A  man convicted of killing a pre-teen girl, who has maintained his innocence for over 35 years, has been denied a new trial.

Bowdoin Teen Was Killed While Walking to a Babysitting Job

Dennis Dechaine is serving a life sentence for the 1988 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry, whose body was found in the woods two days after she disappeared. The girl was walking to her first babysitting job in the town of Bowdoin when she was abducted, sexually assaulted, strangled with a scarf, and stabbed.

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Dechaine Has Maintained His Innocence, Despite Considerable Evidence in the Case

Investigators found the then-30-year-old farmer's truck parked near the crime scene, with rope inside that was used to bind the girl's hands. Dechaine was seen stumbling out of the woods where her body was found, and a mechanic's repair bill with his name on it was found in the driveway of the home where Cherry was supposed to be babysitting. Dechaine told authorities, at the time, that he had been doing drugs all day and that's why he was in the woods.

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Since that fateful day, Dechaine has maintained his innocence and filed endless appeals. In 2016, he exhausted his federal appeals and then turned to the state, hoping to be exonerated. Defense attorneys say DNA evidence found under Cherry's fingernails doesn't match with Dechaine's, but prosecutors say his fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, on the scarf used to strangle her, and on a stick used to assault her.

Maine Superior Court Judge Denied His Appeal for a New Trial

Despite Dechaine's insistence that the evidence was planted to implicate him, WGME-TV reports that a judge ruled against him on Thursday, January 30, 2025. Judge Bruce Mallonee said the evidence wasn't convincing enough to counteract the original findings and warrant a new trial.

Dennis Dechaine is serving a life sentence for the murder of Sarah Cherry.

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