11-year-old girl found dead after playing outside in MA. Decades later, man is charged
On a Sunday in 1988, an 11-year-old left her mother at a social club to go play outside in the neighborhood. This was the last time the girl was seen alive.
For almost 34 years, the case remained unsolved.
Melissa Ann Tremblay was found dead in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on Sept. 12, 1988, after investigators said it appeared she was stabbed and left in the path of a train car, officials said.
On Wednesday, April 27, the Essex District Attorney’s Office announced that Marvin C. McClendon Jr., a 74-year-old man from Breman, a town 42 miles north of Birmingham, Alabama, was arrested in Melissa’s killing in 1988.
“I never thought this day was going to happen. There is always hope. Never give up hope,” childhood friend Andrea Ganley told The Eagle-Tribune.
Investigators said that despite interviews with numerous witnesses and suspects over the years, the case went cold.
The investigation was taken over by assistant district attorneys and state police detectives specializing in cold cases in 2014, according to a news release from the Essex District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators said that evidence found on the girl’s body was “instrumental” to solve the case but did not share specifics.
McClendon lived in Chelmsford, a town about 16 miles southwest of Lawrence, at the time of the killing and “had multiple ties to Lawrence,” the news release said.
He is scheduled for arraignment on April 28, officials said.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 4:44 PM with the headline "11-year-old girl found dead after playing outside in MA. Decades later, man is charged."
