BANGOR, Maine — The man accused of the 1980 slaying of Joyce McLain made his first court appearance Monday at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Philip Scott Fournier, 55, of East Millinocket was arrested Friday without incident at his home and charged with intentional or knowing murder and depraved indifference murder in the death of McLain, 16, on Aug. 8, 1980.
He was not asked to enter a plea because he has not yet been indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury. The grand jury next convenes on March 23.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson ordered that Fournier be held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail. Fournier may request a bail hearing at a later date, but bail is granted rarely in murder cases.
McLain’s mother, Pamela McLain, did not attend the brief hearing but other family members did, as did members of Fournier’s family.
The chief of the state police, Col. Robert Williams, said during a Friday news conference at the Bangor barracks that police are confident that Fournier murdered McLain but that the investigation remains open.
“We’re going to continue to work on the case,” he said. “Right now, we think we have the person who committed the homicide, but we’ll see what comes with new developments as people call in.”
McLain last was seen the night of Aug. 8, 1980, while jogging. Her partially clad body was found two days later in a clearing near Schenck High School. Her head and neck had been hit with a blunt object.
Fournier also was involved in a vehicle crash within hours of McLain’s death and suffered head injuries, according to a previously published report.
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock identified Fournier as “a person of interest” in McLain’s homicide when he sentenced him in 2009 to 6½
years in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Fournier’s criminal history also includes convictions in state court for burglary and unauthorized taking in 1979, burglary and theft in 1980 and burglary in 1984. After his conviction for possessing child pornography, he was ordered to be a 10-year registrant of the Maine Sex Offender Registry.
Fournier was released from federal prison on Jan. 6, 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prison Inmate locator.
“He has been interviewed by us many times,” Williams said Friday. “One of the reasons this has taken so long” is that Fournier’s story changed many times through the years.
According to the affidavit, investigators spoke with Fournier at least 27 times in the last 35 years, and in some of those interviews, he confessed to the slaying.
Police also interviewed people who said they heard Fournier confess to killing McLain, including his parents, a local minister and a couple in 2010 who said he told them he was among several young men who attacked and sexually assaulted the girl before killing her.
During interviews with police, Fournier named at least five different men, saying they were involved in McLain’s death. At times he said he was a witness, other times “he was forced to participate.” The Bangor Daily News is not naming the men because they have not been charged with a crime.
Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said Friday the lengthy investigation shows that murder cases sometimes take time to build.
“A murder arrest is not contingent upon one single piece of evidence” but on the entirety of an investigation, which can span years and include hundreds of interviews, said McCausland.
“You get one shot at a murder case, and you have to make it the best possible, and the [attorney general’s] office determined this week that this was the time,” he added.
If convicted of murder, Fournier faces between 25 years and life in prison.
BDN writers Nok-Noi Ricker and Nick Sambides Jr. contributed to this report.