Mark Dugas meets his future wife

Mark Dugas and Cindy Hastings grew up together and fell in love.

Cindy: “We first met through friends. My best friend was dating his best friend. So that’s when we started dating, but like I said he didn’t have a driver’s license then, so he would hitchhike from his home in Rockport to my home in Thomaston. And if he couldn’t get a ride, he’d walk.”

Mark graduated from Camden-Rockport High School, class of 1982. He was one year older than Cindy.

Mark loved riding his ATV, snowmobiling, canoeing, ice fishing, skiing, and camping. They had a child together: Brieana. Cindy described Mark as having a huge capacity for love. He just wanted everybody to get along.

He and Cindy could be spontaneous.

Cindy: “It must have been a Saturday night and Mark and I were sitting at home. It was a beautiful summer evening, and Brie’s in bed sound asleep, and we just decided we would pack our gear, and we had a little tow-behind trailer that went behind our ATV, so we packed all our camping gear in that. We woke up Brie and told her we were going up to the top of the mountain and pitch a tent and go camping for the night, and that we’d get up in the morning and watch the sunrise and go home. So that’s what we did.”

He worked in the shipping and receiving department at Bicknell Manufacturing, a supplier of tools for the stonecutting industry. He worked for his father-in-law, Richard Hastings, who said of him, “You couldn’t ask for a better guy. He was always willing to help.” He worked that job for 9 years, then worked with his father at Weatherend Estate as a painter working on high-end residential furniture, and part time operated his own fence company, Missing Link Fence Co.

Mark and Cindy were full of life. They both worked a lot, and they spent most all of their free time with their large circle of friends. They loved Super Mario on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, dubbed the NES.

Cindy: “Sunday afternoons, our friends would come over. We’d set the kids up upstairs. I’d cook everybody dinner, and we would play Super Mario all afternoon. We came from the beginning phases of the video game trend. Super Mario was our thing.”

Eventually Mark and Cindy’s relationship came to an end.

Cindy: “It actually ended very amicably. I just made the decision one day that life’s too short for either one of us to be unhappy in our relationship. So, I sat him down one night and said, ‘It’s time for us to get a divorce,’ and he said, ‘Okay.’ After, we were still really close friends.”

Cindy moved to Ireland and their daughter remained with Mark. He started to raise her as a single parent with help from his mother and father in Rockport.

Susan Partelow, who worked with Mark at Maine Stone and Landscaping in Rockport, wrote in the Lincoln County News,

“[Brieana] was the most important thing in his life—his pride and joy. He did not date because his priority was raising his daughter. He worked hard to give her what she wanted and needed. All one had to do was listen to Mark talk about her, and it was obvious just how much he loved her.”

Mark’s transformation

In 2001, when Brie was 11 years old, her mother moved back from Ireland to Maine and her father met a new woman: Amy Hutson. Mark and Amy fell in love. She was a divorced mother of two, and Mark also fell in love with her children.

It was around this time that Mark’s life began to change.

Cindy: “He would have to seek permission to actually speak to me. If I called his home, she would answer the phone, and nine times out of ten she wouldn’t let me speak to him. She was controlling what was going on in that household.”

Mark had been the primary caretaker for Brie while Cindy was in Ireland. But it was up to Brie where she would live after her mom returned. In the middle of the fall semester of 2002, Brieana decided that she no longer wanted to live with Mark and Amy and instead wanted to join her cousin—who was her same age—in Thomaston, and live with her mom. She was to make the transition following her Thanksgiving holiday.

Cindy: “Brie was supposed to be brought back to me that Sunday so she could start school in Thomaston on Monday, they never showed up. Eventually [Amy let me speak] to Mark, and all he said to me was ‘We’ve changed our minds.’ And so I said, ‘Let me speak to Brie, please’ and he refused to let me speak to her.”

Cindy: “So, the next day, I went up to the school and took her out. Amy pulled in just as we were trying to leave and blocked my vehicle in and started screaming and hollering at me. And telling me, ‘Who did I think I was?’ and that I was ruining their happy family. When she was screaming at me, the air around her was completely black, and from that point on, I knew that there was more trouble to come.”

