Does anyone recall watching the segment on the unsolved murder of 16 year old Joyce McLain? Joyce McLain was from East Millinocket, Maine and was found brutally murdered in the woods behind her highschool in 1980. The town of East Millinocket went into a panic after the murder because it was a safe town. Are there any updates as to who murdered her? What a tragic story.

This is another of the rare cases I remember watching in UM's first season. It might have been because of the year, or it might have been because of where she was murdered (at the time, I was going to an elementary school that was near thick woods).

Of course, I may be wrong. Wasn't Joyce blonde? And wasn't there a candelight vigil after her murder? I seem to remember that in association with this case.

I too would like to read about an update or even more information about the murder.

Yes, that's the one. Joyce was blonde and there was a candle light vigil on the 8 year anniversary of her murder. I don't know if there is anymore information on her case, you could try searching the internet. It's really hard finding any information on these really old cases.

Having grown up in East Millinocket, I can tell you that the case still remains unresolved, although i feel the police know who the murderers are. Joyce's murder still to this day haunts my hometown as prior to this there was no such violent acts that happened in East Millinocket. If you have any questions you can reach me at cochinos10@hotmail.com and title the email re:joyce mclain.

NakedSoul

murder still unsolved.... if you go to mainecoldcasesunsolved you will see many maine murders still unsolved... sad

Does anyone recall watching the segment on the unsolved murder of 16 year old Joyce McLain? Joyce McLain was from East Millinocket, Maine and was found brutally murdered in the woods behind her highschool in 1980. The town of East Millinocket went into a panic after the murder because it was a safe town. Are there any updates as to who murdered her? What a tragic story.


Sorry, still unsolved :(

murder still unsolved.... if you go to mainecoldcasesunsolved you will see many maine murders still unsolved... sad
I will be writing to the maine state police soon on something i was told in 1989. I was told something about this and was told if i said anything I was next. I have gotton to the point in my life where i need to offload this information, for Joyce, and her mother and sister so they may have closure. If nothing is done and it isnt pursued, then it is on them...they have the information. I am merely going to confirm it, from what I have heard. I have talked to others, and many have heard the same. I have hesitsted because i didnt know if this info was correct in any way...my contacts have confirmed many of the same things i have heard. I hope it helps.

dr michael baden and dr henry lee have been retained to do a new autopsy on joyce mclain's remains and it should be underway soon.
louis
east millinocket native

The folks at America's Most Wanted are considering doing a segment on the case. And they just might be able to if they acquire home movies of Joyce.

http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=167769&zoneid=164

Wow...shock80. I remember that guy.

Hmmm... Based upon the limited research I did into Shock80, I would think that DarkDante would remember him more. :D

I will be writing to the maine state police soon on something i was told in 1989. I was told something about this and was told if i said anything I was next. I have gotton to the point in my life where i need to offload this information, for Joyce, and her mother and sister so they may have closure. If nothing is done and it isnt pursued, then it is on them...they have the information. I am merely going to confirm it, from what I have heard. I have talked to others, and many have heard the same. I have hesitsted because i didnt know if this info was correct in any way...my contacts have confirmed many of the same things i have heard. I hope it helps.


so....did this person get killed too?



I wish he would have just posted what he was told, jeez.

This case has always been very eerie. Imagine, a small town where almost nothing happens and then a young girl like Joyce is murdered. Very sad and creepy.

I wonder if she was possibly killed by the Connecticut River Valley Killer. He struck in New Hampshire and Vermont in the late 70's to late 80's. It wouldn't surprise me if he was frequently in Maine.

It's just a shame that this case remains unsolved.

They should have tested that DNA they recovered from exhuming her body and learned something by now.

If the police were pretty sure they knew who killed her, why wouldn't they stage an interrogation and go forward from there?

I hate the way small towns operate in these types of cases. What are the people afraid of?

Wow...shock80. I remember that guy.

what did he say/do lol its been a while for me

Still nothing?

Still nothing?

Joyce's body was exhumed in 2008 for a second autopsy by Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Henry Lee which was said to reveal new evidence but I have heard nothing further on that. This leads me to believe that it was most likely a random event which the perpetrators had no intention of escalating to murder. It would seem to me that they made a secrecy pact which has not yet been compromised.

