Episode 147: The Murder of Joyce McLain
16-year-old Joyce McLain was about to start her junior year of high school at Schenck High School in East Millinocket, Maine in the fall. She did really well in school and was an honor student, and balanced good grades with also being a member of the school orchestra, part of the Thespian Group, the Stage Band, the tennis team, the drama club and on top of all of that she was a cheerleader. She was secretary of her class, a member of the student council, president of the chorus, and a member of the Dance Movement. Joyce did it all and balanced everything impressively well. She was also kind and a great role model for her little sister Wendy. Joyce absolutely loved music and from when she was a young kid showed incredible musical ability. She was of course part of the school orchestra where she played the saxophone, but also composed her own music and according to her mom Pam, she could play just about any instrument.
On Friday, August 8th, 1980, Joyce had gone out for a jog near her house. She wanted to get a head start on training for the soccer team before school started, and went out in the early evening at around 7:30 while it was still light out but wasn’t as hot. When Joyce didn’t come home by 8:30 when it started to get dark, her mother Pam went out in her car to look for her. Pam didn’t find Joyce or really any sign of her, and then night turned into morning and Joyce still wasn’t home. Friends and family put together a search party and spread out on foot to try and find her. Police were called, and they thought she could have gone out with a friend.
A volunteer named Peter Larlee, who had gone to Joyce’s school but was four years older, was helping to search for her with a group of volunteers and Joyce’s family and friends on August 10th. He came across her body in the woods behind the high school at around 6:00am. After finding her body he ran home to call police, then led the police chief to the location.
Joyce was found lying on her side near a large rock. She was naked and had been badly beaten. The back of her skull was caved in from excessive blunt force trauma. Her hands had been tied behind her back with a blue cloth or piece of torn clothing, but she had not been sexually assaulted. Police attempted to obtain any evidence they could, but they weren’t able to get any identifiable DNA from Joyce’s clothing or find any fingerprints. What police dogs did find, however, was a large and heavy glass and ceramic insulator that was used to protect power lines, and the area where Joyce’s body was found was in a clearing with multiple power lines. The insulator was broken and the ridges matched Joyce’s wounds.
Peter Larlee, the volunteer that found Joyce’s body, was ruled out as a suspect. There was a nearby paper mill with over 700 construction workers, but police felt it was someone Joyce knew.
As if things couldn’t get any more tragic in the town, the very same night of Joyce’s murder, 19-year-old Philip Scott Fournier, who went by Scott, nearly died himself. He was in a horrific car accident after he had had a few drinks and then ridden his bike down to a local garage, where he broke in and stole an oil truck. He drove it through the garage doors but crashed into another car, flipping the truck. He was in a coma for several weeks and couldn’t remember anything when he woke up. In 1981, Scott approached his pastor and was very distraught about some dreams he had had about Joyce’s murder. He was then brought to the Bangor police station, where he told police he remembered being at a party that night and overhearing conversations about a girl being assaulted. After several hours, he was released as police felt he wasn’t a suspect.
Scott met with police many times after his initial interview to provide them with any information he could remember, eventually giving them the names of several boys who had been at the party and were Joyce’s friends or classmates. The party was not far from where Joyce’s body was found. None of these names led to anything, and the case went cold.
Pam continued to pressure police to keep working on the case, and she was a tireless advocate for Joyce. She kept a candle in her window for her, kept her name in the press, did interviews, and around the five year anniversary of Joyce’s murder she started an organization called Justice for Joyce. This organization really renewed the investigation and the town’s interest, and she received donations to hire private investigators. She even raised money to have her daughter’s body exhumed in 2008 to have another autopsy done after police refused. While this autopsy did not lead to any new findings, it was very high-profile and resulted in state police assigning a cold case team.
They found that there wasn’t a record of Scott Fournier’s initial police interview. They then went to talk to the pastor, Pastor Thomas, that brought him in, as this pastor hadn’t revealed anything about what Scott had said to him. Police found Pastor Thomas in Florida, and he told them that Scott confessed to Joyce’s murder. Investigators then found that Scott had a twisted fascination with Joyce. He had told his stepfather that he was going to take up running as a hobby after he had seen Joyce run by his house on a few occasions when she started getting back into shape for soccer.
Scott Fournier was finally arrested in March of 2016 for the murder of Joyce McLain.
On January 22nd, 2018, Scott went to trial. Prosecutors pieced together the events of that night, telling the courtroom that after Scott had followed Joyce into the woods, he attempted to sexually assault her and then killed her. He then ran to the nearby party for an alibi. After he had been drinking, he panicked and realized he needed to get out of town, so he stole the oil truck but then crashed it.
Scott was sentenced to 45 years in prison where he remains.
Image sources:
people.com - “What Happened to a Maine Cheerleader Who Went Jogging 38 Years Ago and Never Came Back?”