Jail escapee eludes detection for 33 years because of typo
A misspelling helped a man who escaped from a Maine jail evade capture on the unlawful flight charge for 33 years.
Albert Marcheterre, 56, was arrested Nov. 2 in Vermont and transported back to Maine, report the Bangor Daily News and the Associated Press, which cites a story from the Caledonian Record (sub. req.).
Marcheterre was awaiting trial on a theft charge when he escaped from jail in 1981, according to an affidavit (PDF) signed by an FBI special agent. The warrant for Marcheterre’s arrest misspelled his last name as “Maschererre,” apparently because of a “scrivener’s error,” the affidavit says.
An FBI analyst researching the Marcheterre file noticed that identifying features—including scars, marks, tattoos and glass eye—matched the features of man using the name of Albert Michael Dumais, the affidavit says. Dumais was arrested several times in Vermont between 1992 and 2002, and he was sentenced in 2004 to five years in prison for possession of a firearm by a felon, the affidavit says.
“Because of the misspelling on the 1981 complaint, the outstanding arrest warrant had not been previously associated with Marcheterre’s FBI number and criminal records,” the affidavit said.
