THE mystery death of a young girl found stabbed to death in a freight yard has finally been solved, according to police.
Melissa Ann Tremblay was just 11-years-old when she was discovered dead in a Massachusetts trainyard a day after she was reported missing in 1988.
Retired correction officer Marvin C. McClendon Jr., 74, now faces a murder charge after he was arrested at his home in Bremen, Alabama on Tuesday.
Police said evidence recovered from the victim’s body was instrumental in leading to the suspect.
Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett did not detail exactly what that evidence was and did not disclose a motive.
But his cold case unit has been working on the case since 2014, and McClendon has been a “person of interest” for some time, the cop confirmed.
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Blodgett said: "The evidence led us to him.
"That will absolutely be given to you in greater detail once he's arraigned. It will be spelled out in the arraignment.
"I can’t even express how gratified we are in this office that we are able to pursue justice for any family.
"And it is extremely gratifying that after all these years of never giving up, we believe we have the right suspect."
McClendon Jr is being held on a fugitive charge pending a court appearance scheduled for Thursday.
He will be arraigned in Massachusetts at a date to be determined.
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Sixth-grader Melissa Ann, from Salem, had accompanied her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to a Lawrence social club on Septermber 11, 1988.
She had gone to play outside not far from the railyard, while the adults stayed inside, authorities said.
The youngster was reported missing later that night and found the following day.
She had been stabbed and her body had been run over by a train, Blodgett said.
McClendon, a former employee of the Massachusetts prisons department, lived in Chelmsford and was doing carpentry work at the time of the killing.
He worked and attended church in Lawrence, Blodgett said.
It is unclear whether the suspect and victim knew each other, the district attorney said.
The girl’s mother, Janet Tremblay, died in 2015 at age 70, according to her obituary.
But an aunt and a cousin have been informed of the arrest, Blodgett said.
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“It’s overwhelming and shocking,” Andrea Ganley, a childhood friend of Tremblay’s who, in recent years, has helped keep the case in the public eye, told The Eagle-Tribune.
“I never thought this day was going to happen. There is always hope. Never give up hope.”
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