(NewsInsights.org) – Marvin McClendon Jr., 76, a former Massachusetts corrections officer who retired to Alabama, faced a nearly 4-week trial for the murder of a child killed more than 35 years ago. On December 27, the judge declared a mistrial when the jury found themselves deadlocked after more than 29 hours of deliberations.
Melissa Ann Tremblay, an 11-year-old sixth-grader from New Hampshire, accompanied her mom and her mother’s boyfriend to the LaSalle Social Club in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in September of 1988. The girl became bored and went outside to play while the adults stayed inside and never returned.
Her mother reported her missing later that evening, and police found her body the next day in a nearby railyard, stabbed and run over by a train. A pizza delivery driver and a railroad employee were the last people who recalled seeing the child.
The case went cold for 34 years until DNA technology provided a break and a suspect in 2022. Skin collected from under the girl’s fingernails led investigators to the McClendon family. Forensic evidence indicated a left-handed person had stabbed Tremblay. Marvin McClendon was the only left-handed member of his family.
At the time of the murder, McClendon was working as a carpenter and living in the nearby town of Chelmsford. However, the retired corrections officer maintained steady ties in Lawrence, where he attended church and performed work for several clients.
A spokesperson for the Exxes County District Attorney’s office said they planned to retry McClendon on murder charges, but the court had not set a new trial date yet. Police arrested the retiree in Bremen, Alabama, in April 2022, and the court has held him without bail since his arrest. After the mistrial, the court returned him to custody, pending another trial.
Through his attorney, Henry Fasoldt, McClendon thanked jurors for their “deliberate and thoughtful” consideration of his case, according to Fox News. Fasoldt said his client looked forward to another trial to clear his name.
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