Sheila LaBarre: 'He's in that bag'
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2006
After Kenneth M. Countie’s mother filed a second missing person report on her son described as slightly mentally retarded with the capacity of a 12-year-old police found a piece of bone sticking out of a pile of burning debris outside Sheila K. LaBarre’s Epping farmhouse on March 24, a state police detective said yesterday.
LaBarre, 47, said the bone belonged to a rabbit or a pedophile.
When Epping police returned the next day with a warrant to search for Countie’s remains, a soot-covered LaBarre told them she spent the night sifting through the ashes for bones and put them inside a Wal-Mart bag, the investigator said.
Asked by police where Countie was, She pointed toward the Wal-Mart bag ... and she said, ‘He’s in that bag’, state police Sgt. Robert Estabrook said.
She was quite upset. She was making statement to the effect of ‘Please kill me. Please shoot me’, Estabrook said a probable cause hearing in Goffstown District Court yesterday.
The bag contained bone fragments and teeth that Dr. Marcella Sorg, a forensic anthropologist, later confirmed were human and belonged to a male in his 20s, Estabrook testified.
Sorg could not positively identify the bone fragments as belonging to Countie, 24, who lived in Wilmington, Mass., before moving to LaBarre’s 70 Red Oak Hill Lane farm around Feb. 20.
A forensic odontologist, whose specialty is identifying unknown human remains through dental records, is examining the teeth to determine if they are Countie’s, said Assistant Attorney General Peter K. Odom.
But state forensic experts positively identified extensive amounts of blood found splattered and smeared on the kitchen cabinets and floor, both arms of a dining room chair, in the living room and on a buck knife as Countie’s, Estabrook said. Forensic experts matched blood from the home to a DNA blood profile taken of Countie while he was in boot camp for the Army, he explained.
LaBarre is accused of first-degree murder for allegedly killing Countie and incinerating his body sometime around March 21, nearly a month after Countie’s mother first reported her son missing to Epping police on Feb. 24.
The case was bound over to superior court where LaBarre’s attorney said she intends to plead innocent.
A 15-page affidavit police filed in support of LaBarre’s arrest on first-degree murder revealed gruesome details of Countie’s apparent murder and the physical suffering he endured in the days leading up to it. It also recounts interviews with LaBarre in which she claimed Countie was a pedophile and reveals her apparent obsession with punishing pedophiles.
After Countie’s mother, Carolynn Lodge of Billerica, Mass., filed a second missing person report, police received a call from LaBarre at 1 a.m. on March 24, Estabrook said.
A Rockingham County Sheriff’s deputy escorts Sheila LaBarre into Goffstown District Court yesterday. (DICK MORIN)
She told police she woke up one morning and Countie was gone, the affidavit said. She then played an audiotape of her interrogating Countie over the telephone for police.
In the tape, LaBarre identified herself as the justice of the peace and alleged Countie raped several young children, the affidavit said. After each of her statements, Countie is heard replying yes in a barely audible voice, the affidavit said. LaBarre yelled and screamed at Countie throughout the tape until, near the end, the police officer heard what sounded like Countie vomiting, the affidavit continued.
LaBarre then stated into the tape that Countie was faking throwing up. Shortly after that, LaBarre states, ‘You didn’t faint, stop faking that you fainted’, the affidavit said.
Epping police officers went to her home at 6 p.m. the next day where they found two piles of debris burning on LaBarre’s front lawn, the affidavit said. One was a mattress and boxspring; the other was a barrel and a pile of hay, the affidavit said.
Sticking out from the hay was a piece of bone about 3½ inches long, weighing about 8 pounds, with a meaty mass at the end of the bone, Estabrook said.
LaBarre denied killing Countie and said she burned the mattress and box spring because she slept on it with a pedophile, the affidavit showed.
LaBarre also allegedly told Steven Martello, who picked her up hitchhiking in Manchester on March 28 and drove her to Boston, that sex offenders all must die,according to the affidavit.
LaBarre kept saying ‘vengence (sp) is mine said the lord and she was sent back to earth as an angel and she talked to god and the apposiles (sp) in Hebrew’, Martello later told police, according to the affidavit.
LaBarre went on to say that she had died and come back. That she was an angel, the affidavit quoted Martello recounting LaBarre’s words.
