Jurors are deliberating in the retrial of a former Massachusetts prison officer charged with a 1988 stabbing that remained a cold case for more than three decades.
In April 2022, authorities arrested Marvin “Skip” McClendon Jr. at his Alabama home and charged him with first-degree murder in connection with Melissa Ann Tremblay’s fatal stabbing in Salem, New Hampshire.
On September 12, 1988, the old Boston & Maine Railway Yard revealed Tremblay’s body.
The sixth-grader had been with her mother at Lawrence’s LaSalle Social Club, which is just a block from the rail yard. She disappeared without a trace.
Prosecutors claim McClendon knew details about the crime that were never made public, but his defense argues that DNA evidence is inconclusive against him.
Last year, the jury failed to provide a verdict in his first murder trial. His second trial started earlier this month.
When the girl died, McClendon was working as a carpenter. Officials claimed he worked for the Department of Corrections intermittently between 1970 and 2002 before retiring and departing Massachusetts.
According to investigators, McClendon has long been a person of interest in Tremblay’s murder. Prosecutors claimed DNA evidence led officials to a group of McClendon relatives. Court filings show that detectives interviewed many people with the same surname.
Deliberations began on Monday at 11:33 a.m., following the presentation of closing arguments.
