Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
Sheila LaBarre is a convicted murderer who gained notoriety for a series of brutal crimes committed on her farm in Epping, New Hampshire. Originally from Alabama, LaBarre moved to New Hampshire in the late 1980s and eventually inherited a farm from her late partner, Dr. Wilfred LaBarre.
LaBarre lured vulnerable young men to her farm, where she subjected them to psychological and physical abuse. She believed she was on a mission to punish pedophiles and was delusional about her supposed ability to determine their guilt. In 2006, authorities discovered the remains of two men, Kenneth Countie and Michael DeLoge, on her property, leading to her arrest.
During her trial, LaBarre’s defense argued that she was mentally ill, but she was ultimately convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case shocked the local community and drew significant media attention due to its horrific nature and LaBarre’s disturbing behavior.
on february 24th 2006 thee Epping police departement received a frantic call
from carolynn Lodge
who reported her son kenneth michael countie missing
little did he know that his wellness check would unveil that he was being captured by a sociopath who turned a once a fairy tale ranch…..
into a BDSM house of horrors.
When crolyn lodge called her son missing that her 24 year old son was quote unquote mentally deficient and had the IQ level of a 12 year old.
throughout he’s early days ,his deficiency was the reason that he struggled with basic paperwork or simple tasks.
but even so he planned to move out of his childhood home in january of 2006 and become independent….which he did.
last time her mother saw him at his work at the car wash.
at the car wash he was described as a quote simple dedicated worker ,however his mental deficiency made him srtuggle with rather basic tasks and paper work.
thats why his roomate told kenneth’s mother that he was missing it was necessary to find him as he wouldn’t cope on his own.
but it turned out that kenneth wasn’t alone.
the reason why carolyn made the missing person call to the police departement of Epping and not wilmington is that his roomate claimed that kenneth had fallen for a women from epping new hampshire who he met on a site called telemates a telephone dating service.
on this site callers would create voicemals describing themselves and strangers could leave messages for the singles they liked.
and for some reason kenneth felt drawn to this ( sheila sing a song)
somehow kenneth fell in love with this woman and after the two exchange numbers they spent their first night together in the ashworth hotel in hampton.
that means that she came all away from epping to meet with him
now normally kenneth called his mother every single day but the last time she heard from him was the first time that she heard from his new girlfriend who clearly didn’t give a good first impression.
and once sergeant gallagher got the name sheila Labarre got the name sheila labarre he knew that t county could be in trouble as he knew exactly what type of person she was .
before sheila took the surname lebarre she was sheila k bailey
born and raised in Alabama growing up in a Baptist family as the youngest she had some serious issues with her father,he was an alcoholic who would physically abuse his own flesh and blood and the family had no choice but to flee until he sobered up
despite the difficult childhood ,she graduated from fort payne high school ,aspiring to become a country musician or model .
she used her looks to compete in beauty contests aiming to secure a rich and attractive partner,she was known for wearing very feminine and intriguing perfumes, making it hard for sheila to go on noticed.
her first marriage to john baxter a single father lasted only 6 weeks, which is ironicbecause they only dated for a month before getting married in 1991 but tbased on how she treated his daughter wendy bacter had no choice but to end it .
wendy claimed that when john was at his job as a utility lineman
sheila would love give her brandy and then would keep her locked up in a room the sixe of a closet just keep her out of the way.
with no finances to keep her aflote, she took a job at fast food joint which she met her second husband ronnie jennings ,her second marriage seemed more lasting than the previous one but behind closed doors she would take her frustrations out on him,both pysically and mentally. ronny decides that he doesn’t want to be in a relationship with her which totally breaks sheilas heart….
she decided to take a handful of pills and drives herself into a tree, sheila is transported to the nearest hospital and stays in coma for days,luckily she recovered but according to her she was resurrected as an angel.
she claimed to have been sent back as god’s avenging angel.
but deep down sheila only wanted one thing- a new man , a man she could control and exploit. both these needs were fulfilled after she met dr wilfred bill labrre.
