Retired Corrections Officer Arrested For Murder Of 11-Year-Old After 33 Years: Prosecutor

A retired Massachusetts corrections officer was arrested in Alabama this week in connection with the murder of an 11-year-old girl who was found stabbed to death more than 33 years ago.

Police arrested 74-year-old Marvin McClendon, of Bremen, Alabama, Tuesday night in connection with the September 1988 killing of Melissa Tremblay in Lawrence, Massachusetts, CBS Boston reported.

The former Massachusetts Department of Correction officer was charged as a fugitive of justice, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said at a news conference Wednesday.

McClendon was living in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and working as a carpenter at the time of Tremblay's killing, according to a statement from the Essex District Attorney's Office.

He had multiple ties to nearby Lawrence, where the New Hampshire girl's body was found alongside train tracks, Blodgett said.

Evidence recovered from the girl's body led them to McClendon, according to the district attorney. But Blodgett did not go into detail, saying that more information would come out at the arraignment.

However, he confirmed that McClendon had been a person of interest in the case "for some time."

On Sept. 12, 1988, Tremblay was found stabbed to death in the old Boston & Maine Railway Yard near Andover Street and South Broadway in Lawrence.

Her body had been left on the tracks, and a train struck the girl's body,

During their investigation, police learned that the 11-year-old accompanied her mother and her mother's boyfriend to the LaSalle Social Club in Lawrence the night before the girl was found dead.

"While her mother and mother’s boyfriend remained inside the club, Melissa played in the adjacent neighborhoods and was last seen by a railroad employee and pizza delivery driver during the late afternoon hours," the statement said.

That night, Tremblay's mother and the mother's boyfriend, both of whom were not named, searched the entire area before reporting her missing to police around 9 p.m.

"Over the years, scores of witnesses, suspects, persons of interest were interviewed by police. Assistant district attorneys and State Police detectives assigned to my office, specializing in cold cases, have worked diligently on this case since 2014," Blodgett told reporters.

"The investigation found that the suspect lived in Chelmsford in 1988 and had multiple ties to Lawrence. Specifically, investigators learned that he worked and frequented establishments in Lawrence," he added.

It is unclear if McClendon knew Tremblay or her family.

McClendon was scheduled to be arraigned in an Alabama court Thursday. He will be brought back to Massachusetts to face a murder charge if he waives rendition, Blodgett said.

Tremblay's friend Andrea Ganley, who was 7 years old at the time of the murder, told CBS Boston that the arrest was "a pleasant surprise" and that she was "beyond shocked."

"I was starting to feel like it might not, but I still had some hope," she added.