Jurors on Tuesday saw pictures of the white top and pants Melissa Ann Tremblay, 11, was wearing on Sept. 11, 1988 when she was in South Lawrence, Massachusetts and later found beaten, stabbed and murdered.

Pieces of the girl’s outfit, which was adorned with black and gray stars, was posted on video projectors in the jury box as well as overhead television screens in the Salem Superior courtroom.

Julianna Hooper, a forensic scientist with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, said she tested the set for blood and other evidence along with a pair of white sneakers Tremblay was wearing when her body was found in a Lawrence rail yard.

Pictures of the sneakers were also shown to the jurors.

Several MSP crime lab employees were called to the stand Tuesday as the first-degree murder trial for Marvin “Skip” McClendon, 76, of Bremen, Alabama, continued.

While the murder case was cold for more than 30 years, prosecutor Jessica Strasnick said DNA taken from under Tremblay’s fingernails matched McClendon, a handyman who frequented the area in 1988.

But Henry Fasoldt, McClendon’s defense attorney, said the entire criminal case is “based on assumptions,” including leaps made with the DNA, and that McClendon had “absolutely no reason” to kill Tremblay.

It’s unclear if McClendon will take the stand in his own defense, Fasoldt told The Eagle-Tribune Tuesday.

McClendon was charged with Tremblay’s murder on April 27, 2022. His trial on a first degree murder charge opened on Thursday, Dec. 7. Presiding Judge Jeffrey Karp ha said the hope is jurors can start deliberating the case by Dec. 20.

Tremblay was a sixth-grader at the Haigh School in Salem, N.H., when she was found murdered in Lawrence near the former LaSalle Social Club at 397 Andover St.

She was known to play in the adjacent neighborhoods while her mother and her mother’s boyfriend frequented the social club. She was last seen alive by a railroad employee and a pizza delivery driver, authorities said.

Tremblay’s mother has since died. However, the girl does have surviving relatives and childhood friends living in the area.

Tuesday morning, jurors were bused from Salem Superior Court to Lawrence to see where the LaSalle Club and railyard were located.

Later in the day, when testimony resumed, Abbey Scott, a MSP crime lab worker, explained to jurors that fingernails are often collected and tested because “DNA can get under fingernails” of those someone is in close contact with.

Strasnick also questioned Jennifer Montgomery, a supervisor in the DNA unit at the MSP crime lab, about testing from 2019 to 2023 on fingernail clippings taken from Tremblay’s right hand.

DNA collected did not match the late Randy Therrien and Robert Powers, two men who were in the railroad yard at that time who were questioned by investigators.

However, Montgomery said the DNA matched McClendon male family members, including Marvin McClendon, in her testimony.

McClendon, a retired Massachusetts corrections officer, has been held without bail at Middleton Jail since his arrest and return from Alabama to Massachusetts in 2022.

Age 41 when Tremblay was murdered, McClendon is a 1965 graduate of Tewksbury High School and an Air Force veteran. He was living in Chelmsford and affiliated with a 7th Day Adventist Church in Lawrence in 1988, prosecutors have said.

Court officers escort McClendon, who uses a walker, from the courtroom to the courthouse lockup during the trial.

Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter/X @EagleTribJill.

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