(Copyright 2008
Bangor Daily News)
MEDWAY - If a
fresh forensic
examination can be
arranged, the town will
donate its services to
exhume the body of
homicide victim Joyce
McLain, the Board of
Selectmen decided
Monday.
Following the
recommendation of town
groundskeeper Dusty
Cramp and eager to help
where they could,
selectmen voted 5-0 to
donate about $800 in
services to a renewed
effort to solve the
nearly 28-year-old
homicide.
"All that we are
responsible for is the
digging up of the grave
and maintaining the
grave while the body is
away, and reburial,"
board Chairman David
Dickey said Monday.
McLain is buried in a
town cemetery off
Grindstone Road.
Greylen Hale, a first
cousin of Joyce McLain,
and Pamela McLain, the
victim's mother, sought
help from the selectmen.
Hale explained that the
family, friends and many
residents of East
Millinocket, where
McLain was killed, want
to exhume the body for
DNA testing. Hale was
grateful for the board's
assistance.
"That was the first step
of many. This will be a
long road with a lot of
bridges to cross," Hale
said Monday.
A
16-year-old Schenck High
School sophomore, McLain
went jogging the night
of Aug. 8, 1980. Her
partially clad 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 taken from the
body 28 years ago.
McLain remains
undeterred.
Dickey is sympathetic.
"If there's anything we
can do to take someone
off the street who was
involved in [the
homicide], we will do
it," he said.
The McLains need to
raise at least $15,000
to pay for a fresh
examination and other
costs, Hale said.
