The Misery Machine - The Story of Kimberly Dobbie + Albert Flick

Starting point is 00:00:00 Kimberly Sue Dobby was born on October 17, 1969. She graduated from Bromfield High School in Harvard, Massachusetts, and went on to attend the Leslie College Threshold Program in Cambridge. Leslie's website describes the Threshold Program as a post-secondary program for young adults with diverse learning, developmental, and intellectual disabilities. Now, while in this program, Kimberly pursued a certificate in early childhood education. After she graduated, she worked at Alston Brighton Head Start as a teacher's assistant for several years before returning to her hometown to raise her twin sons, Cole and Dylan.

Starting point is 00:00:41 People who knew Kim loved her for her kind and gentle spirit. She had a bright smile and a quick wit, and she befriended everyone she met. Kim loved the beach, and Christmas was her favorite holiday. her two twin boys were by far her greatest joy. After losing a teaching position, Kimberly and her boys moved to Maine, settling in the quaint college town of Farmington. I've spent a lot of time in Farmington, and it is a wonderful small town,

Starting point is 00:01:10 and that is precisely what Kimberly was looking for. However, the job market in Franklin County isn't the greatest, and Kimberly and her son soon found themselves homeless. With nowhere to turn, the family headed to our home. hometown, the city of Lewiston. It was there that she checked into the Hope Haven Gospel Mission on the corner of Cedar and Lincoln Street. There she made fast friends with Kathy Cormier and Laura Kirkland, two women who also found themselves

Starting point is 00:01:40 in need of resources. As this shelter takes in families and has services for school-aged children, Kimberly thought that her family would be safe there. Now, per their website, Hope Haven is a 32-bed shelter. most nights it is at capacity, a food pantry that serves families in need, and a soup kitchen that serves over 2,000 meals monthly. Their website also notes that shelter residents must be clean and sober, and offenders on the registry are not permitted. However, it does not outline any other offenses that could bar an individual from receiving services. Keep that last part in mind, as this will

Starting point is 00:02:23 become a very important part later in our story. Lewiston is also where Kimberly met 77-year-old Albert Lee Flick. He frequented the Lewiston Public Library and went to the shelter to eat. A friendship between Kimberly and Albert began after the old man offered by her and her boy's lunch. Kimberly didn't have a lot of money. She lived on limited social security benefits for one of her sons who was autistic, and her food stamps had been cut because she was staying at the shelter. The two were friends for about a month, but the relationship changed after Kimberly's Section 8 housing came through. For those overseas or those who are not familiar, Section 8 housing is the federal government's major program for assisting very low-income families, senior citizens, and disabled people to afford safe and sanitary housing in the private market. According to Kimberly's friend Kathy Cormier, she ran into the mother and her sons as well as Albert at the Auburn-Wallmark.

Starting point is 00:03:22 Kimberly had just gotten good news that she would be getting an apartment and wanted to move back to the Farmington area where her twins went to school. She had an apartment lined up in the town of Jay, which you might remember from our Kimberly Moreau episode. Out of nowhere, Albert interjected and started talking about getting a truck. And this puzzled Kathy as Kimberly's larger possessions were already being stored at a church in Farmington. She said to Albert that all you need is a little U-Haul. However, Albert began to insist that his belongings were to be moved also. According to Kathy, he said, we have a lot of stuff coming from Lewiston. She stated that Kimberly was looking at her, but she wasn't saying anything.

Starting point is 00:04:06 About a week later, Kimberly told Albert that she and her boys were moving up to Farmington by themselves, and he was not coming with them. She did not need or want his help, nor did she want that type of relationship. but this only made Albert pursue the mother even harder. He started buying her clothing and gifts, which she'd give right back. Kimberly tried everything to dodge Albert in his advances. However, Lewiston is only so big, and it's pretty easy to figure out where people are. The Dobby family spent much of their time each day at the Lewiston Public Library on Lisbon Street.

Starting point is 00:04:43 This is in the heart of the city's downtown. Unfortunately, this is where, Albert hung around as well. Typically, the boys would be upstairs taking part in some of the many activities offered by LPL kids. The department offers homeschool story time and many other extracurricular events for children in the community. Sometimes they would get lunch at the former Victor News on Park Street just a block away. It was there that they noticed that they were being followed and had been followed since they left the shelter that morning. Albert began coming to the shelter in the early morning hours to try to find the family before they left for the day.

Starting point is 00:05:22 He would then follow them all over town, to the library, to the corner store, to the bus station. This man was obsessed and relentless. Cole and Dylan became very uneasy about the situation with Albert. While at LPL kids, they would often come down to the ground floor and ask for their mother. Albert didn't like Kimberly's sons. In fact, he once told, her that if she didn't have the boys, they could be in a relationship. Kimberly kept telling him no, but it seemed the more she resisted, the more he pursued her. She would try to be polite and tolerant of this old man, but balked at his attempts to hug her or show her physical affection.

