A former correctional officer has been found not guilty of murdering an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl in 1988.

• Marvin S. McClendon Jr. was found not guilty after being arrested in 2022 for the 1988 murder of 11-year-old Melissa Ann Tremblay.
• “Mr. McClendon was greatly relieved by the verdict,” McClendon’s lawyer told The Associated Press.
• “My thoughts are with the family of Melissa Ann Tremblay, who have suffered greatly because of the crime that took her life,” Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker said, according to WBZ-TV.

A former Massachusetts Department of Corrections employee has been found not guilty of a crime. murder of 11-year-old New Hampshire girl died more than 36 years ago.

As PEOPLE previously reported, Marvin K. McClendon Jr. of Breman, Alabama, was arrested and charged by Massachusetts authorities as a fugitive from justice in April 2022, 33 years after Melissa Ann Tremblay of Salem, N.Y., was found. Hampshire. dead near railroad tracks in Lawrence on September 12, 1988.

On Tuesday, November 5, the jury, deadlocked on Monday, found McClendon not guilty on its sixth day of deliberations, according to Associated Presswhich reported that the case hinged on whether DNA found on the victim matched the suspect.

McClendon’s lawyer, Henry Fasoldt, told the news agency: “Mr. McClendon was very relieved by the verdict.”

“We appreciate the jury’s thorough and thoughtful deliberations,” Fasoldt added.

At the time of Melissa’s murder, McClendon lived in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and worked as a carpenter. Fasoldt told the AP that his client now hopes to return home to Alabama after two and a half years in custody.

Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker said he was “disappointed by the verdict.” VBZ-TV.

“I appreciate the work and dedication of the jury during their long deliberations in this case,” Tucker said, according to the publication.

“My thoughts are with the family of Melissa Ann Tremblay, who have suffered greatly due to the crime that took her life,” he added.

Neither Fasoldt nor the Essex County District Attorney’s Office immediately responded when contacted by PEOPLE.

Melissa’s body was found the day after she “accompanied her mother and her mother’s boyfriend” to a social club in Lawrence on Sept. 11, 1988, authorities previously said in the Essex County District Attorney’s Office. press release.

“While her mother and her mother’s boyfriend remained at the club, Melissa played in nearby blocks and was last seen by a railroad employee and a pizza delivery driver in the late afternoon,” the 2022 report said. Later that night, a young girl was reported missing to Lawrence police.

She was then found dead “at the old Boston and Maine Railroad station near Andover Street and South Broadway in Lawrence”, the day after she was “stabbed to death” and then “struck by a train car, leaving her The left leg was amputated.” “, the message says.

“Over the years, police have interviewed dozens of witnesses, suspects and persons of interest,” authorities added. “Evidence recovered from the victim’s body was instrumental in solving the case.”

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Authorities previously said McClendon “had numerous connections” to Lawrence, but his lawyer Fasoldt told jurors this week that his client had “no meaningful connection” to the city, the AP reported.

During the trial, Essex County Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnik also told jurors that McClendon appeared to know key details about Melissa’s death, adding that he was “obsessed with the fact that she was beaten, ladies and gentlemen, because he knew that she was beaten.” “She wasn’t just stabbed that day, she was beaten,” the AP reported.

Strasnick also claimed that “DNA evidence taken from under Tremblay’s fingernails eliminates 99.8 percent of the male population” as potential suspects.

However, McClendon’s defense said there was no evidence that the DNA belonged to the suspect or that it was found under the victim’s fingernails, the AP reported.

Tuesday’s decision comes after a judge declared a mistrial in December 2023 after a jury failed to reach a verdict. NBC10 BostonAP and Eagle Tribune previously reported.

For a year online obituaryMelissa’s mother, Janet M. Tremblay, died at age 70 on November 20, 2015.