Forty-eight year old single mom, Kimberly Dobbie, lived in Maine with her two young sons. She was staying at a local shelter with her kids after recently relocating to Lewiston and although it was a bit of a struggle at first, the small family were quickly finding their feet in the new city and were soon lined up to move into an apartment of their own.
Dobbie and her boys were at the public library one day when they were approached by an elderly man. He struck up a conversation with Kimberly and offered to buy food for her boys. It must have been easy to see that the family was struggling and the kind offer of lunch from an old man probably seemed harmless enough at the time. But this was no ordinary pensioner; this was 77 year old Albert Flick. Flick had a history of violence against women and a rap sheet dating back over four decades, beginning with the murder of his own wife, Susan Flick, in the late Seventies.
Albert murdered his wife in reaction to her attempt to divorce him. He refused and resisted the separation and eventually had to be forcibly removed from the couples shared apartment by police following Sandra's call for assistance in early January of 1979. Sandra believed that Albert was a threat and was concerned for the safety of her 12 year old daughter who also resided in the home.
Albert stayed away for a while, but by the end of the month he returned to stab the 35 year old woman to death with a jack knife. He came over under the pretense that he was going to collect his things since he would no longer be living there. Sandra likely thought that since enough time had passed without incident it would be okay and agreed to let him come over and clear out his personal belongings. Sandra’s daughter, who was eavesdropping clandestinely from another room, bore witness to the ordeal.
She later told police that her step-father had grabbed Sandra and shoved her face-first into the couch. He 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. The 12 year old could hear the screams of her mother being attacked as she ran for help.
Sandra’s daughter made it to the nearest neighbor and breathlessly informed him that her step-dad was hurting her mother. The neighbor ran up the stairs to Flick’s apartment and witnessed the suspect making his escape. Sandra managed to hold on to life by a thread, just long enough to explain that she had been fatally wounded by her husband, Albert Flick, whom she was in the process of divorcing. She had 11 stab wounds about her chest, neck and sternum, as well as one through the heart.
Albert, who was 36 and working in a donut shop at the time, was inevitably caught, charged and sentenced for the murder of his wife, Sandra Flick, for which he was slapped with a 30 year sentence. He served 21 years before being released on good behavior in the early 2000’s.
Flick may have been able to behave himself behind bars, but once released back out into society he continued to be violent towards women.
By 2007 he had assaulted yet another of his romantic partners. He reportedly stabbed her with a fork and punched her about the head.
He would continue to assault and attempt to stab several more girlfriends, including attempting to stab one woman with a screwdriver and striking her head with the handle of his knife just three years later in 2010. He chased after the woman, feverishly slashing and stabbing at the air in an attempt to sink the screwdriver into her, but luckily, she managed to escape. He attempted to commit suicide but police managed to locate him, cut him down and bring him in. Flick saw the woman several years later in the street and threatened her, but was incarcerated once more before he got the chance to make good on his promise.
He reportedly violated the terms of his parole and plead guilty, spending another stint in prison until his eventual released in 2016.
His family came to his defense each time he was arrested, claiming that he was a good person at the core who had been warped by a violent upbringing.
His good behavior in prison coupled with his old age had Robert E. Crowley, a Maine superior court justice, tell the court in 2010 that: “At some point Mr. Flick is going to age out of his capacity to engage in this conduct” – But Albert Flick would never stop inflicting violence against women and in July 2019 would go on to stab Kimberly Dobbie to death outside of a Laundromat in front of her two sons.
Not long after meeting the small family at the library he would begin to Follow Kimberly around. The day before the murder, following to his usual M.O, he purchased two kitchen knives. The next day CCTV footage from a local business captured the 77 year old dressed in a blue shirt and slacks pacing around.
Sandra had been laundering clothes and was waiting outside for the machine to run its cycle while talking on the phone.
Her two boys played nearby in the street as she watched over them. A witness described Flick approaching Dobbie and the two having a brief interaction before the old man sank a knife into her 11 times over. He only stopped when he was dropkicked by a civilian who then restrained him while they waited for the police.
Many people ran to Dobbie’s aid, but she sadly died as a result of her injuries.
Many following the case were outraged to learn of Albert Flicks violent history and questioned why he was even walking the streets.
They believe that violent an offender does not simply “grow out of” violent tendencies and that Kimberly Dobbie’s murder could have been prevented. One prosecutor pointed out that prison and probation did nothing to curb the violent offender’s behavior and that he was such a danger to women that he should never have been released in the first place. They argued that his crimes would not cease with old age but instead become more violent- as they did. He stabbed Dobbie in broad daylight surrounded by witnesses with seemingly no concern for the consequences. The fact that he purchased the murder weapon the day before shows that he premeditated the crime.
Flick will likely serve out the remainder of his life in prison.