Starting point is 00:06:07 Now, please keep in mind, Albert Flick was 77 years old at the time of our story, and Kimberly was 48. In a bedroom at Hope Haven, Kathy tried to offer the mother words of encouragement. She told her, just hang in there. You'll be gone in just two or three days. It was obvious that Kimberly was very clearly exhausted from dealing with this stalker in Albert,

Starting point is 00:06:32 and she was eager to move on and start a new chapter in her life, one that she so clearly needed. Little did Kathy know. This was the last time that these two friends would get to spend together. On July 15th, 2018, Albert was late for his morning stalking of the Dobby family. Kimberly and her sons had gotten up early

Starting point is 00:06:55 and had already left Hope Haven. However, he managed to catch up with a family at Dunkin' Donuts on Main Street, not the new one, the old one that was located across the street from Central Maine Medical Center. Surveillance video from the restaurant showed Albert standing around

Starting point is 00:07:11 watching Kimberly and her boyfriend. boys have breakfast with her friend, Laura Kirkland. He then followed them down the road and left onto Sabata Street to Rankort's laundromat, where the family went off to do their laundry. This was the last breakfast that Laura got to have with her friend, and the last time that she got to hug her. In a video of the street, Albert was seen in a light blue shirt walking back and forth in front of the laundromat for 10 minutes, often stopping to peer into the window. Kimberly came out of the laundromat and sat down on the steps. She was talking to a friend from Massachusetts on her cell phone

Starting point is 00:07:47 when all of a sudden, Albert appeared. The old man produced a five-inch paring knife with a pink handle. He began to stab Kimberly. As she was sitting down and taken by surprise, she couldn't get away from him. The man on the other line heard Kimberly screaming for help. Dennis Fisher, who was in Maine from New Hampshire, on business had just opened the door to a dryer at the laundromat when he heard screams coming

Starting point is 00:08:15 from outside. According to Dennis, quote, it was loud, real loud. She was just screaming, help, help, help, end quote. Without a second thought, the man flew out the door to where Albert stood over Kimberly. According to Dennis, he drop kicked him. The parry knife flew into the air, and Dennis used his foot to pin Albert's neck against the sidewalk. Another man, Eric Drake ran to Kimberly's aid when he heard her screaming. He held her trying to put pressure on her wounds and he frantically called 911. Kimberly laid back on the stairs her breath giving a death rattle. According to Eric, it was really bad. I mean, I knew something was wrong. She was bleeding everywhere. Elliot Meserve, who lived in the apartment overlooking the stairs on which Kimberly was

Starting point is 00:09:07 attacked, said he could see Albert stabbing her. He heard her tell him to leave her alone. According to Elliot, Albert's face had no emotion. There was no rage or passion. It was just blank. Kimberly was stabbed 11 times in broad daylight. What's even worse is the fact that her twin boys witnessed this entire attack. Kimberly died that morning from blood loss, even with Central Maine Medical Center sitting a block away. One of the wounds cut the left ventricle of her heart and another fractured a rib and pierced her right lung. Albert Flick was taken to a hospital after the stabbing and upon his release, was arrested

Starting point is 00:09:50 and charged with Kimberly's homicide. According to Laura Kirkland, quote, he wasn't trying to get away with anything. He did it in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses and in front of her children, end quote. Everything Albert did had been documented on film from the footage of him stalking Kimberly and her family at Dunkin' Donuts to the deadly attack in front of Rancourts. Additionally, he was caught on camera purchasing two pink-handled pairing knives with five-inch blades at the Auburn Walmart two days earlier. However, this was not the first time that Albert had killed a woman in front of her child. In January of 1970,

Starting point is 00:10:33 Albert's first wife, Sandra Flick, served him with divorce papers. But as we've learned, Albert doesn't handle rejection very well. In response, Sandra had to contact the Westbrook Maine Police Department to have him forcibly removed from their home. Allegedly, Albert stayed away for a while, which led Sandra to believe that he had cooled off. He returned to the home under the pretense that he was going to collect his belongings and leave. What happened next is somewhat unclear based on conflicting information from different sources. But all sources note that Sandra's 12-year-old daughter, Elsie, was eavesdropping from another room.

