(Copyright 2008
Bangor Daily News)
She has no
technical expertise or
training, but when it
comes to her daughter's
homicide, Pamela McLain
is by far the case's
most ardent
investigator.
That's why McLain, 61,
of East Millinocket was
disappointed but
ultimately not deterred
that the state Attorney
General's Office
recently declined her
request to exhume the
body of her daughter,
Joyce McLain, who was
killed 27 years ago.
"I
don't have a choice but
to do this," McLain said
Thursday. "I am fighting
for my daughter. She is
laying in the ground,
and she can't protect
herself. She can't speak
for herself. She can't
say if there's anything
[evidentiary] down there
with her, so I have to
try and find out."
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.
A
16-year-old Schenck High
School sophomore, Joyce
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 the experts
believe.
"They think they know
what's down there,"
McLain said, "but they
can't tell me that all
bodies decay in the same
way. God might have
preserved her better
than that.
"I
was hoping that they
would give me this one,"
she added, "with all the
letters I have written."
Maine's U.S. senators,
congressmen, attorney
general, local and state
police, and national
cold case investigative
societies are among the
recipients of McLain's
letters, telephone calls
and e-mails over the
last 27 years as she
moved from quiet
observer to outspoken
advocate in the effort
to nail her daughter's
killer.
McLain is alternately
condemning and
heartbreakingly
philosophical in her
comments about the
murder and the six
primary state police
investigators and others
who have handled her
daughter's case. She is
quick to criticize
almost all and lavish in
her praise of the few
she felt were up to the
task.
She carries the awful
burden of the homicide,
but also owns a bar, Pam
& Ivy's on Main Street,
and cares for foster
children. While she
rambles at times, McLain
is focused, not
hysterical.
"I've been on the case
for 28 years. They come,
they go. They bungled it
from Day One, and as far
as I am concerned they
are still bungling it.
'We're that close,' they
would say. That was
years ago," McLain said.
"There were too many
people, too many
notebooks, on the case.
They have had about a
dozen suspects in this.
"I've come to terms with
it. If I just knew who
did it, if I was the
only person who knew who
did it, that would be
enough for me," she said
of the homicide. "It
would be enough for me,
but not for her. I don't
think I could keep it
secret."
With the attorney
general's rejection,
McLain hopes to get a
second opinion from such
forensic experts as Dr.
Michael Baden, the chief
forensic pathologist for
the New York State
Police, and Dr. Henry
Lee, chief emeritus of
the Connecticut State
Police and former chief
criminalist for the
state of Connecticut.
She's hoping their
opinions will be more
favorable and might sway
Maine's attorney
general.
McLain lacks the money
to hire a private
investigator or exhume
the body herself, but
she's not quitting.
"I'm going on with
this," she said, "until
the day I die."
