The horrific murder of an 11-year-old girl four decades ago in Dorchester’s Ronan Park is again stirring emotions as a proposal to re-name a playground inside the park as a memorial to the victim is under consideration by city officials.

Maryann Hanley was found murdered and raped in the park on Aug. 1, 1983. The then-boyfriend, Val Mayfield, of one of her sisters, was convicted of the murder. The case traumatized the tight-knit neighborhood and still reverberates among those who were alive at the time. Mayfield, who was 17 at the time, remains imprisoned after being denied parole yet again earlier this year.

Even as 40 years have passed, the scars remain fresh for neighbors, residents, and family members who disagree over the naming of a city-owned playground near the crime scene after the victim.

The proposal, led by Maryann’s sister, Janet Kulka, has been going through the requisite procedures over the past several months, leading to a public hearing last Thursday (Sept. 28) at which Parks Department officials were to hear from people who want to memorialize Maryann Hanley this way and people who think that it is a bad idea. However that was tabled at the last minute.

In an interview, Kulka said some in her family see the naming as something positive to come out of the tragedy. There already is an unapproved, informal memorial flower garden to Maryann at the spot beyond the baseball field where her body was found. Kulka said the Parks Department offered her a bench, or the playground – and she chose the playground.

“Right now, there are plenty of parks that are named after children that have been murdered,” she said. “I am not looking to name a park, only a playground…My sister played in that playground and my children and grandchildren played in that playground…There are still happy memories in that park regarding Maryann. That should be her legacy.”

Linda Matranga, a neighbor who was 12 at the time of the 1983 crime, is one of those speaking out against the proposal. “It’s our park and it’s a whole new generation of people’s park,” said Matranga. “Now, you’re going to introduce this tragedy to a whole new group of people who think Ronan Park is nothing but awesome.”

The playground above inside Ronan Park would be named for Maryann Hanley under a proposal made by members of her family. Seth Daniel photo

She added: “You’re giving it over to one terrible memory and taking away millions of happy memories from that playground. It was unfair the first time and it’s unfair this time as well.”

Matranga’s position has won favor from some, including the Meetinghouse Hill Civic Association, which had initially supported the family’s position. The group re-considered its support after a presentation by Matranga at its Sept. 20 meeting.

“We all agreed upon reflection that it’s not a good idea to name a playground or park after someone that’s been murdered,” said Jennifer Johnson, the civic group’s president. “We decided it had become a bigger issue than Maryann Hanley. We took a stand and said it wasn’t the right thing to do in general. We don’t want another person to come up in the future and try to name it after someone else, either.”

Johnson said that she originally signed the petition because she wanted to be supportive, but not having lived in the neighborhood in the early ‘80s, she didn’t know exactly what had happened or the wide-ranging effects it had engendered.

“In this situation, there are still people in the community that remember,” Johnson said. “To have this playground named after her is upsetting to many because it’s a tragic and horrible memory from their childhood.”

Kulka maintains that people have lost focus. “They have a grudge from 40 years ago that has nothing to do with me but with my family,” she said. “This is victimizing our family and Maryann again. We’re trying to take a negative and make it into a positive. Somewhere down the road, they all forgot that. This is dirty politics.”

For their part, the city officials charged with making a determination on the naming proposal have decided to hold off— for now.

“I don’t believe ever in our history have we ended up in the position we’re in now,” said Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, city chief of environment, energy, and open space, during the Sept. 28 meeting. “We have parties suggesting two different opinions on the same action. …We are going to table the conversation on the playground until we follow up and get clear information from all parties and do our due diligence.”

This is not the first time that questions about how to memorialize crime victims has come up in the context of city streets, parks or playgrounds.

Hearings have been held on the naming of city-owned spaces for murdered children, including the Jermaine Goffigan baseball field in Roxbury’s Marcella Park, named for a boy who was killed by a stray bullet on Halloween in 1994; Martin’s Park, located in the Seaport and named after 8-year-old Martin Richard who was killed in the Boston Marathon Bombing; the Stephen Odom Peace Park off Morton Street in Dorchester, named after a 13-year-old gunned down in 2007 in a case of mistaken identity; and the Tiffany Moore Tot Lot in Roxbury, named after a 12-year-old girl hit and killed by stray bullets in 1988.

For Matrangra and others, the trauma that accompanied a peer’s homicide is something that they would prefer not to revisit on a daily basis.

“We went through it up here back then,” said Matranga, who remembers the murder clearly. “Everything stopped. What changed was the air. You could just feel it in the air. That’s how bad it was. When you would go outside, there wasn’t a freakin’ soul outside and it was summer. No one even watering their lawn. Nothing.”

She said it took years for people to return to Ronan Park, and when they did, no one would go to the side where Maryann Hanley was found.

“We were shattered and completely deflated,” said Matranga. “We’ve already carried these crosses and it’s time to unburden ourselves…They are naming a playground after an 11-year-old girl that was found murdered and raped in that same park. Who wants to remember that?”

But the Hanley family and their supporters think that their sister’s memory should be kept alive in the park where her life was ended so brutally.

“I use that park and I still live in the community,” said Kulka. “Many of [those against it] do not, so why does it matter to them? This is all about Maryann…I’m not throwing in the towel.”

The Parks Department has not yet scheduled follow up meetings. Meanwhile, Matranga and a group called Ronan Park Neighbors & Friends have scheduled a meeting on the topic for Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. in the Fields Corner Library.