(Copyright 2008
Bangor Daily News)
EAST MILLINOCKET -
Forensic pathologist Dr.
Michael Baden has
expressed an interest in
examining the body of
homicide victim Joyce
McLain, the slain girl's
mother, Pamela McLain,
said Tuesday.
An
internationally
recognized expert
witness who has
testified in the cases
of Medgar Evers, John
Belushi and O.J.
Simpson, Baden told
Joyce's cousin Greylen
Hale last week that he
would need $10,000 for
expenses and the autopsy
report done when
McLain's body was first
discovered almost 28
years ago.
McLain, who is
campaigning to have her
daughter's body exhumed,
called Baden's interest
"a big thing."
"He has to have the
autopsy report first,"
McLain said Tuesday,
"but his interest is a
big thing, and the price
... is very much
raiseable. I am
surprised that it's as
low as it is. I mean, at
least it's workable to
get that money."
McLain and Hale say they
would likely need to
raise $15,000 or a
little more to cover all
expenses associated with
exhumation and
transportation of the
body to Baden's New York
office.
The chief forensic
pathologist for the New
York State Police and
host of HBO's "Autopsy"
series, Baden has been a
medical examiner for 45
years. He has performed
more than 20,000
autopsies and helped
with congressional
reinvestigations of the
assassinations of
President John F.
Kennedy and Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. in the
1970s.
Baden did not
immediately return
messages seeking comment
on Tuesday. He is their
first choice, but Hale
would not rule out the
family's seeking
assistance from other
forensic experts.
A
16-year-old Schenck High
School sophomore, McLain
was killed sometime
after going jogging 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.
When Pamela McLain asked
the state medical
examiner's office late
last year to exhume the
body, she hoped that the
killer might have left
DNA traces in the wounds
that could help with the
state police
investigation, which
continues. She also
believes there is at
least a chance the body
has not degraded to the
extent experts believe.
State Deputy Attorney
General William R.
Stokes has said that the
state's forensic experts
believe it is extremely
unlikely that any viable
evidence will be found
and that the state
retains the best
evidence - three tissue
samples of inconclusive
origin - taken from the
body at autopsy.
McLain remains
undeterred, and Stokes
has expressed interest
in cooperating with
family efforts to secure
a second opinion. McLain
said a representative of
hers went to Augusta on
Tuesday to seek Stokes'
cooperation.
"If they [scientists]
can find out what a
mummy ate for breakfast
3,000 years ago, then
maybe they can find
something down with my
daughter," McLain said.
Stokes did not
immediately return a
telephone message left
Tuesday afternoon
seeking comment.
Although it has been
almost 28 years, the
state police
investigation into the
homicide remains active,
Stokes and state police
have said.
Detective Brian Strout,
the case's lead
investigator, was
pursuing a lead and
conducting interviews in
East Millinocket on
Monday, he said.
"We have had some
information come in and
we've continued to work
on it," Strout said
Tuesday. "That's all I
can tell you at this
point."
Strout referred further
comment to his
supervisor, Detective
Sgt. Troy Gardner, who
was not immediately
available.
The Medway Board of
Selectmen voted 5-0 on
Monday to donate about
$800 in town services to
the exhumation of
McLain's body, which is
in a town cemetery off
Grindstone Road. To help
McLain raise more funds,
the activist group
Justice For Joyce is
re-forming to hold
fundraisers for the
exhumation and
brainstorm possible ways
to help resolve the
case.
The group will meet at
10 a.m. April 18 and
April 25 in the town
office building. The
public is invited.
"We want some closure to
this, finally," said
Nancy Deschaine, the
group's spokeswoman and
an East Millinocket
resident. "This family
has endured this for
going on 28 years. It is
time that this was
brought to an end. This
murder has to be solved
one way or another. In
the event that it's not
solved because of a lack
of DNA or whatever, then
we can live with that.
"To us, this isn't the
last chance," she added,
speaking of her
determination to help
end the suffering of
Pamela McLain. "We will
be there for her and
whatever she needs."
Pamela McLain might have
no rest until there is
justice for Joyce, Hale
said, but so long as she
can guarantee that the
investigation is being
pursued vigorously, by
residents holding
fundraisers and by
professional
investigators, then
perhaps neither will
Joyce's killer.
