SALEM — Marvin McClendon, a 75-year-old former Massachusetts corrections officer accused of killing an 11-year-old girl in Lawrence more than three decades ago, was ordered and held without bail after entering a plea of not guilty during his arraignment in Essex Superior Court Thursday afternoon.
McClendon is charged with murder in connection with the September 1988 killing of 11-year-old Melissa Tremblay, of Salem, NH, who was found stabbed to death and run over by a train in a Lawrence rail yard. The case remained unsolved until McClendon’s arrest at his home in Bremen, Ala. on April 26.
An Essex County Grand Jury indicted McClendon, who was previously arraigned in Lawrence District Court, on June 15, moving his case to the superior court.
Tremblay’s first cousin, Daneille Root, spoke to reporters after the arraignment, praising the work of investigators who remained committed to solving the case as the years went on.
“On behalf of her family, I want to thank everyone who has worked on her case over the years. They’ve never given up and because of that, we were able to sit in the courtroom today and face her killer,” Root said.
Carrie Kimball, a spokeswoman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said investigators tied McClendon to the case through DNA samples obtained from Tremblay’s body.
“Thanks to advancements in DNA analysis we were able to isolate family then through our investigation, we were able to identify Mr. McClendon,” said Kimball.
She declined to make any specific comments about how exactly McClendon was identified.
McClendon’s pre-trial conference is scheduled for Aug. 23, after which the case will move to trial in September.
Magella Cantara can be reached at [email protected].
