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McLain verdict provides hope for other cold case families

Two years before Joyce McLain was murdered police were investigating a similar case in Kennebunk

KENNEBUNK (NEWS CENTER Maine) - The guilty verdict in the Joyce McLain case provides hope for other families of cold case victims.

Two years before McLain was murdered, police were investigating a similar case in Kennebunk. Nearly 40 years later, the murder of Mary Tanner remains unsolved.

Tanner was also a teenager who disappeared and just like Joyce McLain, her body was discovered two days later. That was in 1978 and nearly 40 years later her family is still waiting for answers.

“Forty-year-old cases got to get tougher every day to prove, so that shows me that the state is going in the right direction. Really trying to do the right thing and get them done, bring them to justice,” said Tanner's brother Charlie reacting to the McLain verdict.

He’s hoping someday his family will experience that same feeling of justice being served.

"It never goes away, really never does. I wish it would kinda, but I think about it all the time," he said.

It was a warm July night when friends headed home leaving 18 year old Mary Tanner on a bridge in downtown Kennebunk. She was never seen alive again. Her badly beaten body was found in a wooded area just over the town line two days later. Haunting memories of that day still live with Charlie

“We were just stunned. I just never thought it would be anyone I know. Kennebunk was just so innocent, it seemed back then,” he said.

Tanner is convinced his sister’s case will be solved and that police are getting closer to catching her killer. He says he’s patient and he can wait until all the pieces are put together.

“I don’t want them just grabbing up circumstantial things, I want them to do everything they possibly can to make sure this is the right person,” he said.

His sister is hoping publicity in the McLain case will jog memories of people in their sister's case and bring out information that police need. She spoke with us from her home in South Carolina.

“It’s the exposure and people remember things, even if it’s 40 years. It’s amazing what people store,” said Beth Tanner Goodwin.

Goodwin was just 21 years old when her younger sister Mary was killed. All these years later she says she wants just one thing.

“I just want justice. That’s it, justice,” she said.

These days, Goodwin’s job is helping other families find closure by identifying victims of homicides and natural disasters as a dental forensics specialist. Her sister Mary’s body was identified back in 1978 through dental records.

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