Soon after Brie began living with her mom, Cindy began petitioning for child support, which escalated tensions.

Mark’s colleague, Susan, said, “Mark did not believe that he should be responsible for paying child support since he had never asked Cindy for anything while he raised their daughter [on his own].” She clarified that “she wasn’t really sure if this was Mark’s opinion, though, or Amy’s.”

Over time, Susan recognized a transformation in Mark. She wrote, “He became quiet, uncomfortable, unhappy, and lost, in a sense.” She continued, “The Mark that had become my friend had changed. He didn’t smile. And he didn’t say goodbye [when he moved to Tennessee with Amy].” That move to Tennessee was short lived.

Cindy saw Mark’s relationships with his friends and family deteriorate as his relationship with Amy grew. Cindy later said, “I watched him go from a loving, outgoing guy to a shell of a man. He didn’t even let his close friends know he was leaving. He lived for his daughter and he cherished his friendships and—poof—it was gone.”

The last time Brie saw her dad was at the Mi’kmaq Country Store on Route 17. She was with her mom, who said, while they were “at the gas pumps, Brie looked up and said ‘Mom, there’s dad.’” He looked over without acknowledging them. After leaning into the window of his own car, where he presumably asked Amy’s permission, Mark came back over. He was crying. He told Brie how much he loved her.

Cindy: “He said, ‘Brie, I have a lot on my plate... a lot going on... but I’ll be in touch soon,’ and that was the last conversation she had with him. And from that point on, we didn’t hear from him again. And once they left the area, he never looked back, he never called her, he never communicated with her.”

Mark’s return to Maine

On March 15th, 2002, Mark Dugas married Amy Hutson, and she became Amy Dugas.

The close-knit Dugas family started hearing less from Mark. At times, they didn’t even have a good number for him. Ken said, “He kind of cut everyone off. I think he knew we did not approve of her.”

2004, Feb 26 - Domestic violence incident

In February of 2004, Mark and Amy were on the rocks. According to Mark’s brother, Larry, he had told Amy he was going to leave her. On the 26th—the night of Amy’s mother’s birthday—Mark didn’t return home from work. He went to his friend’s house in Jefferson, Maine, instead. That evening, Amy showed up looking for Mark, and she refused to leave.

She got into a violent confrontation with him, kicking him in the eye with her pointy-toed boots. She also hurt his neck, which was scraped and bloody. The cops were called and three officers showed up. She was placed under arrest for domestic assault. She resisted arrest and kicked one of the officers in the groin who then charged her with assault on an officer. In a rage, she kicked out the cage window in the cop’s car that separated the back seats from the front. The officer then charged her with criminal mischief and took her to Lincoln County Jail.

After spending a night in jail, she was arraigned and granted bail with conditions. The judge ordered her to seek anger management counseling, not to see Mark, not to have any guns, and not to drink. In defiance of the bail conditions, Mark and Amy continued to live together and see one another.

2004, Friday, June 4 - Mark dies in a fatal stabbing

It was the evening of Friday, June 4th. It was 6:00PM, the sun still in the sky, two hours before sunset. Wendy Benner, Mark and Amy’s neighbor, was startled by a “frightful cry for help,” moments before Mark arrived at her entryway, bleeding from his bare chest. She tended to his wound with a roll of paper towels, applying pressure, trying to stem the flow of blood. He collapsed in their enclosed entryway. She could tell from the look of the wound that it was serious. They quickly called for help, but by the time an ambulance had arrived, Mark Dugas was dead. He had been stabbed deeply in the chest.

The police then arrived soon after and asked Amy what had happened. She said she had acted in self-defense.

They noticed the smell of liquor on Amy’s breath and arrested her for a violation of bail conditions (the prohibition on alcohol).

On the way to jail, Trooper Jason Andrews noticed that Amy was trying to slip out of her handcuffs. He pulled over to the side of the road and she tried to exit the vehicle. As he went to hold onto her, she bit his hand, leaving teeth impressions on the knuckle of his right index finger. She was charged again with assault on a police officer. She took a blood alcohol test that revealed she had a .157 blood alcohol content which for her size and weight, would result from having had about 6-7 drinks in one hour, and was twice the legal limit to drive.