Starting point is 00:11:14 One source states that Elsie's hold police that her stepfather had grabbed her mother and shoved her face first into the couch. He had told her that he loved her and that he didn't want to hurt her before stabbing her repeatedly and fleeing the scene of the crime covered in blood. allegedly, the 12-year-old could hear the screams of her mother being attacked as she ran for help. Another source claims that Albert took out his knife and began showing Sandra how to remove the hooks from the fishing lines of his poles. According to Elsie, her mother bent over one of the poles to take one of the hooks off. Out of nowhere, her stepfather seized her arm and bent it behind her back, putting his other hand over her mouth. According to Elsie, quote, I remember being behind the door in the bedroom when he knocked

Starting point is 00:12:04 because I didn't want him to know I was home. I remember my mother screaming my name and me running out the door, end quote. Elsie made it to the nearest neighbor. She was out of breath and informed him that her stepfather had been hurting her mother. In turn, the neighbor called police

Starting point is 00:12:22 and met Albert coming down the stairs with blood on his hands and blood stains on his pants. Albert did serve about 21 years of his 30-year sentence in prison and was released in the early 2000s for good behavior. But even though he managed to behave himself within the confines of the main state prison, Albert couldn't seem to keep his hands to himself on the outside. In 2007, he was arrested for assault after he attacked a woman, allegedly stabbing her with a fork and punching her in the head. In 2010, Albert was in court yet again on a charge of DV in criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

Starting point is 00:13:02 According to a 2010 report from the Portland Police Department, Albert placed a woman that he was seeing in a headlock and stabbed her with the handle of a steak knife several times. Some sources indicate that he chased the woman with a screwdriver, but the woman managed to get away. Although I haven't found many sources confirming this, it's been said that Albert tried to take his own life but was located in time by point. police who managed to cut him down and bring him in. At this trial, Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Robert Crowley made the following statement, which has now come back to haunt him. Quote, there's absolutely nothing in Mr. Flick's past history that suggests he is going to choose to abandon his behaviors of assaultive conduct towards women.

Starting point is 00:13:50 However, from his appearance and the fact that the date of his birth, he will be 70,000, or 73 when released from the probation revocation, and, as with an earlier defendant, at some point Mr. Flick is going to age out of his capacity to engage in this conduct, end quote. Also at trial, Assistant District Attorney Catherine Tierney and Albert's probation officer, Troy Thornton, made statements of their own. The DA laying out Albert's long criminal record recommended that he go to prison for eight years. She stated, quote, I know that the defendant is an older man, and that the court in society may think that this individual is going to stop committing crimes, especially crimes against women and violent crimes against women with weapons.

Starting point is 00:14:36 But his history has really shown that he's just not about to do that. I think there is a huge safety risk to women in society when it comes to Mr. Flick. And I would ask that the court imposed the full revocation, followed by a consecutive four-year sentence. And quote. Thornton went on to state, quote, there's no better predictor for future behavior than past behavior. He's an extremely violent individual when it comes to relationships. He doesn't appear to have slowed down at this point,

Starting point is 00:15:07 and I don't see him slowing down in the near future, end quote. Instead, Justice Crowley sentenced him to nearly four years in prison, adding it did not make sense from a criminal or financial standpoint to incarcerate Albert Flick into his 70s. He was released in 2014 at age 72, and then he killed Kimberly a few years later. At his trial for killing the 48-year-old mother, Assistant Attorney General Robert Ellis told the jury Kimberly Dobby's murder was not a rash act, but one that was deliberate and well thought out. He said, quote, the obsession became, if I can't have her, I will kill her.

Starting point is 00:15:49 That's exactly what he did. quote. Albert's attorney, Alan Lobozo, argued that Albert Flick wasn't obsessed with Kimberly and that the relationship was not sinister. He said, quote, everyone wants to paint Mr. Flick as a creeper, and in the aftermath in this incident. But again, you have to consider, in spite of all this creepiness, I asked a number of people, was there ever a complaint? Was there ever a complaint to police of him following her around. The answer was no. No one at all can point to a single statement,

Starting point is 00:16:26 not one before these events that would show any intention by Mr. Flick to inflict harm on Ms. Dobby, end quote. However, this time around, he wasn't going to get off so easily. On July 17, 2019, Albert Lee Flick was convicted of homicide. Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before reaching the guilty verdict. On August 9th of the same year, Justice Mary Gay Kennedy sentenced him to life in prison, ensuring that Albert will never harm another woman again. In the wake of Kimberly's death, her twin sons, Cole and Dylan, were placed in the custody

Starting point is 00:17:04 of their maternal grandmother, Susan, of Ayer, Massachusetts. A memorial service was held on Saturday, August 18, 2018, at the first parish in Concord Mass. All who loved Kimberly were welcome to attend and share in her memory. Kimberly's name is inscribed on the Maine murder victim's memorial in the Holy Family Cemetery in Augusta, Maine, among the dozens of others lost their lives. What's most tragic about Kimberly's death is that it didn't need to happen. Albert Flick should have never been able to see the light of day after he killed his first wife, Sandra. Her murder was cold, calculated,

Starting point is 00:17:45 and absolutely premeditated. And worst of all, her daughter has to live with a memory of her mother's final, terrified moments on this earth, just like Cole and Dylan Dobby now have to.

The Misery Machine - The Story of Kimberly Dobbie + Albert Flick

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