Accused 1988 Child Killer Will Return To MA To Face Murder Charge

SALEM, MA — The 74-year-old former Massachusetts Department of Corrections officer accused of the 1988 stabbing death of 11-year-old Melissa Ann Tremblay will return to Massachusetts to face murder charges.

The Essex County District Attorney's Office said Marvin McClendon, formerly of Chelmsford, waived rendition in Alabama where he was arrested on Tuesday and where he was scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday. An Essex DA spokesperson said arrangements were being made to bring him back to Massachusetts and that he will likely face the charges in Lawrence District court next week.

Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said on Wednesday that McClendon had been "a person of interest for a period of time" in the stabbing death of the Salem, NH girl that went unsolved for 34 years. Tremblay's body was found between two freight trains in the Boston & Maine Rail Yard in Lawrence on Sept. 12, 1988. Her left leg was severed under one of those trains and police reported there were signs of a struggle before her death.

"We never forgot about Melissa, nor did we give up on holding her killer accountable," Blodgett said.

Blodgett said on Wednesday that evidence on the girl's body led to the arrest of McClendon in Bremen, Alabama on Tuesday. Blodgett said more details about that evidence would be revealed at the arraignment.

The DA's Office said McClendon worked for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections on three separate occasions between 1970 and 2002 and that he was doing carpentry work at the time of the girl's killing.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)