One of Amy’s children—Chad, her 7-and-a-half-year-old son—was home and a witness to the violence that had taken place that night.

2004, June 6, Sunday - Mark’s Autopsy

On Sunday, the office of the chief medical examiner conducted an autopsy on Mark’s body in Augusta and ruled on Monday that the cause of death was the major stab wound to his chest.

Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police, gave a bare bones account of what happened to the press, and said that Amy and Mark had a history of domestic violence.

Deputy Attorney General Bill Stokes said, “There have been no decisions [regarding charging Amy Dugas]. We’re still trying to figure out what happened. It is being treated as a homicide, but at this point we don’t know what went on inside that house.”

2004, June 13 - Dugas family speaks out

On the Sunday following Mark’s funeral, his brother, Ken, spoke to the Portland Press Herald about his death.

They acknowledged the stereotype of domestic violence—men abusing women—and said that it might be hard to picture Amy—who stands 5 feet, 4 inches and weighs 115 pounds—as the abuser. The Herald cited some statistics. In Maine, of the more than 3,000 incidents of domestic violence that were reported to police in the prior year, 20% of the time, women were the abusers.

Mark’s death left them wondering if the state’s domestic violence laws were doing enough, and whether the amount of police protection for victims was sufficient. They wanted to know if there was anything more that they could have done to help their brother.

2004, July 9th - Amy indicted

On July 9th, about a month after Mark’s death, the state’s prosecutors decided to charge Amy with murder. Ten days later, she was arraigned and with her new public defender, Howard O’Brien, she pled not guilty. They decided to face the murder charge first, and asked to delay the charges arising from the February incident until after the murder trial.

2005, April 4th – The trial begins

On Monday, April 4th, 2005, 10 months after Mark was killed, Amy’s trial began at Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset, Maine. The judge instructed the jury not to look up any information about the case. They were only to consider what was presented during trial.

The following day, the prosecutor for the state, Fern LaRochelle, presented his opening arguments. He explained to the jury that after Amy had stabbed Mark in the chest, she failed to call 911, and waited outside their home for several minutes while Mark bled to death in the neighbor’s entryway. Police found the large kitchen knife lying in 2 inches of soapy water in their kitchen sink. He encouraged the jury to use their “common sense” to reach a verdict.

Amy’s public defender, Howard O’Brien, told the jury that Amy acted in self-defense during a heated argument over money. Howard said that Mark had tried to die by suicide several times, including one time where he stood in front of the kids and held a knife to his neck.

He concluded by saying, “This case is about two people. About Amy and Mark and their relationship. He was a good father. He was a good husband, but Mark had some problems.”

First responder Waldoboro Police Officer Jeffrey Fuller took the stand and said that during his encounter with Amy that night, she pointed to the left side of her chest and repeated the same line twice: ‘I got him here. I got him right here.’ She also said, ‘He got me, too.’” She said that “she didn’t care—he had it coming.” On cross examination, Fuller admitted that Amy had made a couple of statements that betrayed that she didn’t realize how seriously Mark was wounded.

2005, April 6, Wednesday - Prosecution witnesses

Amy’s son, Chad, was the star prosecution witness. He referred to Mark as “dad,” though he was not Chad’s biological father. He was the only witness who had first-hand knowledge of what happened in that house.

He said that he was in the backseat of their white Ford Explorer as his parents began arguing as they were making their way home. Once they got home, Chad said “he was in the kitchen while his parents were in the living room.” At some point, his mom came into the kitchen and “got a knife from the cabinet.” This was one of the most important moments of the entire trial. He said he followed her back into the living room and “his mom and dad were arguing—fighting and kicking.” Chad said that the knife was on the living room floor at that point, but then he saw “his mom getting the knife.” He said “his mom and dad then went back into the kitchen” leaving him alone in the living room. After a short time, Chad entered the kitchen just in time to see his “dad running out of the house.” He followed his dad to the neighbors, Wendy and Murray Benner, but they kept Chad from getting too close.

