The murder of Joyce McLain in 1980 (of East Millinocket, Maine)

[unsolvedmysteriesfan]

Sorry, the subject should read "McLain"

State declines request to exhume Joyce McLain's body
By
Friday, March 21, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

Citing recommendations from the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory and the state’s chief medical examiner, Deputy Attorney General William R. Stokes said the chance of getting foreign DNA relevant to the case, per McLain’s request, "is virtually nonexistent.

"Given the fact that 27 years have now passed since your daughter’s death and burial, the amount of bacterial degradation would be significant and would destroy any foreign DNA that might exist," Stokes wrote in a letter to McLain dated March 3.

Wonder what Stokes is afraid of, by exhuming McClain. Considering they shouldn't have to exhume her if they had done their job then, eh?

-
Justice for Joyce fund nears goal for exhumation

http://bangornews.com/news/t/penobsc...267&zoneid=183

Not counting two outstanding fundraisers, $12,516 of the $15,000 needed to fund the exhumation has been raised, according to the group’s Web site, justiceforjoyce.com.

The victim’s mother, Pamela McLain, expects that if all goes well, the fundraising will reach its goal within two months and exhumation could occur shortly thereafter, she said.

"We figured around $15,000, but that was an estimated cost. It could be $12,000, it could be $17,000," McLain said Thursday. "Hopefully, it [the exhumation] will happen within a month or two, but if we have the money then we don’t have to wait for anything."

The committee created justiceforjoyce.com and a Bangor Savings Bank account for donations, which may be mailed to Justice For Joyce, Bangor Savings Bank, 87 Main St., East Millinocket 04430.

SNIP

No contribution will be in vain, McLain said.

Any leftover funds, McLain said, will go to Parents of Murdered Children Inc., which provides emotional support to help parents and other survivors reconstruct a "new life" in the wake of a murder, according to the group’s Web site, pomc.com.

[NakedSoul]

dr michael baden and dr henry lee have been retained to do a new autopsy on joyce mclain.

louis
east millinocket native

[Zero]

Originally Posted by NakedSoul

dr michael baden and dr henry lee have been retained to do a new autopsy on joyce mclain.

louis
east millinocket native

Do you really think they can find anything?

[unsolvedmysteriesfan]

Expert outlines McLain review
By Renee Ordway
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

Dr. Henry Lee, considered one of the world's top criminologists, said the examination of a 28-year-old unsolved homicide case in Millinocket would be very time-consuming and consist of a "lot of tedious work."

In a weekend phone conversation, Lee said his review of the Joyce McLain case would involve four basic stages.

"First we must look at all the information, read every interview with witnesses," he said.

Lee and those working with him then will review all of the physical evidence in hopes that something new or yet unseen may surface. It then will be determined whether new scientific technology can be applied to any of the old evidence to perhaps gain new information.

"Number four is to reconstruct the crime scene to see if some piece of information may have been wrongly disregarded," he said.

Lee said he would have less to do with the re-autopsy of McLain’s body and said he doubted the body would provide any new leads.

"It may confirm the manner or cause of death, but I don’t think it would provide too much else. Of course, I don’t know for sure," he said.

Dr. Michael Baden, chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police and host of HBO’s "Autopsy" show, will perform the autopsy and look for any clues the body may offer.

Baden and Lee have agreed to take a look at the case, which remains one of the state’s most notorious unsolved homicides. McLain, a 16-year-old Schenk High School sophomore, was killed around the night of Aug. 8, 1980.

Her body was found two days later in a power line clearing about 200 feet from the school’s soccer fields. Her head and neck had been struck repeatedly with a blunt object.

McLain’s mother, Pam McLain, requested Baden’s assistance in her daughter’s case and recently a grass-roots organization, the Justice For Joyce Committee, raised more than $18,000 to cover the costs associated with the case review by Baden and Lee.

On Sunday, Lee said the case was very important to Baden, who "twisted my arm" and "called me nearly every day" until he agreed to take part in the case review.

Lee is chief emeritus of the Connecticut State Police and founder of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science at the University of New Haven, where he also oversees a national cold-case unit. Last year that unit solved 17 cold cases, Lee said.

Lee also travels throughout the world and has assisted in investigating war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia and serial killings in Asia.

Lee said it was Baden’s persistence along with a "good mix" of circumstances that led him to agree to take on the McLain case.

"First of all, Maine is quite nice. There are very nice people in Maine. Dr. Baden was very persistent and the lab, the police, everyone wants this case solved. Everyone is cooperative and helpful and that’s a very good start," he said.