There was a 1993 movie called "The Liars' Club" starring Wil Wheaton [Star Trek] and Soleil Moon Frye [Punky Brewster] which was based on the theme of keeping a date rape secret within a circle of friends, which later turned into a murder. I wonder if this movie was inspired in any way by cases such as that of Joyce or Kurt Sova or Jeremy Bright or others which would appear to have followed a similar pattern, where presumably one or more parties is privy to the facts, yet none have surfaced decades later.

Joyce's body was exhumed in 2008 for a second autopsy by Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Henry Lee which was said to reveal new evidence but I have heard nothing further on that.

A couple years ago, I found an an article online that mentioned that. It came with this picture of Pam McLain putting her hand on Joyce's casket when it was dug up.

http://bdnimages.sprintout.com/uploads/large/1219963869_a44f.jpg

The article said the body, even after 28 years, was still 85% preserved and that has led to new evidence. But it hasn't been made public and I haven't found anything else online since.

A couple years ago, I found an an article online that mentioned that. It came with this picture of Pam McLain putting her hand on Joyce's casket when it was dug up.

http://bdnimages.sprintout.com/uploads/large/1219963869_a44f.jpg

The article said the body, even after 28 years, was still 85% preserved and that has led to new evidence. But it hasn't been made public and I haven't found anything else online since.

Yeah, I thought I had read awhile back where there had been little to no decomposition of the body. That is truly amazing. With the body still in that good of condition, and the new techniques available today, surely they came up with something.

How does that happen where a body can stay in almost perfect condition after such a long time (about 30 years in her case)? I guess that could create hope in other unsolved cases that new evidence could be found if the bodies of people that were murdered of had an "unexplained death" were exhumed.

Was any DNA found on her that wasn't her own?

the idiots at the state of maine police department will never solve this one :(

If the police believe they know who killed her, why not act more on it until there's an arrest or a confession? Makes no sense to me.

If the police believe they know who killed her, why not act more on it until there's an arrest or a confession? Makes no sense to me.
the maine state police is filled with graduates of clown college

the maine state police is filled with graduates of clown college

Hey, it takes some skill to be able to make balloon animals.

Last week, an online petition was started to get Joyce's case sent to the FBI and so far, over 1,700 signatures have been collected. But apparently, despite the petition, the case can only be directed by state investigators.

Here's a couple articles which includes a video of Pam McLain being interviewed at Joyce's grave...

http://www.wcsh6.com/rss/article/201146/2/Petition-asks-FBI-to-look-into-Joyce-McLain-murder

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/17/news/penobscot/internet-petition-calls-for-fbi-to-handle-32-year-old-murder-case/

Hey, it takes some skill to be able to make balloon animals.
:lol:

Last week, an online petition was started to get Joyce's case sent to the FBI and so far, over 1,700 signatures have been collected. But apparently, despite the petition, the case can only be directed by state investigators.

Here's a couple articles which includes a video of Pam McLain being interviewed at Joyce's grave...

http://www.wcsh6.com/rss/article/201146/2/Petition-asks-FBI-to-look-into-Joyce-McLain-murder

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/17/news/penobscot/internet-petition-calls-for-fbi-to-handle-32-year-old-murder-case/

Wow, Joyce had a lot going for her: good-looking, talented (could play the saxophone it looks like in one of the pics?), seemingly pretty smart.

Why doesn't law enforcement test the unidentified DNA that was found on her?

Wow, Joyce had a lot going for her: good-looking, talented (could play the saxophone it looks like in one of the pics?), seemingly pretty smart.

Why doesn't law enforcement test the unidentified DNA that was found on her?

She really seemed like a girl who had it all, didn't she? Honor student, student council, gifted musician, cheerleader, pretty and well liked by everyone.

As far as the DNA that was tested on her during the autopsy in 2008, no information has been released to public which I guess I can understand. But they did say that the results had given them a few new leads to check out. I was just hoping after 4 years, some new information could have been released to the public but I get the sense that nothing has changed since the autopsy was done.

She really seemed like a girl who had it all, didn't she? Honor student, student council, gifted musician, cheerleader, pretty and well liked by everyone.

As far as the DNA that was tested on her during the autopsy in 2008, no information has been released to public which I guess I can understand. But they did say that the results had given them a few new leads to check out. I was just hoping after 4 years, some new information could have been released to the public but I get the sense that nothing has changed since the autopsy was done.