2005, April 7, Thursday - Defense witness

On Thursday, Day 4 of the trial, the defense called its one and only witness: Amy Dugas.

She said that she and Mark were under a lot of strain. They had moved eight times between March 2002—when they got married—and January of 2004 because she said Mark was trying to avoid paying child support.

Amy told the story of what happened the night of Mark’s death. She said that an argument arose from the child support issue. She told him, as she had on a number of occasions, “rather than complain all the time, that he should just deal with it.” She told Mark he had been acting so differently lately—isolating himself. She suggested that they might have to separate to do some soul-searching to see if their relationship was really going to work. Shortly after that, she went into the house to grab a beer for Mark and use the restroom.

Mark entered the house and yelled, “Where the hell have you been?” After which, he took off his wedding ring and threw it on the floor. He came up behind her carrying a 12” long kitchen knife that she recognized from the camper. He grabbed her by the hair and threw her on the loveseat. Mark threatened to kill himself and her, saying “he couldn’t take it anymore,” and she tried to protect herself with her feet, kicking him, and eventually kicking the knife away. After disarming him, she went to the kitchen to collect herself, but Mark picked up the knife and came after her. She fought for her life in the kitchen.

They were pushing and shoving until they lost their balance and fell to the floor. Amy said, “I was pulling on his shirt... pulling on his arm... just doing whatever I could think to do to keep him from hurting himself or me.” She said she feared for her life. During that struggle, though she couldn’t say exactly how, Mark suffered a deadly knife blow to his chest. She said she didn’t recall whose hand was on the knife when Mark was stabbed. She said he gestured to his chest and left the house, picking up a pack of cigarettes on the way out. Amy went to the living room and sat on the love seat, trying to collect herself. She returned to the kitchen, where she noticed some spots of blood on the oak table. She took out some Pledge and a rag and cleaned it. “The next thing I knew, an EMT was coming through the door,” she said.

In addition to murder, the jury was also considering the charge of assaulting a police officer from that night, so Amy explained the rest of the evening. She said she was placed in handcuffs and put in the front seat of a cruiser. She was told that they were going to Waldoboro Police Department, but as they were coming into Waldoboro, the officer turned onto Route 1, which headed away toward Wiscasset. Amy grew more upset and said that the handcuffs were causing her discomfort. The officer pulled over at a business on the way to Wiscasset and that’s when the biting incident occurred.

Once she got to Lincoln County Jail, she was told that her husband had died. When asked what her reaction was, she said, “If he’s not here, I don’t want to be here either.”

2005, April 7th & 8th – end of the trial

Fern presented his closing arguments. He said that Amy’s version of events didn’t add up... didn’t make sense. He said that Mark removing his wedding ring and throwing it on the floor was the catalyst that caused the violence. “Mark wanted to end [their marriage] and she didn’t. That’s when she went to the kitchen to get the knife to make sure that didn’t happen.” The notion that Amy couldn’t recall how it occurred was “incredible.” He said, “She is not telling the truth. She knew exactly where the knife was.” He emphasized the fact that Mark fled his own home to seek help next door, asking the jury why he wouldn’t ask his wife to call for help. He pointed out Amy’s many “convenient memory lapses.”

Fern put forth his theory of what happened, suggesting that Amy pulled Mark’s shirt over his head, pinning his arms, and then stabbed him. Based on the height and trajectory of the wound, he contended that they were standing face to face when he was stabbed. He recalled Chad’s testimony that his mom was the one who had retrieved the knife from the kitchen. He reminded the jury that the neighbor who lived across the street heard Mark’s scream and was so startled she went to her window to watch. But Amy didn’t hear anything? How could that be possible?

Howard went next, presenting his closing arguments. He said that her son was mistaken when he thought he saw her retrieve the knife from the kitchen—what she had actually had in her hand was a telescoping magnet tool that she was using for the camper repairs. He pointed out that a 12-inch hair in Mark’s wristwatch belonged to Amy, which proved that he had grabbed her by the hair. He said that the wounds on her legs made sense if she were kicking at a knife-wielding assailant, grappling on the floor. To lend credibility to Amy’s claim that she hadn’t realized the seriousness of the injury, he said that much of Mark’s bleeding would have happened internally. He even suggested that the large pool of blood on the kitchen floor could have belonged to Amy because the state didn’t test it for DNA.