On Monday, Deputy Attorney General William Stokes, who heads the attorney general’s criminal division, said he was working on coordinating schedules so that Baden and Lee could make the best use of their time while they are here.

"We don’t have a date yet of when this will occur, but certainly we hope it’s sooner than later," Stokes said. "We will certainly be cooperative and more than happy to help them out in any way possible."

Stokes said that he wanted to ensure that investigators, current and past, as well as lab personnel and medical examiner staff were at the ready when Lee and Baden could arrange to get to Maine.

"We’re prepared to give them all of the time they need," he said. "We welcome them here and hope they can help us out with the case."

[mphs95]

Maybe Henry Lee & Dr. Baden can come up with something to put the MSP on the right track. God I hope so. It's been almost 30 years.

[Kane]

Originally Posted by mphs95

Maybe Henry Lee & Dr. Baden can come up with something to put the MSP on the right track. God I hope so. It's been almost 30 years.

There's always hope that something can be found. When cold cases are reviewed, it is typical for someone involved in the task to wonder if something had been overlooked. Obviously, this is why a new autopsy is being performed on Joyce's body.

[Necco]

Joyce McLain was exhumed yesterday.
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=8920890

[Mastermind]

Sad that they had to disturb her rest....

but good that they might have a chance to catch her killer.

[unsolvedmysteriesfan]

McLain autopsy reveals new evidence
Body's pristine condition surprises Baden, Lee
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY KEVIN BENNETT
Forensic experts Dr. Henry Lee, left and Dr. Michael Baden answer questions about their autopsy of murder victim Joyce McLain at a press conference in Augusta.
By Nick Sambides Jr.
BDN Staff

AUGUSTA, Maine - Renowned forensic experts Dr. Michael Baden and Dr. Henry Lee found new evidence Friday in the body of Joyce McLain that gives state police renewed hope for solving the teenage East Millinocket girl's 28-year-old homicide.

"Information has been gathered that they [investigators] can immediately work on," Baden said during a brief press conference held in the parking lot outside the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Friday afternoon.

"Physical evidence," Lee added.

Baden and Lee expressed surprise that the body seemed as well-preserved as McLain's coffin and vault were found to be during an exhumation held at a Medway cemetery on Thursday. When asked to grade the body's preservation on a score of 1 to 100, Baden gave it an 85 to 90.

Both declined to say much more, citing the need to keep aspects of the ongoing investigation confidential. Neither of the famous specialists nor state police spoke of imminent arrests or anything so dramatic, and the work is far from over.

Many tests remain that will take weeks to do, Lee said, and any new evidence must fit an already-massive investigation to produce enough probable cause for arrest - a formidable task.

But the evidence could provide the greatest break in the cold case since the 16-year-old Schenck High School sophomore's body was found on Aug. 10, 1980 near the East Millinocket school's soccer fields. McLain was last seen jogging nearby late Aug. 8. She had been beaten to death.

State police promised that as the tests were proceeding, detectives would be conducting interviews and looking anew for more information.

"We really want to solve this case," said Lt. Jackie Theriault, the case's supervisor.

"There is someone out there in Maine who knows what happened," said Stephen McCausland, state police spokesman. He urged anyone with information to call 800-432-7381.

http://www.bangornews.com/detail/49821.html

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

If the person who left this evidence has since died, they will have to dig them up, too.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

One article says that letters and notes left in the casket should be examined. What, do they think the murderer wrote a confession and slipped it in with mementoes from family and friends?

[Mastermind]

What, do they think the murderer wrote a confession and slipped it in with mementoes from family and friends

Yes, i think that's exactly what they are looking for.

I think there was a case not to long ago where the killer actually did slip a confession in his victims coffin.

[NakedSoul]

if memory serves me the casket was not an open one at wake nor funeral. how did letters get put inside other than those from immediate family?

[joshypiano]

Originally Posted by NakedSoul

if memory serves me the casket was not an open one at wake nor funeral. how did letters get put inside other than those from immediate family?

Who's to say it couldn't be a member of the immediate family or close family friend???

[dynoguy88]

I watched this segment this evening. I then went on google and found a surprisingly HUGE number of articles about the latest developments in the Joyce McClain case.

It took Joyce's mother Pam 20 years to finally get permission for a second autopsy to be performed on her daughter. Here she is placing her hand on the casket after it was dug up last Spring...



After 28 years, the body was still 85% preserved. This led to several new clues to the investigation from DNA. They haven't been made public yet but Pam McClain says that if she were the killer or killers, she would be very nervous right now.

Here's an article that was released in May 2009 with a video...

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news...15/detail.html