LaBarre’s attorney, Jeffrey A. Denner of Boston, said he wouldn’t rule out seeking an insanity defense. At the very least, there will be a psychological factor in this case. At least, relating it to what in her nature made her respond to a traumatic situation the way she did.
The affidavit also indicates LaBarre may have other victims besides Countie. In a notebook found in LaBarre’s cupboard, notes apparently written by LaBarre between July 1, 2005, and November 2005 showed a crude drawing of a body under which was written: incinerated-burned-ashes and bury c shovel.
The next page contained the notation Daniel 3; the fiery furnace, which Estabrook testified likely is a reference to a Biblical passage that discusses dismemberment and burning. Beneath that, was the figure 4000 degrees, he continued.
Portions of the entry dealing with the notebook were redacted and remained under court seal. Odom said it would be premature to comment, saying the investigation is ongoing.
In addition, large amounts of blood discovered in the bathtub, sink, floor, ceiling and on the walls surrounding the tub of the upstairs bathroom, Estabrook said. Some of the blood stains were new, but others were old and had layers of dust and dirt over them, according to the affidavit.
LaBarre, who had a seasonal job hauling trash, met Countie in early February over a phone chat line, the affidavit said. The two met for the first time on Valentine’s Day at the Ashworth Hotel in Hampton. About a week later, Countie told his roommate that LaBarre would be picking him up and he would return the next day.
After Countie did not return and failed to show up at his job at a car wash the next week, his mother filed her first missing person’s report on Feb. 24, the affidavit said.
Countie, she said, was unable to care for himself if left alone and only recently started living on his own, according to the affidavit. His only previous experience living alone was when he joined the Army but was unable to make it through boot camp, Estabrook said.
Police went to LaBarre’s Silver Leopard Farm on Feb. 24 where Countie told them he was okay and was there voluntarily, Estabrook said.
The next day, LaBarre faxed a sworn statement to Epping police with Countie’s signature on it. In it, Countie said he is an adult, safe, sane, and very happy and said his mother filed a false missing person report on him, according to the document, which was submitted as evidence yesterday.
I was never ‘MISSING,’ Countie continued in the document, which had large portions redacted. I would like to be completely alone.
LaBarre was seen with Countie at the Wal-Mart in Epping on March 11 with cuts on his face and burns on his arm, the affidavit said. LaBarre told employees a female customer pushed Countie, then said he was in a really bad car accident, the affidavit said.
LaBarre and Countie returned to the Wal-Mart on March 17. This time, LaBarre was pushing Countie in a wheelchair and referred to him as her husband, the affidavit said.
Store employees and police said Countie was ashen, had cuts on his face and hands, and appeared to be unable to move on his own, the affidavit said. The store videotape showed LaBarre buying a number of yellow diesel fuel containers and stacking them in Countie’s lap in the wheelchair the document said.
While searching for Countie’s remains just over a week later, police found several empty fuel containers in the back of LaBarre’s pickup truck that resembled those she was seen buying at Wal-Mart, the affidavit said.
LaBarre, her long hair streaked with various shades of blonde, brown and tinny pink and dressed in a jail-issue orange jumpsuit, sat in the front row of a packed courtroom yesterday as the state revealed horrific details of Countie’s alleged murder.
Countie’s mother sat about 12 feet away, holding her son’s picture and crying out loud when police detailed particularly grisly evidence of her son’s apparent death.
After the 1½-hour hearing, Goffstown District Court Judge Paul Lawrence ruled the evidence shows there is probable cause for the first-degree murder arrest. The case now will go before a superior court grand jury for possible indictment.
Odom said the law does not require the state to prove the manner of death in a murder case.
At this point, we would not be able to do that, Odom said after the hearing. He noted, however, that circumstantial evidence is equal in value as direct evidence.
He said a DNA analysis of the bones found in the fire pits would be done if possible, noting it is difficult to get results on bone that has deteriorated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EPPING New Hampshire -
Mother fears for sex offender son with LaBarre connection
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
The mother of one of accused murderer Sheila K. LaBarre's former lovers, who now is missing, yesterday said her concern for her son's well-being is heightened because she said her son has a history of sexually abusing minors.
"And I'm sure he told her (LaBarre)," said Somersworth mother, Donna L. Boston, whose son, Michael Deloge, 38, lived on LaBarre's Epping horse farm for at least 1½ years.
