ULSTER COUNTY, N.Y. (TCN) — A 50-year-old man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the 2024 death of his ex-girlfriend.
According to the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, police conducted a welfare check at the home of 44-year-old Alberta Dale after her family members became concerned. A missing persons investigation began, and Dale’s remains were found the following day.
Investigators learned she had just broken up with her boyfriend, Damon Foy. He killed and dismembered her between March 31 and April 1, 2024, and law enforcement intervened when he was in the midst of disposing of her remains, according to the DA.
Law & Crime reports that when police searched Foy’s home, he whispered, “She’s in there.” Dale’s remains were found in a suitcase in the closet. According to prosecutors, “Officers opened the defendant’s suitcase and found Alberta Dale’s partial dismembered remains, including her severed head. … The remaining portions of her dismembered body were not located during the execution of the search warrant.”
Foy reportedly had a history of domestic violence against Dale, who had ended their relationship. After an alleged incident with a gun, Foy was under a stay-away order of protection that was active at the time he killed Dale. Law & Crime reports Dale had previously told a crime victims unit that if she went missing, it was because Foy had killed her.
In a Facebook post she made two months before she was killed, Dale wrote, “Do you ever wish there was an erase button for your head and heart? I just want to forget,” the Daily Voice reports.
On Oct. 7, Foy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, according to the DA. District Attorney Emmanuel C. Nneji said, “This case exemplifies in one person the evil of domestic violence. The total selfish disregard for the life and dignity of another person is at the heart of domestic violence; Damon Foy has shown that to us. We must recognize in our laws the rights of victims of domestic violence to be physically, psychologically, and emotionally safe from their tormentors and the dangers specifically targeted for them, and demand procedures that actually protect victims for real, not just on paper.”
According to the Daily Voice, Dale was a mother and grandmother who worked as a certified nursing assistant. Her daughter, Chastity Fox, said, “My mom was a fierce, unshakable, full-of-fire woman yet had a presence that could calm any storm. … She had a way of making anyone feel at ease even when her own world felt heavy or unfair.”
Foy is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 16, according to the DA.
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