Maine State Police are still trying to find the person or persons who killed an escaped inmate 45 years ago.

In a message posted Monday on its Facebook page, the Maine State Police said authorities found the body of 33-year-old Richard Joseph Albert on April 17, 1972, in a wooded area near the northbound land shoulder of mile marker 34.5 on the Maine Turnpike in Saco.

Albert and another inmate “were still on the run at the time of his death,” state police said, referring to their escape from the New Hampshire State Prison on Nov. 25, 1971. Allen had been an inmate there since September 1971.

According to the state police’s unsolved homicides website, Albert’s murder is one of the oldest cold cases on record, the oldest being Daniel Wood Jr. of Auburn. The 12-year-old boy was killed and his body found in the Androscoggin River in 1954.

State police urged anyone with information about Albert’s slaying to write the Maine State Police, Major Crimes Unit – South, 1 Game Farm Road, Gray, Maine 04039, or to contact state police directly at 207-791-6365.


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