McClendon is accused of stabbing Tremblay to death and leaving her body on the tracks by a rail freight terminal near South Broadway and Andover Street.
When her body was found, her left leg had been severed by a train.
High-topped sneakers, a denim purse
On Sept. 13, 1988, a day after Tremblay’s body was found, a smiling picture of the young girl with dark, feathered hair topped the front page of The Eagle-Tribune.
Then-reporter Susan Forrest wrote about how the girl’s body was found face down on the railroad tracks, hidden between two trains.
A Boston & Maine worker who was making routine checks in the area spotted her around 3:45 p.m. the day before.
Tremblay, she wrote, “was known to hang around the railroad tracks while her mother visited with her boyfriend at the LaSalle Social Club on Andover Street several times a week.”
“Footprints and blood discovered about 65 feet from the tracks indicate that a struggle took place. There appeared to be at least one stab wound and Melissa’s left leg had been severed by a train,” according to the report.
The story also noted the girl was found fully clothed and she was wearing high-topped sneakers. A small denim purse with Tremblay’s wallet and identification was found near her body.
The girl’s body was taken to Worcester for an autopsy. Meanwhile, state and local police scoured the area looking for witnesses. Dumpsters were searched for a murder weapon, Forrest wrote.
McClendon was employed by the state’s Department of Correction on intermittent dates from 1970 to 2002.
Then, in 2002, he moved to Bremen, Alabama, where he had a home at the end of a dirt road on property surrounded by family members.
Fasoldt previously filed a motion to dismiss the case focusing on DNA evidence collected in the investigation.
Superior Court Judge Salim Tabit denied the motion, however.
McClendon was ordered to pay $35,000 toward his defense. He receives $3,000 per month in pension and Social Security benefits. He also owns his home, which sits on 11 acres in Alabama and is worth $153,000.
If convicted of first-degree murder, McClendon would be automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole
SALEM, Mass. — Jurors are expected to hear from the original case detectives and visit the neighborhood and rail yard where Melissa Ann Tremblay, 11, was last seen and found
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