Woman Vanishes After Accusing Relative Of Murder

Pauline Rourke was a 32-year-old woman living in Fairfield, Maine, with her 12-year-old daughter Sandra “Honey” Rourke. They lived in a trailer off of route 139.

Also living with them was a distant relative, Albert P. Cochran. Pauline had been a foster child and had lived with Albert at his parents’ home in Oakland, Maine.

In 1960, 21-year-old Albert married 15-year-old Patricia Ann Sinclair and they moved to Joliet, Illinois. By 1964, the couple had separated and she lived with their three kids: Craig (10-months-old), Christopher (2-years-old), and Christine (3-years-old). In February of the same year, Patricia was found strangled in her apartment and all three kids had been stabbed to death.

Initially, Albert admitted to killing his wife. However, he claimed he had done so after finding out she had murdered their kids. Authorities were skeptical of this as Patricia did not have any blood on her. Though he eventually admitted to also killing his kids, the child murder charges were dropped on a technicality. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to 50 to 75 years in prison for murdering his 19-year-old wife. After serving 11 years, he was paroled.

In 1976, Albert moved back to Fairfield, Maine, and began working for his brother’s construction company. He soon became romantically involved with Pauline and moved into her trailer.

Pauline knew of his past. She believed he was being truthful when he said he had found his children murdered and killed his wife out of rage. Albert and Pauline had occasional fights, but according to Honey, they weren’t violent.

On November 23, 1976, a 30-year-old nurse was forced into a car in the parking lot of a supermarket in Oakland, Maine. Janet Baxter, who had a 7-year-old daughter, was driven to Kennebec River and raped. After being shot in the head and chest, her body was left in the trunk of a car.

While authorities investigated the murder, Albert became obsessed with the case. When Pauline’s sister, Joy Card, visited them for Thanksgiving, he had dozens of newspaper clippings about the murder around the trailer. Joy spoke to Pauline about it and she admitted that she had suspicions of him because he would not stop speaking about it.

Her suspicions were raised when Albert made Pauline and Honey visit the crime scene 10 miles away from their trailer. While there, Pauline confronted him and he got mad.

After their visit to the murder scene, the couple’s arguments worsened and became more frequent. Maine State Police considered Albert a suspect in the murder and wanted Pauline to possibly become a witness against him. Pauline was scheduled to be questioned by authorities.

On the morning of December 15, Honey woke up and got ready for school as usual. Pauline was in bed, lying on her side. She was not moving and Honey assumed she was sleeping — Albert and Pauline had been fighting the night before. Honey gave her mother a kiss goodbye and left for the day.

When she returned from school, her mother was gone. Honey asked Albert where Pauline was and he said she would be back later. She never did come back and Honey’s aunt came from Vermont to take care of her.

After a couple of days of not hearing from Pauline, her sister reported her missing to authorities. Honey moved to Vermont with her aunt and stopped speaking to Albert.

Honey believes her mother was dead on the morning she said goodbye. She also believes Albert killed her while they were fighting.

Though he has never admitted to killing Pauline, he told authorities her body was in a well. Several wells in the area were examined but there were no signs of any remains. Authorities believe he is guilty but were not able to find any concrete evidence.

Albert moved to Fort Lauderdale and then to Stuart, Florida, where he married a woman named Kathy. He had a job as a cabinetmaker but was forced to retire after having a heart attack and needing several surgeries in the early 1990s.

In 1998, authorities were able to match Albert’s hair to the semen found in Janet Baxter. He was arrested and police took advantage of this to try and get him to confess to killing Pauline but he refused to. Albert was sentenced to life in prison for Janet’s murder. He died in 2017 at the age of 79 while at Maine State Prison.

Honey has never stopped searching for her mother. She wants to find her remains in order to have some closure. If you have any information call Maine State Police at 207–624–7143.

Pauline Rourke is believed to be deceased. Nevertheless, she has been missing for 44 years.

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