The police arrested a 74-year-old man in 1988 in the murder of 11-year-old Melissa Tremblay in Massachusetts, according to the Essex District Attorney's Office announced on Wednesday.

District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said at a press conference that Marvin C. McLendon Jr. was arrested Tuesday in Bremen, Alabama, and placed in the custody of the Coleman County Sheriff's Office.

A press release from Blodgett's office stated that McLendon "was taken into custody and charged as a fugitive from justice based on an arrest warrant issued yesterday for the murder of Melissa Ann Tremblay."

A spokesperson for the District Attorney's Office told CNN on Thursday that the suspect is expected to be brought to court next week.

CNN tried to reach a public defender who might represent McLendon, but the offices were closed Thursday; the Coleman County Mayor's office told CNN earlier that it has no information on whether McLendon has a lawyer who might comment on his behalf.

Melissa was found dead on September 12, 1988, at the Old Boston and Maine Railroad in Lawrence, according to the press release.

The statement said she had been stabbed to death and a train ran over her body after death. Blodgett said the girl was last seen playing in the neighborhood near a social club in Lawrence while her mother and her boyfriend were inside.

According to the statement, a railroad employee and a pizza delivery driver were the last to see her alive. Melissa’s mother searched the area before reporting the child missing at around 9 p.m.

He added that "over the years, police have interviewed dozens of witnesses, suspects, and persons of interest," but the case remained unsolved. The statement said authorities reopened the case in 2014 and "evidence recovered from the victim’s body was helpful in solving the case."

Blodgett declined to comment on the specific evidence that led to the arrest while speaking to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.

"The investigation found that the suspect was living in Chelmsford in 1988," Blodgett said at the end of his statement, "I would like to thank everyone who was involved in this investigation from beginning to end. Their relentless pursuit of justice for Melissa has brought us to this moment. We have never forgotten Melissa, and we have never abandoned holding her killer accountable."