If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741.
A 77-year-old man who was serving a 70-year sentence for the 1983 murder of an Orono woman died Tuesday, just a week after the death of his co-defendant.
Joseph Albert, an inmate at the Maine State Prison in Warren, died late Tuesday afternoon, according to the Maine Department of Corrections.
His death came just a week after the death of 74-year-old Harold Glidden, an inmate at Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston.
The pair was convicted of murdering Orono resident Justine Renee Gridley in LaGrange, and both were serving 70-year sentences.
Glidden and Albert picked up Gridley, who was hitchhiking along Route 2 in Veazie, on March 17, 1983, Glidden testified in March 1984, according to BDN archives. Gridley was wearing a McDonald’s restaurant uniform.
Albert drove to a woods road in LaGrange, where he raped her, killed her with two blows from a brass hammer and dragged the body to a clearing off the road, Glidden testified.
Albert’s earliest possible release date, with credits for good behavior factored in, would have been Nov. 11, 2026.
Neither death was related to COVID-19, according to the Department of Corrections.