Have they tried to do a DNA match with the DNA criminal database?

Maybe the person that killed her has never been arrested for anything, but why not try that? I don't know how that whole process works, but I know it's been a more common practice over the last decade or so. I wonder if the murderer is even still alive after all this time.

Link (http://bangordailynews.com/2012/06/01/news/penobscot/olympia-snowe-asks-fbi-to-review-32-year-old-joyce-mclain-murder-case/)

EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine — U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe has asked the FBI to examine the nearly 32-year-old murder of Joyce McLain, Snowe’s spokesman said Friday.

Snowe wants the FBI to review the case, but apparently stopped short of advocating that the agency take control of the case from state police, as the victim’s mother, Pamela McLain, has sought, Snowe communications director Chris Averill said.

“This is obviously a horrific case and a tremendous burden on the family to live with this terrible uncertainty,” Averill said Friday. “For the family’s sake closure is an important element here. I think the senator would say she wants to be supportive to the extent possible.”

McLain sent Snowe a copy of a letter she sent to the FBI seeking that federal investigators “take a fresh look at the case,” Averill said. That letter arrived May 21.

That same day, the Republican senator forwarded McLain’s letter and sent a letter herself to the FBI “explaining Mrs. McLain’s hope that a new set of eyes and new technology will bring a break in the case and closure for the family. Sen. Snowe asked the FBI to look into the situation and keep her informed as to its response,” Averill added.

Averill declined to release copies of the letters and said that as far as he knows, no one from the FBI has yet responded to them.

Intervening in law enforcement issues on behalf of Snowe’s constituents is an infrequent but not unusual occurrence for the senator, Averill said. Her office acted as an intermediary when Lee native Michael Severance was murdered in Texas in 2005 and Yong Cha Jones of Bangor when her son was murdered in Baltimore in the 1990s, Averill said.

Snowe did not take a position on whether the FBI should take over the McLain case, Averill said.

“I don’t think she takes any position on that. That’s up to law enforcement or the relevant agencies involved to figure that out,” Averill said.

McLain wasn’t home to answer a request for comment made Friday afternoon. An FBI spokesman in the bureau’s Boston office referred inquiries to its Washington, D.C., headquarters, which did not respond to a request seeking comment.

Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said he doubted Snowe’s intervention in the matter would change anything.

The Maine State Police have no objection to another agency reviewing the case, and FBI agents have reviewed the case previously, but state police investigators will likely not seek a new review, he said.

A 16-year-old sophomore at Schenck High School in East Millinocket, Joyce McLain was killed sometime during the night of Aug. 8, 1980, apparently while jogging. About 35 hours passed, and a rainstorm came, before searcher Peter Larlee found her body in a clearing near electrical lines close to the school’s athletic fields. Her head and neck had been hit with a blunt object.

The homicide drew national attention on the syndicated television show “Unsolved Mysteries” in 1989, in which Larlee re-enacted his awful discovery, and in People magazine, which in April 2009 featured the discovery of forensic evidence found during an exhumation in 2008. The “Unsolved Mysteries” episode is still available on the Internet.

No arrests have been made.

Maine State Police maintain that the case always has been actively pursued.

A glimpse into the elaborate and confidential nature of the case came in December 2009, when U.S. District Judge John Woodcock urged Philip Scott Fournier, 48, of Millinocket to disclose to investigators whatever information he has about the McLain case.

Identified by the judge as a “person of interest” in the homicide, Fournier was being sentenced by Woodcock to 6½ years in prison for possession of child pornography.

Fournier’s federal public defender said Fournier had cooperated with investigators, and Fournier’s ex-wife said she believes Fournier has knowledge of the crime.

McLain has said Fournier is among about a dozen suspects or people of interest spoken of since the homicide.

Pamela McLain and friends of the McLain family made news last month when they announced the circulation of an Internet petition urging that the FBI take control of the investigation from state police. McLain also wanted state police to share the case file with her.

State police have refused both requests, saying they would seek FBI assistance if they thought it would be helpful.

McLain publicly asked the FBI to take over the case in August 2010, and an FBI spokeswoman at the time said the agency would do so if the case invoked federal jurisdiction, which would require the U.S. Attorney’s Office to find a violation of federal law in the crime.

The office did not comply with the request then.