can't remember exactly who I phoned or how many friends. While I was phoning, I think my husband went for a walk. When he got home again I think I told him I was real worried and I got in the car and drove back to the school. I was looking for David Wiebe, the boy who washed Candace's face. When I got to the school, I spoke to the principal and he pointed David out to me. David was in the hallway by his locker and I introduced myself and asked if he knew where Candace was. He said he didn't know and that he thought she went home. He appeared real shocked when I first met him and he must have thought I was there because of the face washing. I told him Candace wasn't home yet and he said that was terrible and he tried to comfort me because I was already starting to show emotion.
I went back home again and I think Cliff might have gone out for a walk to look around after that. I think it was shortly before 7 o'clock after all of my leads were exhausted that we phoned the police. Cliff was the one that actually called the police. After that, I stayed at home and prayed mostly. Somehow the younger children got to bed and sometime between 10 and 11 Cliff went out for a walk. It was sort of a frantic search on his part by then."
