SALEM, Mass. — Nereida Cortes is now a Realtor in North Carolina. But 35 years ago, she was a single mother in Lawrence raising her 5-year-old daughter and 12-year-old twin brothers.
On the night of Sunday, Sept. 11, 1988, Cortes’ boyfriend had just left her 219 Boxford St. apartment. As she was getting ready for bed, she heard loud screaming, she told jurors Friday as she testified in Marvin “Skip” McClendon’s murder trial in Salem Superior Court.
“A scream loud enough to grab my attention,” said Cortes, whose apartment was located near the railroad tracks.
While she heard screaming, Cortes said she looked out her living room window and couldn’t locate a problem.
Melissa Ann Tremblay, 11, was killed in Lawrence that night. On Friday, Cortes was one of the latest prosecution witnesses called to testify in McClendon’s murder trial in Salem Superior Court.
McClendon, 76, is accused of murdering Tremblay in a case that had gone cold for more than three decades. He was charged with Tremblay’s murder April 27, 2022.
Tremblay, who was a sixth-grader at the Haigh School in Salem, N.H., was stabbed, beaten and killed in Lawrence near the LaSalle Social Club.
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.
Prosecutor Jessica Strasnick said DNA evidence links McClendon to the girl’s murder.
But defense attorney Henry Fasoldt 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.
On Friday, a lead investigator in the criminal case, now-retired Massachusetts State Trooper Kenneth Kelleher, returned to the stand as a prosecution witness.
In 1988, Kelleher was a detective assigned to the Essex County District Attorney’s office and investigated major crimes, including homicides, sexual assault and white-collar crimes.
After a suspect was not immediately located, Kelleher said he spent roughly the next five years chasing any prospective developments in the case.
“I followed up on every tip and lead that came in on the case,” he testified, answering questions posed by Strasnick.
After five years, Kelleher said information “started to dwindle to the point where the case went cold.”
On cross examination, Fasoldt asked Kelleher about two men – Randy Therrrien and Robert Powers – who were in the railroad yard and the general vicinity the night Tremblay was murdered.
Both men have since died. Fasoldt read reports compiled by Kelleher and transcripts of interviews he conducted with both Therrien and Powers.
One of the men was in possession of a hunting knife and they were both using drugs in the area the night Tremblay was murdered.
Strasnick asked Kelleher about footwear the men were wearing that was sent to the FBI to see if it matched marks left on Tremblay’s back.
“That was negative,” Kelleher said.
Therrien and Powers were eventually eliminated as suspects when he and other detectives were unable to “connect them to Melissa Tremblay’s homicide.”
“We had to follow the evidence,” he said.
The trial continues Monday and is expected to last about two weeks.
On Tuesday, jurors are scheduled to go to Lawrence and visit the areas where the LaSalle Club was located and where Tremblay’s body was found.
Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter/X @EagleTribJill.