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Man accused in 1988 murder of New Hampshire 11-year-old girl faces retrial
Marvin McClendon Jr. is charged with killing Melissa Tremblay in Lawrence, Mass. more than three decades ago.
The retrial of a 77-year-old man accused of murdering an 11-year-old from New Hampshire in 1988 began this week, almost a year after his first trial ended in a mistrial with a deadlocked jury.
Marvin McClendon Jr. is charged with murder in connection with the death of Melissa Tremblay. The 11-year-old from Salem, New Hampshire was found dead in a train yard in Lawrence, Massachusetts on Sept. 12, 1988, a day after she was reported missing. She had been stabbed and her body had been run over by a train.
Opening statements for McClendon’s retrial began Monday, according to The Boston Globe.
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McClendon was arrested in Alabama in April 2022 after, authorities say, DNA taken from the 11-year-old’s body was linked him.
Authorities have said that before Tremblay went missing, she was reportedly playing in the neighborhoods near the LaSalle social club in Lawrence while her mother and mother’s boyfriend visited the business. Afterward, they searched for the girl but could not find her. She was reported missing and found dead the next day.
McClendon, prosecutors have said, was living in Chelmsford and doing carpentry work at the time of the killing. He also allegedly worked and attended church in Lawrence at the time. The 77-year-old was employed by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections several times between 1979 and 2002.
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The cold case unit in the Essex County District Attorney’s office took up the unsolved murder in 2014. Prosecutors said in 2022 that McClendon had been considered a “person of interest” before his arrest.
Tremblay’s family has said since McClendon’s arrest that they are looking forward to justice being “finally served” in her death.
McClendon’s initial trial lasted 17 days in December last year, according to the Globe. The jury deliberated for almost 30 hours over six days before informing the judge they were deadlocked, and a mistrial was declared.
McClendon’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. But following the mistrial last year, Henry Fasoldt said his client maintained his innocence and looked forward to the case being retried.
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