SALEM, MASS. (WHDH) - An Alabama man was arraigned Thursday in connection with a 34-year-old homicide cold case in Lawrence, the Essex County District Attorney’s office announced.
Marvin C. McClendon, 75, pleaded not guilty to the 1988 murder of 11-year-old Melissa Tremblay in Salem Superior Court.
McClendon was extradited to the Bay State and arraigned on a charge of murder in Lawrence District Court in May.
The Alabama native is accused of of stabbing Tremblay at the former Boston & Maine railway yard in September 1988. Investigators at the time determined the 11-year-old girl had been stabbed to death and then run over by a train.
Police later determined that Tremblay had been seen accompanying her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to the LaSalle Social Club in Andover the night before. The girl was last seen playing in the adjacent neighborhood by a railroad employee and pizza delivery driver. Tremblay was reported missing later that evening by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
According to a statement by Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett in May, recently recovered evidence from the victim’s body led authorities to suspect McClendon.
McClendon is said to have lived in Chelmsford in 1988 and an investigation determined that the man worked and frequented several establishments in Lawrence.
“We are about 2 months shy of 34 years since we lost Missy and we have never given up hope that her killer would be found. Over the years, some people have said that we didn’t care about her, but that is not true. She has always been in our thoughts,” said Tremblay’s cousin, Daneille Root, in a statement.
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