After lengthy jury deliberations, they finally told the judge that they had reached a verdict: They had found Amy Dugas not guilty of murder or manslaughter, and not guilty of assaulting a police officer.

The judge spoke to the courtroom, “I know this has been a very difficult and emotional trial for many of the people here. But I urge you to put the matter behind you and look to the future. There are no winners.”

2005, April - Reactions, legal discussion

Reactions by the public were swift. In an anonymous op-ed published in the Lincoln County News, entitled “Dugas Jury Heard Half a Story,” it argued that it wasn’t fair to Mark Dugas that Amy’s history of violence against him wasn’t allowed to be presented during trial. It said “eliminating testimony of past violent behavior ignores the rights of the victim. Mark Dugas wasn’t in court to tell his side of the story.”

This thorny legal issue relates to a rule of evidence called 404B that addresses, “prior bad acts.” 404B essentially states that if a defendant had a history of violent offences and is on trial for a new violent offense, those previous offenses cannot be used to establish the defendant’s character or pattern of behavior. In legal jargon, it is deemed to be “unfairly prejudicial,” meaning that a jury might put undue weight on that type of evidence and not fairly evaluate the specifics of the crime at hand.

But it defied the common sense of the people of Lincoln County. They were dumbstruck that this highly relevant information was purposely hidden from the jury by some legal doctrine.

The Portland Press Herald interviewed many locals to get their reactions. People were “appalled that so much evidence was withheld.”

Cindy and the Dugas family ended up having a meeting with the prosecutor’s office to discuss the outcome.

Cindy: “What the attorney general’s officer told me was that it was the language of the law, and there was this clause in there about self-defense, and it was confusing to the jury, and they had to have it read back to them three or four times. I’m a pretty smart person and I couldn’t understand it. But that’s what the attorney general’s office told us—that it was the language of the law and not the evidence that got her off.”

We spoke to Trish, a member of the jury, who actually reached out to us to bring Mark’s story to our attention. She, too, found the legal definitions confusion.

Trish: “That was one of the things that we were trying to get a definitive answer on how we would come to manslaughter, murder, or neither, but there was something very confusing about the way he said it, that we almost had to come to the conclusion that it couldn’t be manslaughter or murder because of the way he worded the definition of what we had to look for.”

2005, April, Reflections from a juror

Trish was confused why the history of violence between Amy and Mark was withheld.

Trish: “I really wish they would have been able to tell us more about the things she had done before this. Such a short time before, and we didn’t get that information. I’m not sure why we weren’t notified that she also went after a police officer. She was a person who attacked somebody before—and she didn’t just attack him. I think that would have definitely changed some opinions.”

Trish remembered that, at times, the prosecutor’s presentation was tedious and repetitive, and didn’t seem to advance their case.

Trish: “They would say the same things over... and over... and over... again. They weren’t getting a point across. We just didn’t get a lot of the story of why this happened. It just got really dragged-on-boring. It was hard to keep my eyes open at a certain point. And the judge was sick, so that didn’t help, and I saw him dozing off [at points].”

Ultimately, though, there was a reason why the jury found Amy not guilty:

Trish: “I believe that quite a few of them believed it was self-defense. That she was feeling like he was going to come and hurt her, and she was defending herself. They knew that they had been fighting. They understood that. But they looked at it like she was the one who had to defend herself.”

2005, September – Amy’s assault trial

On Tuesday, September 6th, 2005, a jury was selected in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland. It was being held in a different county because Amy’s attorney believed that the publicity from the murder trial would make a prospective jury unfairly prejudiced against her.

This trial was for the February incident of domestic assault, assault on an officer, and criminal mischief. It had been a year and a half since the incident took place.

According to prosecutor Geoffrey Rushlau, Amy went looking for her husband after he failed to come home from work on the night of Amy’s mother’s birthday party. She found him at his boss’s house and after an argument, kicked Mark in the eye with pointy-toed boots. She later assaulted an officer, kicking him in the groin, and damaged a cruiser.

