Murder of Melissa Ann Tremblay

Melissa Ann Tremblay was an 11-year-old, sixth grade girl from Salem, New Hampshire who was found dead from stabbing at the Boston and Maine Railroad in the nearby Lawrence, Massachusetts on September 12, 1988, after disappearing when going to play in the area the day before. The crime received nationwide attention at the time and remained unsolved for nearly 34 years.

On April 25, 2022, Marvin McClendon, Jr., a 74-year-old retired prison guard from Alabama who lived in Chelmsford at the time of the murder, was arrested from new evidence after having been a person of interest for years. McClendon pleaded not guilty. On December 27, 2023, a mistrial was declared due to a hung jury.

Murder
Melissa Ann Tremblay, known as "Missy" to her loved ones, was with her mother and her mother's boyfriend at the LaSalle Social Club on the evening of September 11, 1988, playing outside. Her mother noticed Melissa was missing and began to look for her, eventually turning to the police at around 9pm. The two people who last saw Melissa were a pizza delivery employee and a rail worker, a van being spotted near her before she disappeared.

On September 12, Melissa was found dead on the tracks of the Boston and Maine Railroad. She had been stabbed to death, and a passing train ran over her left leg and amputated it from the rest of her after she was already dead. Footprints and blood were found near the scene. An examination of her wounds revealed the killer was left-handed. The community was rattled, and kids were closer supervised in reaction to Melissa's murder. A plaque was placed at Lancaster Elementary School in Salem, New Hampshire, where Melissa attended, under a tree and around flowers and pinwheels in her honor.

In recent years, Melissa's childhood friends reportedly spread notices of her murder to prevent her case from being forgotten in the interest of answers.

Suspect
Marvin C. "Skip" McClendon, Jr., was born on July 3, 1947, and was an employee of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections from 1970 to 2002, before moving to Bremen, Alabama for his retirement. McClendon also worked in carpentry, often providing work in Lawrence and was handling a job there at the time of Melissa's murder. Police worked with a cold case team composed of assistant district attorneys and state police detectives, who provided fresh evidence from Melissa's person in 2014 linking McClendon to her murder. McClendon and his family gave DNA samples, and matching with forensic evidence in Melissa's postmortem examination, McClendon was the only family member who was left-handed. McClendon reportedly communicated details of the murder not released to the public when questioned.

Melissa's living family released a statement after McClendon's arrest, saying they were hoping for justice for years and never stopped thinking about Melissa.

McClendon was classified as a fugitive and arrested in Alabama under according charges placed in a warrant. He waived a rendition hearing and was transported back to Massachusetts, and in May 2022, the presiding judge remanded McClendon without bail. Bail request paperwork is withheld form the public eye due to holding personal history information of McClendon's and arguments of third party involvement. An Essex County grand jury has since indicted him for Melissa's murder. Massachusetts has no capital punishment for murder in the first degree, but McClendon faces a potential life sentence without parole from a successful conviction on charges. McClendon pleaded not guilty. On December 27, 2023, a mistrial was declared due to a deadlocked jury.