Man Accused In 1988 Killing Of 11-Year-Old Girl Indicted For Murder

SALEM, MA — The former state corrections officer accused of killing 11-year-old Melissa Ann Tremblay 34 years ago was indicted on first-degree murder charges Wednesday.

The Essex County District Attorney's Office said Marvin McClendon, 74, was indicted by an Essex County Grand Jury. The case will be transferred to Essex Superior Court where McClendon will be arraigned on murder charges in Salem Superior Court in July.

He remains held without bail.

McClendon, formerly of Chelmsford, is accused of the stabbing death of the Salem NH girl, whose body was found in a Lawrence rail yard in 1988, after she had gone missing while playing in the nearby neighborhood.

Tremblay's body was found between two freight trains in the Boston & Maine Rail Yard in Lawrence with her left leg was severed under one of those train. 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," Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said following McClendon's arrest in Breman, Alabama in April.

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.

Blodgett said at the time of the arrest that McClendon had been "a person of interest for a period of time."

(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.)