'We Have Never Stopped Thinking Of Missy': Cold Case Victim's Family

LAWRENCE, MA — Surviving family members of 11-year-old Melissa Ann Tremblay thanked police and prosecutors Friday for keeping up the search for the girl's killer 34 years after she was found stabbed to death in a Lawrence rail yard.

Marvin McClendon, 74, a former Massachusetts Department of Corrections officer living in Alabama, was arrested on Tuesday and charged in the case that had gone unsolved for more than three decades.

"Since her murder in 1988, we have always prayed for justice.," Daneille Root, Tremblay's cousin, said in a statement released on behalf of the family through the Essex County District Attorney's Office. "We have never stopped thinking of Missy, despite what others, who say they are her friends, have said in the media in the past years."

The Salem NH girl's body was found in the Boston & Maine Rail Yard in Lawrence on Sept. 12, 1988, after she had spent the day playing in the Lawrence neighborhood while her parents were at a local social club. Her body was located between two freight cars with the left leg severed under one of the trains.

"My aunt, Janet, may not have used the best judgment in allowing Missy to play around the neighborhood of the social club, but that is between her and God," the family statement said. "She loved Missy and never intended any harm to come to her."

Essex County DA Jonathan Blodgett said on Wednesday that McClendon had been "a person of interest for a period of time" and that evidence found on Tremblay's body led to the arrest.

McClendon waived rendition in Alabama on Thursday and is set to be arraigned on the murder charge in Lawrence District Court next week.

"We would like to thank the police who have worked so hard over the years to make sure justice was found," the family said. "Thank you to the Essex District Attorney's Office for reaching
out to us to make sure we knew what was going on. Especially Michelle Defeo who worked hard to locate us since we have moved out of state.

"We thank everyone for their prayers and so many of the kind words we have seen posted on the social media articles. We are very eager for the next steps that the Essex County DA's Office will be taking in the prosecution of Marvin McClendon."

(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.)