Melissa Ann Tremblay.Photo: Essex DA
After 33 years, authorities in Massachusetts have made an arrest in connection with the 1988 killing of 11-year-old Melissa Ann Tremblay, PEOPLE confirms.
According to a statement from the Essex District Attorney’s Office, police arrested Marvin C. McClendon, Jr., 74, on Tuesday evening, charging him as a fugitive from justice.
Investigators tracked the suspect to his home in Breman, Ala., according to the statement.
The former Massachusetts Department of Corrections officer left New England after retiring in 2002.
The statement indicates “evidence recovered from the victim’s body was instrumental in solving the case.”
“Specifically, investigators learned that he worked and frequented establishments in the city of Lawrence, including the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Salem Street,” explains the statement.
Marvin “Skip” McClendon.Cullman County Sheriff’s Office
That night, Melissa’s mother and her boyfriend searched the entire area before reporting her missing.
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Tremblay was found the next day, stabbed to death.
Her body had been left on the tracks, and a train struck the girl’s body.
McClendon remains in the custody of the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office. He will be arraigned today in Alabama.
Information on his lawyer was not immediately available.
Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett told reporters Tremblay’s relatives were “very relieved” to learn of the arrest.
source: people.com
