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April 26, 2006

Details revealed in murder case against Sheila LaBarre

GOFFSTOWN | Kenneth Countie's mother was already worried about her mentally retarded son before police learned of a disturbing sighting at Wal-Mart.

Store employees working March 17 noticed the gashes on his face and arms and how the woman claiming to be his wife stacked yellow diesel fuel tanks on Countie's lap as he sat in a wheelchair, a police affidavit says. The empty tanks were found by police a week later near an incinerated mattress and box spring about 20 feet from the front door of the woman's colonial era farmhouse.

In a second pile of burning hay, Epping police Sgt. Sean Gallagher spotted the first piece of evidence that changed the case from a missing person inquiry to a possible homicide. A piece of bone 3<1/2> inches long with a ball-shaped tissue on one end was smoldering in plain sight, said State Police Sgt. Robert Estabrook, a lead investigator in the case.

Yesterday, Countie's mother, Carolyn Lodge, dressed in black, her face buried in one hand, sobbed in a district court room as prosecutors revealed for the first time what led police to charge Sheila LaBarre, 47, with first-degree murder.

Since her arrest April 2, investigators had revealed next to nothing about the case, aside from conducting a nearly three-week search of the remote 115-acre horse farm in Epping that drew upward of 100 officers.

Judge Paul Lawrence agreed police had enough evidence to charge LaBarre with Countie's murder, and the case is expected to be heard by a grand jury for a possible indictment.

When police came to the farm on March 24, LaBarre wouldn't let Gallagher remove the bone, claiming it was part of a dead rabbit she cremated. Gallagher knew it was too large for that, Estabrook said: "He described it as having a meaty nub at the end. He felt it and described it as six to eight pounds. He didn't pick it up. He only picked it up slightly."

A day later, Gallagher, his chief, Gregory Dodge, and another detective returned with a search warrant and found an ash-covered LaBarre armed with a .38-caliber pistol.

"She said something to the effect of 'I knew you'd be coming back. Are you going to arrest me?'" Estabrook said. "They told her that they weren't there to arrest her. They were there to search the home. She had been sifting the ashes and said she had very little sleep. She said she was sifting it for them and placed those items in the Wal-Mart bag."

Gallagher asked again, "Where's Kenny?" and LaBarre pointed to a plastic Wal-Mart bag near one of the burn piles and said "He's in that bag," Estabrook said.

Inside the bag, they found several bone fragments that were later determined by a medical official to be from a young man in his mid-20s, an affidavit says. At one point in the conversation, LaBarre became so upset she said to Dodge, "Just shoot me, just kill me," Estabrook said.

Under questioning by Assistant Attorney General Peter Odom, Estabrook described how detectives found blood spattered throughout LaBarre's house, including the kitchen, living room, dining room, two bathrooms and a bath tub. A buck knife was also found with the blood.

Estabrook acknowledged investigators have yet to positively match several bone fragments and teeth they recovered to Countie, but made a positive DNA match between a sample of Countie's blood and blood stains found throughout the house. The blood sample came from the Army, where Countie went to boot camp before he was discharged for being unable to complete his training.

Defense lawyer Jeffrey A. Denner noted that Countie expressed interest to his family about committing suicide in February, and that it's still possible that Countie was alive, but out of sight from police and his family. Surrounded by reporters outside of the courthouse, Denner refused to say what kind of defense LaBarre will claim to rebut the charges.

"If we were getting into specifics, we'd certainly have a very different version of what happened," Denner said.

Police had gone to LaBarre's home twice inside of a month in response to a pair of missing-person reports filed by Lodge, Countie's mother. Lodge worried about her son because Countie, she told them, had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old boy but faithfully called or saw her every day.

On Valentine's Day, Countie left the apartment he shared with a friend in Wilmington, Mass., to go on a date with LaBarre in Hampton, the affidavit says. The two met on a telephone personals line. He moved in with her a short time later.

Wal-Mart employees remember LaBarre and Countie from two arguments she had with store employees on March 11 and 17 claiming that a customer had pushed him and she considered suing the store.

"The man (Countie) was described as having greenish/yellow skin color and being quiet, almost timid, and keeping his head down the whole time and never looking at anyone," the affidavit says.

In her interviews with police, LaBarre made several contradictory statements about what happened to Countie, the affidavit says. They include:

r She had a sexual relationship with Countie, who she renamed "Adam Olympian LaBarre," but she ended the relationship because he confessed to being a pedophile.

r On March 21 and 22, she and "Adam" went to sleep, and when she awoke he was gone.

r She was sifting through the ashes in her front yard in an effort to "help" police. "She claimed to have experience in locating the bones in the burn pile through her radiological training," Estabrook wrote in his affidavit.

r LaBarre burned the mattress because she "slept on it with a pedophile" and Countie could have fallen into the fire but she wasn't sure. She denied finding Countie already dead, then burning the body.

r LaBarre told police she did not harm Countie "and does not feel bad for his disappearance."

Security for LaBarre's hearing included screening family members and reporters with metal detectors twice before entering the court room. A pair of deputies stood in front and behind her during the two hour hearing.

As she was led out of the court house, LaBarre looked stone-faced through the grated rear-window of a sheriff's cruiser, staring into a television camera.



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