Dr Labarre was a successful chiropractor in Epping, he was the owner of the largest piece of land in Epping.
a 115 acre farmhouse but he was in search of love
after his second wife Edwina died of cancer.
he fell into depression grieving over the loss of his belovedbut in 1987 he put out a personal ad hoping to regain that feeling of love.
and while there were many responses from women wanting to be mrs labarre, sheila’s response stood out from the rest
maybe the response isn’t that intriguing to read but it was the topless photo attached which jump started the relationship.
and even though she never quote unqote legally married him , she wanted everyone around epping to know her as mrs Labarre.
the couple lived happily together on paper until his deah at age 74 in 2000 after his death sheila Labarre inherited his farm.
which was now the place where kenneth countie possibly was…
at the same time carolyn lodge can’t go to the police for help because they’ve already cleared kenneth on the welnness check and the fact sheila has put the word out even at the police departement of just how much they want to get away from her.
” sworn statement was sent to your departement, it was also sent to wilmington as well as to the Epping police departement,this individual that made that sworn statement is..it was me and him at my office,which is at my home.
and want no contact of any kind with a woman by the name of caroyn lodge who is gia mother and he needs his IRS check, rather than i’ve told him years ago to not to go anywhere near the house again.now that his stepfather by the name of gerald lodge is a man from england and this claimant , kenneth countie ,has not made poilice report, but ths man , according to him.. his violent and has stabbed kenneth countie jr.”
not only was she madmouthing his family but that kenneth was also right next to her listening and futher factchecking those allegations
in other words sheila had full control over him .
uunfortunately the police couldnät do anything related to sheila and kenneth, unless they had concrete proo of overpowering.
and that proof came on march 17 th 2006
detective richard coat and seargen gallagher were dispatched to the epping wallmart for report of two unwanted people.
the manager claimed that the two were being disruptive in the store ans she wished to have them removed
well it turned out that those two were sheila and kenneth.
what makes this visit so interesting is that sheila is pusching kenneth in a wheelchair .
here you can see kenneth holding thee yeloow gas cans and did not appear to be moving much the reason why the police were called in them is because sheila claimed that some woman tried to touch kenneth.
he never said anything regarding that but sheila caused a scene which compelled the officers to escort them out of the store .
but here’s where it gets interesting when the seargen made contact with kenneth ,he noticed that kenneth’s skin was very ashen he hadcuts on boths his hands and his face
his hands were extremely swollen and he did not appear to have normal use of them. he also seemed skinnier then the last time they saw him.
before shawn and richard gould get a question out sheila appeared and loomed behind him, she told the seargent and the detective that he was fine ,that his wounds were just the result of a car accident . nothing to worry about.
when richard began speaking to kenneth she abruptly cut him off and told not to talk to the officer,knowing that he hasa wellness check up soon and knowing how caroyn had been constantly worried about her son.the two detectives didn’t think twice about kenneth’s conditions, they just escorted the two off the property and that’s it.
after that they attempted to contact sheila labarre by telephone on march 23rd but she didn’t respond,on march 24th at around 1:00 a.m,sheila called seargant gallager when she told him about his attempt to locate kenneth she said and i quote countie was a Pedophile and raped several children in the commonwealth of massachusetts .
after he inquired about his confession, she played him a tape over the call in which he confessed to such alligations.
sheila : present with me is kenneth michael countie has caroolynn lodge ever sexually molested you as child?
kenneth: yeas
sheila :go into your memory and give me the approximate age that you can first redall sexual molestation by yhour other carolynn lodge perfomed on you ?
kenneth: four years old
sheila: could it also be possible younger than that?
kenneth:yeas
sheila:when you were four years old, did carolynn lodge drink alchohol?
kenneth: yeas
sheila: does she drink beer?
kenneth: yeas
sheila: does she drink champagne?
