Maine State Police say it’s one of the longest murder investigations that has ever resulted in an arrest in Maine.
Thirty-six years after the killing 16-year-old Joyce McLain in East Millinocket, Philip Scott Fournier, 55, has been charged with her murder. Fournier had previously been identified as a person of interest in her death.
McLain disappeared while jogging on a trail in August 1980. Her partially clothed body was found two days later along a power line near Schenck High School. Police say she had been bludgeoned to death.
Ever since, her mother, Pamela, has been her most vocal advocate, pressing investigators for answers and working to keep the case alive.
In 2008 she had her daughter’s body exhumed for further DNA testing. Forensic experts who did the examination told the press at the time that they’d found new evidence.
At a news conference Friday, Col. Robert Williams of the Maine State Police said that since that time the Maine State Police Crime Lab and a team of detectives from the Major Crimes Unit have been working closely with the attorney general’s office.
“They have comprehensively reviewed all the old and new evidence and as a result of that have arrested Scott Fournier,” he said.
Williams said it was not a single piece of evidence that led to Fournier’s arrest. Rather, he said, it was the accumulation of work by “generations of detectives” who investigated the homicide.
Over the years, Fournier, who was 19 at the time of McLain’s death, has made numerous statements to police. According to state police affidavits, Fournier has acknowledged being drunk, trying to sexually assault her, striking her in the head and questioning whether he killed her. He also made statements to other people.
And Williams said a question people often ask: Why does it take so long to solve a case?
“This is a very complex case,” he said. “As you’ll see when it goes to court, there were a lot of things that happened that we had to follow up on and we’ve been doing that. And we’re finally at the point where we’re confident that we can prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
According to the Bangor Daily News, Fournier has a criminal record that includes convictions for burglary and theft in the 1980s. And in 2009 he was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for possession of child pornography. At the time of Fournier’s sentencing, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock identified him as a “person of interest” in McLain’s death.
Fournier was released from prison last year. His first court appearance for the murder of Joyce McLain is scheduled for Monday.
To view court documents in the Joyce McLain murder case, click here.
