‘It’s tough for my kids’
Barry Albert’s estranged wife had almost given up on seeing someone being held responsible for the death of the father of her three grown sons.
Mounties announced
April 16 they’ve charged four people in connection with the 47-year-old's August 2022 homicide in Springfield, Annapolis County.
“I don’t know what to feel,” his former partner Lou-Ann Albert said April 16.
“I’m actually surprised it didn’t take longer, honestly. I just thought it was going to be so much that they would never figure it out. I’m surprised they got the information they got.”
‘IT'S COMPLICATED’
She still thinks about Barry Albert, who also went by Barry Mosher, “all the time.”
“We were together 26 years,” Lou-Ann Albert said. “It’s complicated.”
Police have laid first-degree murder charges against Derrick Robar, 32, Kris Buttar, 44, and Alan Rankin, 43.
They also charged William Zinck, 25, with being an accessory after the killing.
NO STRANGERS TO POLICE
None of the men charged with murder in this case are strangers to police.
Bridgewater Police arrested Robar on Jan. 26, 2023, on a warrant issued in October 2022 in relation to a stolen all-terrain vehicle. Robar had lived in Bridgewater but was of no fixed address when the ATV was recovered.
Police charged Kris Michael Buttar of Mount Uniacke in February of 2019 with aggravated assault on a peace officer and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose after a Mountie was stabbed in the leg in Lower Sackville.
In September 2022, police charged Alan Stephen Rankin, of Blockhouse, with assault with a weapon, possession of property obtained by crime, and resisting a peace officer after two men were caught stealing Sea-Doos in Oakhill.
‘QUITE THE ROAD’
Things haven’t gone smoothly since Barry Albert died, said Lou-Ann Albert.
“It’s been quite the road,” she said.
She’s waiting for the trial to conclude before deciding whether justice has been done in his murder.
“Depends on what they get,” she said. “I don’t see no justice as of yet because they ain’t been sentenced.”
Barry Albert had three grown sons – one as well as a set of twins all born on Christmas Eve – and had split up with his wife Lou-Ann, whom he married in 2007, about six years back.
“I have the twins. They live with me,” said their mother, who lives in Martins River.
Her two younger sons, both 22, have autism and Asperger’s syndrome, but she told them police laid charges in their dad’s murder.
“They don’t know a lot of it, but they know what they need to know,” she said.
“They were upset that it was so many people . ... It’s tough for my kids. That’s what I worry about.”
The murder victim’s oldest son, 23, is also having a hard time dealing with the arrest of his dad’s alleged killers.
“He’s not taking it well,” said his mom. “He hasn’t ever since it happened.”
All three boys miss their father, she said.
“Oh, hell yes. They talk about him all the time . ...
They have lots of stories.”
Barry Albert was a keen baseball player and his eldest son, Mason, still plays, said his mom.
“That’s something they did together, so that’s why.”
Albert was reported missing on Aug. 28, 2022, and his body was recovered on Oct. 8, 2022, in Springfield. RCMP divers spent a lot of time after the killing searching the lake near the Springfield ball diamond.
Mounties said in a news release that they expect to lay more charges in the case.