Albert Fine with his premature baby daughter.
On August 10 2012, Albert Fine was picked up by Kentucky police, wanted for questioning on the murder and dismemberment of his girlfriend, Catherine Hoholski. This story is not unlike some of the other troubling stories I have written about murderers, serial killers, and other deplorable people, but what makes this story interesting is that I knew this man. We went to school together, we grew up together and, though I wouldn’t call him a close friend, it was never the less shocking to see his name all over the local newspapers years later.
Albert was an angsty kid who always seemed to have a chip on his shoulder, but there wasn’t many of us who weren’t like that in our formative junior high school years. I didn’t know much about his personal life, but I did know that he had a bad home life according to mutual friends of ours. Albert was no stranger to the law, even back then, and often found himself in trouble for one thing or another. Rumor around school is that on one occasion he was sent to the juvenile correction facility for molesting his young sister, though I was never certain if this were true or just lies made up by some of his bullies.
I moved to another town my freshman year of high school and didn’t really think much of Albert or the few fleeting memories I had of him. I had forgotten about the notes passed in secret from him, asking me to be his girlfriend, or stopping by his house to ask him to walk up to the library with some friends and I. I had forgotten about all of those things until I saw the newspaper that day and read of the horrific murder he was suspected of committing.
Catherine “Kat” Hoholski
Fine made a full confession while in police custody in Kentucky. He said that on June 28, 2012, he waited for his girlfriend Kat to come home to the apartment the couple shared. He strangled Kat until she was “asleep” and bound her. She was able to break free from the ligatures and Fine hit her and strangled her. After he determined she was dead, he dismembered her body and placed her remains in a plastic storage bin.
For weeks Fine told Kat’s family that she had left him and he had no idea where she was, even going as far as to update Kat’s Facebook statuses, claiming she was “on vacation” and just needed some time away to deal with the stress. Meanwhile, the couple’s 5-month-old premature baby was still living at the hospital in the nicu. Day after day Fine would go with Kat’s mother to the hospital in order to visit with his daughter, knowing the child’s mother was stored in pieces within his apartment building. Neighbors began to complain to maintenance of the foul odor within the complex. A handyman believed it to be the sewage drain and poured some bleach into it in hopes that it would rectify the problem. The smell only became worst.
By July 12, 2012, Kat’s family knew something was amiss with Kat. She went to the hospital daily to visit with her daughter, then the visits suddenly stopped. Text messages Kat’s family believed to have been from her didn’t seem to make any sense. Her mother decided to contact police and report Kat as missing. It would be weeks before her body would be recovered.
Albert’s defense attorney is attempting to have his initial confession to the murder thrown out on grounds that Fine is “mentally retarded”.
Inside a storage area was where Kat’s body was being kept. Fine knew that all eyes were on him as a primary suspect in the case and he decided to make a run for it. Police were able to capture him in the Lexington, Kentucky area. His formal sentencing won’t be until December of this year. The defense is attempting to have his initial confession thrown out, due to Fine’s “mental retardation”.
As someone who knew Albert Fine, I can attest that he is not “mentally retarded”. I recall him being in a special class our school designated for kids with behavioral issues, but he knew right from wrong. He had the foresight to hide the body, impersonate his girlfriend in text messages and Facebook posts in order to avoid suspicions from her friends and family, allowed Kat’s family to give him rides to the hospital in order to see his daughter, knowing that her mother was in parts and pieces in a storage container within their apartment complex, and when the law narrowed in on him he fled.
Ultimately, it will not be my opinion which decides Albert’s fate, but that of the jury. If Fine is found guilty he faces the death penalty.