Amy took the stand and said that she was defending herself, saying she was the one who had been attacked. She said that Mark grabbed her and shook her after she confronted him about his drug use. She said, “Everything happened so fast. I was kicking my legs to keep him off of me, so it’s a possibility I did kick him in the eye.” Regarding the assault on the officer, she said she “resisted” because he was arresting her and not her husband. She said, “He never asked me a question at all. He put me in handcuffs and dragged me out to the cruiser.” And regarding the damage to the car, she said she was claustrophobic.

On September 8th, morning, the jury found her guilty of all three offenses: domestic assault, assault on an officer, and criminal mischief. The jury did not buy her story, and neither did the judge.

He said, “I am offended by the disrespect of the oath [to tell the truth] exhibited by this defendant. She came in here and acted at trial as if the law didn’t apply to her and she didn’t have to tell the truth. [Her sentence] is more than she would have served had she not taken the stand and claimed that her husband and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Brent Barter had both attacked her for no reason.”

The judge sentenced Amy to 330 days in jail, but taking into account the 10 months Amy Dugas already spent in jail while awaiting the murder trial, she only had to serve 23 days in Lincoln County jail. She then had two years of probation.

2006, September, Amy’s assault against William Duncan

About a year after Amy’s release, she had met a new man and moved to Rockvale, Tennessee. In September of 2006, police found her domestic partner, William Duncan, sleeping in his truck parked outside of her house. When questioned by police, he told them that Amy had pushed and scratched him. After police entered the home, they found Amy passed out on a couch, surrounded by several empty bottles of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. They arrested Amy and charged her with domestic assault.

Geoffrey Rushlau, the prosecutor from Maine, was keeping tabs on her, and learned about the incident, but not before her initial appearance in court in Tennessee. The Tennessee prosecutor was unaware of her previous domestic assault crimes, and unaware that she was on probation in Maine, so he made a deal with her to continue the domestic assault case for a year, and if she stayed out of trouble, he would drop the charges.

Geoffrey submitted paperwork to extradite her back to Maine because she had violated the terms of her probation. She was abusing alcohol and had, again, lashed out physically at her romantic partner.

2006, November, Amy extradited to Maine

2 months later, in November 2006, the US Marshals escorted Amy back to Maine to face the probation violation. She was again represented by Howard O’Brien, who said that Amy was being unfairly persecuted—that she “made a new life down there,”—that Geoffrey “had decided, despite the fact my client was found not guilty for Mark Dugas’ death, to punish her anyway.” Howard continued, “I have spoken to William almost on a daily basis and he says that Amy never touched him.”

By this point, she had lost custody of her children, and they were living in Texas with their biological father. She had also returned to her maiden name, Amy Bowen.

2006, Dec 12 - Probation violation hearing

On December 12th, Amy had her probation violation hearing in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset—the same court she faced down a murder charge—and was sentenced to 4 months in jail.

2007, January - Amy meets Brian Pelletier

At some point between September and December, the romance with William ended but Amy, who was 39 years old, ran into an old flame while she was in jail in Lincoln County over the Christmas holidays of 2006—Brian Pelletier, who was 40. They had dated when they were both in their early 20s, but lost touch as they grew older. He was a corrections officer and she was an inmate. When she started her term at the jail, he let his superiors know about their history, so he was assigned to a different part of the jail to limit their contact. They rekindled their romance after she was released in January. Due to employment restrictions, in order for him to continue his romance with Amy, he had to resign his job as a CO. He did so, and they were shortly married and together moved back to Rockvale, Tennessee.

2007, March 19 - Amy assaults Brian Pelletier

Shortly after midnight on March 19th, 2007, on the main drag that went through the small town of Rockvale, Tennessee, Brian Pelletier pulled his car off the 2-lane highway and approached a deputy’s parked car who was on traffic duty. He asked about getting an escort back to his house to remove his things. He explained that when he tried to leave, Amy “began hitting him and pulled his shirt.” Shining the flashlight on him, the deputy noticed scratches on his neck and cheek and saw that the collar of the shirt looked stretched out around the neck area. The deputy later said in court, “He had moved down to Tennessee from Maine, had no family or friends in the area, was supposed to start a job the next day, but he was gonna get a divorce and go back home because he couldn’t take it anymore.”

