Justice for Joyce McLain

In August of 1980, Joyce McLain went for a jog and never came back…

16-year-old Joyce McLain was a pretty exceptional girl. She was the kind of teen who excelled at anything she put her mind to, and she was involved in just about everything, though I cannot fathom how she fit it all in.

Joyce loved to play her saxophone; she played in the school band, and would improvise solos and write her own music. Her musical talent went beyond her saxophone though, and according to her mother, she could play just about any instrument she picked up by ear.

She was about to be a junior at Schenck High School in her tiny hometown of East Millinocket, Maine. After a day of hanging out with her friends swimming on the lake, Joyce, decided to squeeze in one last activity. A run. It wasn’t her favorite, but she’d been trying to a little more exercise to make sure she was ready for the upcoming soccer season. She set out around 7:30pm as the cooler night air was starting to settle in.

But Joyce never made it home.

After two days of trying to find Joyce, their search came to a devastating end. Joyce’s body was found bludgeoned to death in a powerline clearing behind Schenck High School, just 200 feet from the soccer field where she was set to play fullback that coming season.

Who would do this to such a well loved young woman with such a bright future?

Her mother, Pam McLain told the Bangor Daily News “It’s hard for me to believe that anyone I know could have done it but someone did do it. It did happen. We have to accept it, but there will be no peace or rest until whoever did it is caught nor is there going to be rest for anyone in this community. So please, as a mother, I’m begging, please come forward.”

Another strange incident…

There was another incident the night of Joyce’s murder. A teenager in town, Philip Scott Fournier, who went by Scott, was in an accident that practically killed him. In fact, during the initial phase of the investigation he was in a coma from a traumatic brain injury.

Scott had broken into a local garage and stole their fuel truck, drove it straight through the garage door, and ended up colliding with a car a few miles away, completely flipping the truck. It took about three weeks for him to regain consciousness, and around that time police paid him a visit to see if he knew anything.... but he was little help, and couldn’t remember anything about that night.

A bit later in 1981, Scott’s memory started to come back into focus, and he recalled some disturbing memories from the night of Joyce’s murder. He still couldn’t remember much from the night... But what was resurfacing was disturbing. Was it just a dream or was it real?

This is a story of hope

Over the years, Joyce’s cold case was featured on the original Unsolved Mysteries in 1989 hosted by Robert Stack, which garnered national attention for East Millinocket, Maine. Despite this, Joyce McLain’s murder is one of the longest homicide investigations in Maine State Police history, spanning 38 years.

But this case is solved, and it gives hope to other families of cold case victims that one day their turn will come, no matter how many years pass by.

This is the story of Joyce McLain. Tune in wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

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