A mistrial was reportedly declared Wednesday in the case against a former corrections officer accused of killing an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl 35 years ago.
Melissa Ann Tremblay of Salem, New Hampshire, was found dead Sept. 12, 1988, at a railyard in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She was reported missing one day earlier.
Marvin "Skip" McClendon Jr., 76, was arrested last year in Alabama. He was charged as a fugitive from justice and returned to Massachusetts to face a murder charge.
Prosecutors said DNA evidence found on the victim's remains in 2014 led investigators to McClendon's family. Authorities obtained DNA from relatives, including Skip, who was identified as the only left-handed family member, with the investigation finding that the killer was left-handed.
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The trial against McClendon began earlier this month. The Eagle Tribune reported Wednesday that the jury deadlocked and failed to reach a verdict after 29 hours of deliberation.
The office of Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker said it would prosecute a new trial against McClendon.
"We are confident in the evidence we have and we look forward to a retrial," Tucker said, according to the newspaper.
A timetable for the planned retrial was not revealed. The Eagle Tribune reported that McClendon was returned to jail after the mistrial was declared, and that while he was held without bail ahead of this month's trial, it was not clear whether he might be released on bail in the meantime.
McClendon worked for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections on three separate occasions between 1970 and 2002, prosecutors said at the time of his arrest. He lived in Chelmsford and was doing carpentry work at the time of Melissa Ann's killing.
