New Hampshire

Parents say son was battered and bruised when last seen


Published: April 15, 2006

Kenneth Countie was cut and bruised and was with his accused murderer the last day he was seen alive, his parents allege in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Kenneth Countie and Carolynn Lodge obtained a temporary $10 million attachment on Sheila LaBarre's assets in connection with the suit.

The lawsuit says the 24-year-old victim, LaBarre's lover and live-in farmhand, "was observed on or about March 17" in her presence "with a gash across his nose, swollen hands and cuts and bruises on his face and arms. His color was ashen."

Authorities charged LaBarre, 47, with murdering Countie about four days later and incinerating his body on her 115-acre horse farm in Epping. LaBarre says she is innocent.

LaBarre had had a series of tumultuous relationships with young men she invited to live and work at the farm, according to neighbors, court documents and the family of the farm's late owner, Wilfred LaBarre. Countie had recently moved to the farm from Wilmington, Mass.

LaBarre was arrested April 2 in Revere, Mass. Police say she had cut and colored her hair and was carrying marijuana and several thousand dollars in cash.

The parents' two-page lawsuit in Rockingham County Superior Court is the second legal move involving the farm and other assets LaBarre inherited from Wilfred LaBarre, a chiropractor more than 30 years her senior. He was 74 when he died in 2000.

She unsuccessfully sought recognition as his common-law wife, but state officials said the two had not been romantically involved since the 1980s, court records indicate.

Earlier this week, Probate Judge John Maher ordered LaBarre to return everything she received from Wilfred LaBarre pending an inventory of the estate. In addition to the farm, Wilfred LaBarre owned an office in Hampton and two rental properties in Somersworth.

Sheila LaBarre's lawyer, Jeffrey Denner of Boston, said she will be able to challenge both moves against her assets. He said there is no reason to believe the estate was mishandled.

Countie's parents' lawyer, Peter Eleey of Quincy, Mass., would not elaborate on the lawsuit.

"The family really wishes to thank everyone who's expressed support for them during this very difficult time," Eleey said.

LaBarre is in the Strafford County Jail pending a preliminary hearing April 24.