The deputy returned to the home with Brian and found Amy intoxicated. She told him she had no idea how Brian had been scratched. There were a couple of signs of a fight—a picture frame was knocked off a wall, and a book was lying on the floor that had apparently been thrown against the wall. She was arrested, again, on domestic assault and held at Rutherford County Jail.

2007, March 22 - Maine starts extradition again

 This time, Geoffrey was notified of the violation right away by Tennessee authorities, and he filed a motion within a few days to revoke Amy’s probation and extradite her to Maine. The Lincoln County News spoke to Brian Pelletier about the incident and he changed his story. The former corrections officer said, “Nothing happened. It’s a false report. They should have never taken it. I mean, I’m 6FT 4IN, I’ve had training, I’ve dealt with things 700-times worse than that.”

He said, “I was going for a drive to get gas and cigarettes when I left the house, and she didn’t want me to leave. That’s all.”

2007, August 14 - Trial for probation violation

On August 14th, she appeared before a judge in Lincoln County Superior Court in Maine, yet again. She told the judge that she had assaulted Brian Pelletier and that she was drunk. The judge said, “One thing has become very clear. You continue to have a significant problem with the use of alcohol.” She was sentenced to nine months total less the five months she had already served, leaving her with four months to be served in a county jail. The sentence would coincide with the conclusion of her probation, after which, she would be totally free.

2007-2012, Prologue

Amy was released from jail in late 2007, and five years later, on October 7th, 2012, Amy, at the age of 43, in Tennessee, died. In the last ten years of her life, Amy had been charged with domestic assault against three different men. She was convicted of assaulting a police officer, and violated her probation twice. She was a habitual offender.

Family impact

Mark’s brothers were left with lingering questions. One of the toughest was trying to understand why their lives turned out so differently than his. They had happy marriages and tightly knit families, and created a successful construction business together.

They had deep concerns about the state’s domestic violence laws, the amount of police protection for victims, and whether they could have done more to help their brother.

Brieana Dugas is now grown up and has spent more of her life without her dad than with him. Her family sometimes even calls her little Mark.

Cindy: “But it was the other things. Her learning to drive—it was me who had to teach her. When she walked down the aisle—it wasn’t her dad walking her down the aisle. Those are the things that are most difficult. That he’s not here to experience what a beautiful woman his daughter has grown up to be.”

Cindy: “She looks like him. She acts like him. Some of her expressions—facial expressions—is just like him. He lives on through his daughter, which is very special for all of us.”

If you or somebody you know feel unsafe at home, or you experience violence in your relationship, it’s never too late to get help. Please reach out to your local crisis center, call 800-799-SAFE or visit the National Domestic Violence Center website for resources on how to get help. You matter.

Some names have been changed to protect privacy.

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Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Bangor Daily News, Daily News-Journal, Journal Tribune, Kennebec Journal, Lincoln County News, Portland Press Herald, Sun Journal, here.

Written by various authors including David Hench, Dennis Hoey, Gregory Kesich, Jan Brown,, Jessica Durkin, John Richardson, Josie Huang, Leanne Robicheau, Mark Peters, Mike Colbert, Sherwood Olin, Noel McNally, Renee Ordway, and Susan Partelow.

Photos

Photos from Google Maps and various newspaper articles.

Interviews

Special thanks to Trish (jury member) and to Cindy Dickinson. Special thanks to Tina Nadeau and Rory McNamara for sharing their legal expertise.

Online written sources

'Friends, Family Present Another Side of Mark Dugas' (Wayback Machine), 5/5/2005, by Mike Colbert

'Jury Finds Dugas Not Guilty' (Free Republic), 5/5/2005, by Mike Colbert, Sherwood Olin

'Amy Jean Pelletier (obituary)' (Legacy.com), 10/7/2012

Credits

Vocal performance, audio editing, and research by Kristen Seavey

Writing, research, and photo editing by Byron Willis

Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey