A 76-year-old former corrections officer from Massachusetts has been acquitted of the murder of an 11-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in a railroad yard more than 30 years ago.

This week, an Essex County jury found Marvin “Skip” McClendon Jr. not guilty of first-degree murder in the 1988 death of Melissa Ann Tremblay.

The verdict was announced on Tuesday after six days of deliberation and one day after jurors informed the judge that they were deadlocked, according to the Associated Press.

The case reportedly came down to whether the DNA found on Melissa’s body belonged to McClendon.

Prosecutors reportedly claimed that the DNA recovered from Melissa’s body excluded 99.8% of the male population, but defense attorneys claimed there was no proof that the DNA came from McClendon.

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This was McClendon’s second trial for Melissa’s murder. Last year, a deadlocked jury led the presiding judge to declare a mistrial.

“Mr. McClendon was greatly relieved by the verdict,” his defense attorney, Henry Fasoldt, told the Associated Press. “We appreciate the jury’s careful and thoughtful deliberations.”

Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker told the AP that he was “disappointed” by the jury’s decision, but thanked everyone involved in the case.

“I recognize the work and dedication of the jury during their long deliberations in this case,” Tucker told the crowd. “My thoughts are with the family of Melissa Ann Tremblay, who have suffered greatly due to the crime that took her life.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, McClendon was arrested in Alabama in April 2022 and charged with evading justice. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.

DNA evidence discovered at the scene led investigators to McClendon’s involvement in the homicide.

“Evidence recovered from the victim’s body was instrumental in solving this case,” Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett stated after McClendon’s arrest. “The suspect lived in Chelmsford in 1988 and had multiple ties to Lawrence.”

According to investigators, the defendant has been a “person of interest” in the case “for some time.”

The prosecutor’s office went into those details during McClendon’s court appearance prior to his first murder trial.

“Using various DNA advancements, the Commonwealth was able to focus on the name McClendon,” Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick said during the brief hearing.

Strasnick stated that the Massachusetts State Crime Lab created a DNA profile from Melissa’s remains, focusing on the potential suspect’s paternal line.

“Through investigation, the Commonwealth located various McClendons and took DNA samples,” Strasnick told the press. “DNA samples were taken from the defendant before you, Marvin McClendon, whose DNA profile was consistent with the DNA profile that was found on Melissa Tremblay’s body.”

The exact nature of the DNA evidence extracted from Melissa’s body was not revealed.

Strasnick went on to claim that during several police interviews, McClendon provided “information to investigators that was never made public” regarding Melissa’s death.

Investigators also discovered that McClendon previously owned a van that was “consistent with what witnesses had seen [Melissa] speaking with.”

Melissa’s mother and her mother’s boyfriend were dining at the LaSalle Social Club the night she went missing, while Melissa played outside in the nearby rail yard.

Witnesses reported seeing a van in the area around the time of her murder.

Melissa played in the adjacent neighborhood while her mother and mother’s boyfriend remained inside the club. She was last seen by a railroad employee and a pizza delivery driver in the late afternoon.

A frantic search began, and the girl was reported missing around 9 p.m. that night. Her body was discovered the next day, just a block from the LaSalle Social Club.

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