A jury is Massachusetts have found an Alabama man not-guilty of murder in the nearly four decades-old case involving the killing of an 11-year-old New Hampshire in 1985.

Marvin Skip McClendon Jr was acquitted of all charges on Tuesday after being deadlocked the previous day. The states case against McCledon Jr hinged on the jury believing DNA evidence found under the victim, Melissa Ann Tremblays, finger nails, matched that of the defendant.

Mr. McClendon was greatly relieved by the verdict, McClendons lawyer, Henry Fasoldt, told The Associated Press, adding that he would return home to Alabama after being held for two-and-a-half years. “We appreciate the jurys careful and thoughtful deliberations.”

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Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker said he was disappointed with the verdict but praised the efforts of prosecutors and law enforcement officers in the case.

I recognize the work and dedication of the jury during their long deliberations in this case,” Tucker said. “My thoughts are with the family of Melissa Ann Tremblay, who have suffered greatly due to the crime that took her life.

McClendon had already stood for trail in this case a year ago when a jury deadlocked and the judge in the case was forced to declare a mistrial. The body of Tremblay was found near a train yard in Lawrence, Mass on Sept. 12, 1988, a day after she was reported missing.

The victim had accompanied her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to a Lawrence social club not far from the railyard and went outside to play while the adults stayed inside, authorities said last year. She was reported missing later that night.The girl’s mother, Janet Tremblay, died in 2015 at age 70, according to her obituary. But surviving relatives have been attending court to observe the latest trial.

The case went unsolved for decades with police exhausting all suspects when DNA evidence reportedly led them to McClendon. He was eventually arrested in 2022 based in part on this evidence.

Essex County Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick told the jury that comments McClendon made during his arrest showed he knew details of the crime and that he was “fixated on the fact that she was beaten, ladies and gentlemen, because he knew that she wasn’t just stabbed that day, that was she was beaten.”

A left-handed person like McClendon stabbed Tremblay, Strasnick said. She told jurors that the carpenter and former Massachusetts corrections officer was familiar with Lawrence, having frequented bars and strip clubs in the city. He also lived less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) away at the time of the killing.

Strasnick told the jury that the DNA evidence taken from under Tremblay’s fingernails excludes 99.8% of the male population.

But Fasoldt said there was no proof the DNA came from under Tremblay’s fingernails or was from McClendon.Fasoldt also said evidence shows that a right-handed person, rather than a left-handed person, could have stabbed Tremblay.

His defense argued that McClendon had no meaningful connections to the communities where the murder was committed, other than living in a neighboring town.

McClendon had moved to Alabama in 2002 to a plot of land his family owned.

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