LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) — The household of a New Hampshire woman killed in Massachusetts in 1988 are thanking regulation enforcement officers for making an arrest greater than three many years later.
The surviving household of Melissa Ann Tremblay on Saturday mentioned they appreciated that police by no means gave up on the case, including they look ahead to seeing “justice lastly served.”
“We by no means thought that after 33 1/2 years we’d lastly see somebody arrested and going through a decide,” the household mentioned in a press release supplied by Essex County District Legal professional Jonathan Blodgett’s workplace. “The truth that know-how has superior they usually had been in a position to observe DNA proof to search out this man has introduced us nice pleasure.”
Marvin C. McClendon Jr., a retired Massachusetts corrections officer, was ordered held with out bail on Friday following his extradition from Alabama, the place he lives.
The 74-year-old Bremen resident pleaded not responsible in Lawrence District Court docket. He’s been charged with fatally stabbing Tremblay in September 1988.
The 11-year-old from Salem, New Hampshire had been taking part in exterior in Lawrence whereas her mom, who died in 2015, was inside a neighborhood social membership. Her physique was present in a close-by railway yard the next day.
Prosecutors mentioned in courtroom Friday that the state crime lab generated a DNA profile from Tremblay’s physique and was in a position to hyperlink it to McClendon.
McClendon’s legal professionals have urged it’s attainable the DNA belongs to a different member of the McClendon household.
However prosecutors on Friday argued that the majority of his household stay in Alabama and have by no means been to Massachusetts.
Additionally they mentioned the previous corrections officer, who retired in 2002, had been residing not far-off in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and labored and attended church in Lawrence on the time of the killing.
McClendon was arrested final month. He’s due again in courtroom June 17.
(Copyright (c) 2022 The Related Press. All Rights Reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)