LaBarre, who called herself an "angel" and said "all sex offenders must die," is accused of killing a former Massachusetts man on her farm around March 21 and incinerating his body, according to state officials and police affidavits.
LaBarre, 47, claimed Kenneth M. Countie, 24, confessed to her that he molested several children in Massachusetts shortly after he moved in with her in mid-February, the court document said. She is charged with first-degree murder in Countie's death. Her attorney said she intends to plead innocent.
Boston said she learned her son was missing when state police contacted her March 29 to say they found some of her son's belongings at LaBarre's farm. She said the last time she saw her son was July 27, 2004, when Deloge and LaBarre visited her on her birthday.
While Boston, 62, waits for word about her son, she fears he may also be a victim of LaBarre.
Deloge was staying at the Cross Roads House shelter in Portsmouth in early 2003 when LaBarre came in and hired him to work on her horse farm, Boston said.
Boston said her son was in love with LaBarre and suspects he may have confided in her that he allegedly molested two underaged girls when he was in his 20s.
"When you get someone you trust and you love, you open up. You talk," Boston said.
She said Deloge was accused of molesting two minors about 10 to 15 years ago. The individuals involved kept the matter private and no charges were brought, Boston said. Boston said her son later admitted to her that he had sexually abused the girls.
"He had a hard time with it," she added.
Boston also told the New Hampshire Union Leader that her son allegedly was raped when he was 6 or 7 years old.
Boston said she is especially worried for her son given his history and LaBarre's alleged claims that she is out to avenge sexual offenders.
A Manchester man who picked up a woman matching LaBarre's description hitchhiking in Manchester on March 28 said the woman "kept saying 'vengence (sp) is mine ... and she was sent back to earth as an angel and that she talked to god'," the police affidavit said.
LaBarre told police she met Countie, formerly of Wilmington, Mass., through a telephone chat line. Countie is described by relatives as slightly mentally retarded with the capacity of a 12-year-old. His mother first reported him missing Feb. 24.
When police went to LaBarre's 70 Red Oak Hill Lane farm in Epping on March 24 to check on Countie's well being, they found two areas actively burning on her front lawn. In one, police said they found a bone with burnt flesh on it, a state police investigator testified. LaBarre said the bone belonged to a "rabbit or a pedophile," the affidavit said. She later denied she said that.
The next day when police returned with a warrant to search for Countie's remains, LaBarre told police she had burned a pedophile, the affidavit said.
In interviews with police, LaBarre frequently refers to pedophiles and her apparent aversion to them, court documents show. She allegedly said she broke up with Countie because he admitted to her that he was a pedophile and said she burned her mattress and box spring because "she slept on it with a pedophile."
Assistant Attorney General Peter K. Odom will not respond to LaBarre's claims that Countie was a pedophile, saying it would be inappropriate to comment on evidence or the veracity of a witness' statements.
While police sift through extensive amounts of evidence seized from LaBarre's farm, they also are attempting to locate all her acquaintances, part-time workers she hired to help out on her farm and anyone who had contact with her to determine if she had any other alleged victims.
Odom would not say if investigators have uncovered any evidence to suggest LaBarre preyed on sexual offenders.
"I'm not going to comment on any evidence that we collected," he said.
Defense attorney Jeffrey A. Denner of Boston said he could not comment on whether his client had even been sexually abused or any other details of her past.
"I couldn't talk about it anyway, even if I did know," Denner said.
Cathryn Jennings of Fort Payne, Ala., whose son, Ronnie, married LaBarre in the 1980s, said she is unaware of LaBarre having been molested.
"She never mentioned sexual abuse," said Jennings. She said she had little contact with the couple during their four years of marriage.
Laura Melisi, whose father, Dr. Wilfred J. LaBarre, brought LaBarre to his Epping farm in 1987 after meeting her in Tennessee, also said she never heard LaBarre mention any childhood abuse during the 14 years that she had contact with LaBarre.
"She never, ever mentioned that she was sexually abused," Melisi said. Melisi said her father, who died in 2000, also never relayed anything to her indicating LaBarre had been molested.
LaBarre remains in Strafford County jail as prosecutors prepare to bring her case before a Rockingham County grand jury for possible indictment.
‘You didn’t faint, stop faking that you fainted’ 
Previous Topic
Index
