Former corrections officer found not guilty of 1988 murder of NH Girl, 11

• Marvin C. McClendon Jr. has been found not guilty after being arrested in 2022 following the 1988 murder of 11-year-old Melissa Ann Tremblay
• “Mr. McClendon was extremely relieved by the verdict,” McClendon’s attorney told the Associated Press
• “My thoughts are with the family of Melissa Ann Tremblay, who has suffered immensely from the crime that took her life,” said Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker, according to WBZ-TV.

A former Massachusetts Department of Corrections official has been found not guilty killing an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl who died more than 36 years ago.

As previously reported by PEOPLE, Marvin C. McClendon Jr. from Breman, Ala. arrested by authorities in Massachusetts in April 2022 and charged as a fugitive from justice, 33 years after Melissa Ann Tremblay of Salem, NH, was found. dead along the railroad tracks in Lawrence on September 12, 1988.

On Tuesday, November 5, a jury – which was deadlocked on Monday – found McClendon not guilty on the sixth day of deliberations, according to the Associated pressstating that the case depended on whether or not the DNA found on the victim belonged to the suspect.

McClendon’s attorney, Henry Fasoldt, told the news agency: “Mr. McClendon was greatly relieved by the verdict.”

“We appreciate the jury’s careful and thoughtful deliberations,” Fasoldt added.

At the time of Melissa’s murder, McClendon was living in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and working as a carpenter. Fasoldt told the AP that his client now wanted to return home to Alabama after being incarcerated for two and a half years.

Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker said he was “disappointed with the verdict,” according to WBZ TV.

“I recognize the work and dedication of the jury during their lengthy deliberations in this case,” Tucker told the newspaper.

“My thoughts are with the family of Melissa Ann Tremblay, who has suffered immensely from the crime that took her life,” he added.

Neither Fasoldt nor the Essex County District Attorney’s Office immediately responded when PEOPLE contacted them.

Melissa’s body was found the day after she “accompanied her mother and mother’s boyfriend” to a social club in Lawrence on September 11, 1988, authorities previously said in an Essex district attorney’s office. press release.

“While her mother and mother’s boyfriend remained at the club, Melissa played in the adjacent neighborhoods and was last seen by a railroad employee and a pizza delivery person in the late afternoon,” the 2022 release said. The young girl was found later that evening reported missing to Lawrence police.

She was subsequently found dead “at the old Boston & Maine Railway Yard near Andover Street and South Broadway in Lawrence” the next day after being “stabbed to death” and then “run over by a railroad car causing her left leg to be amputated.” ,” the release said.

“Over the years, dozens of witnesses, suspects and persons of interest have been questioned by police,” authorities said. “Evidence recovered from the victim’s body was instrumental in solving the case.”

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Authorities previously said McClendon had “multiple ties” to Lawrence, but his attorney Fasoldt told the jury this week that his client had “no meaningful ties” to the city, according to the AP.

During the trial, Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Jessica Strasnick also told the jury that McClendon appeared to know key details about Melissa’s death, adding that he was “fixated on the fact that she was beaten, ladies and gentlemen, because he knew she She wasn’t just stabbed that day, she was beaten,” the AP reported.

Strasnick also argued “that the DNA evidence taken from under Tremblay’s fingernails excludes 99.8 percent of the male population” as potential suspects.

But McClendon’s defense said there was no evidence the DNA belonged to the suspect, or that it was found under the victim’s fingernails, the AP reported.

Tuesday’s decision came after a judge declared a mistrial in December 2023 after the jury could not reach a verdict. NBC10 Bostonthe AP and the Eagle Tribune previously reported.

Per one online obituaryMelissa’s mother, Janet M. Tremblay, died on November 20, 2015 at the age of 70.