Authorities in Massachusetts have made an arrest in connection with the 1988 killing of an 11-year-old girl.
Marvin C. McClendon, Jr., 74, was arrested on Tuesday evening in the case of Melissa Ann Tremblay’s death.
McClendon, a former Massachusetts Department of Corrections officer, left the state after retiring in 2002. He was tracked down to his home in Alabama and taken into custody.
McClendon was living in Massachusetts but had ties to New Hampshire, where the girl’s body was found on train tracks.
Authorities said that Tremblay went with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to a social club on Sept. 11, 1988. While they were inside, Tremblay played in the neighborhood nearby. She was last seen in the late afternoon by a railroad employee and pizza delivery driver.
That night, Tremblay’s mother and her boyfriend searched the entire area before reporting her missing.
Tremblay was found the next day, stabbed to death. Her body had been left on the tracks, and a train struck the girl’s body.
No arrests were ever made in her death and the case went cold. Officials have been working on the cold case since 2014 and say that McClendon was always a person of interest. Now, evidence that was recovered from her body has been directly tied to the suspect.
Authorities will not detail exactly what that evidence was and did not disclose a motive.
McClendon is being held on a fugitive charge in Alabama. He waived rendition, which means he did not appear in court Thursday for arraignment.
Arrangements are now being made to return him to Massachusetts to face murder charges in Lawrence District Court, possibly as soon as next week.
