EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- State Police arrested Philip Scott Fournier of East Millinocket and charged him with the 1980 murder of Joyce McLain.
Fournier is on the registered sex offenders list for possession of child pornography.
The Chief of the State Police, Colonel Robert Williams, held a news conference at the State Police barracks at 198 Maine Ave. in Bangor at 4 p.m. on Friday.
Joyce McLain was 16 when she died. She disappeared while jogging on a summer night in 1980 not far from Schenck High School. Her body was found a few days later near the jogging trail she used.
She had injuries to her head and neck. Over the years, the trail grew colder. Community members pooled their money in 2008 to have Joyce's body exhumed hoping to find any shred of DNA evidence that could be linked to her killer.
According to the affidavit by Detective Thomas Pickering, several witnesses saw Fournier drunk and in the area of Schenk High School on August 8th, 1980-- the day McLain was killed. One witness said they saw Fournier with a friend, Leroy Spearin, outside the school. When the witness returned less than an hour later, Spearin was alone and looked "white as a ghost." Spearin said he did not know where Fournier was when the witness asked.
One witness said he saw Fournier running out from behind Schenk High school, where McLain's body was eventually found, at around 10 p.m. that night.
According to police, later that night Fournier stole an oil truck from Frederico's garage in East Millinocket. He crashed the oil truck and suffered severe injuries. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center.
When Fournier was originally interviewed by police in 1980 in connection with the McLain murder, he told police he did not know Joyce McLain. He told police he had been at the East Millinocket pool earlier that day-- Joyce McLain had also gone to the community pool that day, according to her mother. Fournier said McLain had not talked to him at the pool.
Fournier told police he had been drinking at Opal Myrick School and had not been near Schenk High School, although several witnesses placed him in the area of the murder.
According to the affidavit, in an interview conducted in 1989 with Pastor Vinal Thomas of Calvary Temple, Fournier confessed to the pastor in the early 1980s that he killed McLain. When the pastor called Fournier's mother and stepfather to the church, Fournier also told them that he had murdered Joyce McLain. He also suggested that he may have sexually assaulted McLain. Fournier was taken to Bangor Police that night for an interview. An arrest was not made, and he returned to his home in Medway.
Fournier's stepfather, Wayne Powers, said Fournier had been acting strangely in August of 1980 and had asked Powers if he knew Joyce's mother, Pam McLain. When Powers replied that he did know Pam, Fournier told Powers that he had been to the McLain's house the previous day.
Fournier told police in 1981 that he thought Joyce was "cute and had a nice smile," even though a year earlier he told police that he did not know Joyce. Fournier told police that he was drunk and had a very spotty memory of that night. He told police, "All I remember is tripping over and my hand felt her arm; it was cold. I don't remember anything after that."
When confronted by police about his conflicting statements, Fournier reiterated that his memory from that night was impaired by alcohol.
"Because I remembered these things but I know that they weren't a part of my memory, they were things I made up," Fournier told police in 1981. "I remember telling investigators that I raped Joyce and that I hit her with a telephone insulator and that I kicked her. I told them that I did that, which I didn't, because I'm not that way. I said I did it because I thought I had done it."
Fournier told police in that interview that he tripped over Joyce's body, and that his impaired memory made him think that he may have killed her but that he didn't believe that anymore because it’s just not "something [he] would do." He then told police that he stole the oil truck because he was trying to kill himself.
Another person came forward in 2010 claiming that Fournier had also confessed to him that he had murdered Joyce McLain. Fournier told Ken Woodbury, whom he knew from a rehabilitation program, that he was behind the school that night when he saw a group of teens attack McLain and that he was "forced to participate."
According to the affidavit, Fournier had been interviewed several times over the years. He admitted to varying degrees of involvement, and accused several others of murdering McLain.
Fournier was arrested at 11 a.m. Friday morning. He was taken to the Penobscot County Jail. His first court appearance will be Monday.