Aroostook County Escaped Prisoner Captured After Thirty-Three Years

A prisoner who escaped from the Aroostook County Jail thirty-three years ago has been captured and is back behind bars.

According to the Aroostook County Sheriff's Office, Aroostook County Jail inmate Albert Marcheterre escaped from the jail's recreation yard on the afternoon of April 21, 1981. He was just 23 years old. A search was undertaken, an arrest warrant obtained and his picture was circulated through law enforcement circles at that time.

Aroostook County Sheriff's Office

Late in the evening of Sunday, November 2, 2014, more than thirty-three years later, Albert’s luck ran out. Vermont State Police arrested 56-year-old Albert Dumais (AKA Albert Marcheterre or Maschererre) and notified the FBI, which had been working closely with Aroostook Sheriff’s Deputies over the last few weeks to locate and apprehend Marcheterre. The search had been revived because of information obtained by the FBI. Marcheterre was arrested in Derby, Vermont and is being held at the Newport Correctional Center.

Aroostook County Sheriff's Office

In March of 1981, Marcheterre was booked into the Aroostook County Jail for a theft offense he is alleged to have committed in Ashland. While that case is not going to be prosecuted, due to a lack of witnesses, the escape charge will be prosecuted. It appears Marcheterre was arrested by U.S. Marshals for a firearms violation in 2004, for which he was released from probation in 2012. At that time, he was living in Massachusetts. The Aroostook County warrant did not surface at that time because he was using a different name.

Tuesday afternoon, Marcheterre appeared in District Court in Newport, Vermont and waived extradition to Maine. Aroostook County Sheriff’s Deputies will bring Marcheterre back to Houlton sometime within the next week.

Chief Deputy Darrell Crandall said, "I called retired Chief Deputy Sheriff Shirley Cleary on Monday to tell him Marcheterre had been arrested. Shirley was a captain in the jail in 1981 when Marcheterre escaped. Shirley, who is now in his 80’s, was happy to hear that Marcheterre has been arrested but declined a tongue in cheek offer to be part of the extradition team. He told me, “try to keep him in there this time.”"

If convicted of the escape charge, Marcheterre faces up to five years in prison.