kenneth:yes
sheila : does she drink hard liquor?
kenneth: yeas
sheila: does she babysit a child who is a female,and who is supposed to be,or actually is the daughter of your half-brother brian lodge?
kenneth: yeas
sheila: state the approcimate age of this child , so would this not mean that if your half -brother , lisa’s father , that he would hd to have impregnated lisas’ mother, at the age of approximately 14?
kenneth:yeas
sheila : have you ever seen lisa’s mother ?
kenneth: no
the reason sheila made these tapes was to that she could build some type of case against kenneth that she knew about his family’s dark secret .
by portraying him and his family like this she hoped to discredit ant lawsuit, any action they would take.
that day at around 6:00 p.m. they went over to visit sheila,and initially she let the officers in to ask questions ,but oncce sherealized the questions were about kwnneth she told them to leave immediaely and without a search warrant ,the detectives could never get inside the house for anything concrete.
but what they saw outside the house was probable cause to get one.
they found remains of a burnt matress on her fron lawn. the matress was devastated by fire leaving behind only the metal frame .the springs and a small portion of the cloth
as they walked up to the front of the residence there was a second burnt pile in which there appeared to be a knife handle attached to a metal blade.
in this little visit there two key point which comelled them to urgently get a search warrant.
first off when the detectives were inside the house initially they found kenneth’s old sneakers. they ask sheila why he didn’t take these shoes to which she said that he had a second pair which she got him from walmart. you cam tell on the sergeant’s face when he found the second pair also inside the house.
kenneth was mentally unwell but he wasn’t bad enough to leave without his shoes.
the second and perhaps the biggest part of this case something seargeant gallagher swore to in every statement.
that he gave was that in the burnt pile , he noticed a bone , which appeared to be attached t some meaty tissue.
when he unquires about the fire,sheilaclaimed that she was burning trash, when they asked why she burnt te mattress she claimed that it was because she quote unquote slept with a pedophile on it.
but the really shockingresponse came when they inquired abut the bone, she responded and once again thisstatemenet hasn’t changed in any testimony, she said that quote it was a rabbit or pedophile or something
when he immediately inquired about why she would say it’s a pedophile she didn’t reply.
after all these facts were quoted to a judge they got a search warrant.
but only for the outside of the residence.
on the 25th of march 2006
as the detective searched the outside of her residence,sheilacame in to give an interview to trooper jill rocky and richard mitchell of the state police.the goal of this interrogation was to determine the nature of the tape she shared with seargeant gallagher, the burn piles, and espcecially her comment on the bones…..
noticed how she is playing the victim card,claiming that the first time she laid eyes on kenneth she thought he was a pedophile
throughout this interview sheila completely discredit and tarnish the reputation of a 24 year old mentally challenged man who according to his family only thought of others and wanted to keep everyone happy .
by now the detectives have been ummune to anything bad she has to say about kenneth and just focusing on the bones that’s aren’t the rabbit bones , she is now going to juggle between two scenarios
A:that bone belongs to a rabbit whos bonde she didn’t pick
B: she doesn’t know where the bones came from.
she just admitted to using gasoline to light up the firesand also slipped up about where she got the gasoline cans from
so far they ‘ve raised the possibility that the bone could possibly be from kenneth
the question now is how’s she going to talk her way out of this.
the couple bought gasoline from walmart days before his dissapearance,she claimes that he might have burned himself righot now so did she know that the burnt bones fragement was of kenneth or did she hate him so much that she was the one who did it.so far all she’s doing is giving the police more probable cause to search inside the residence as well.
by saying that he would quote unquote make myself stop she’s derailing the detective to consider this as a swword also when she boldy said repeat the tape deep down over these niecties and being a low tone sweet talker, she has a srikt tone
whiich we’ll take you through after this interrogation .
but for now detectives inquired further about her farm and discussed what could have happened to kenneth.
and as she continued to plat the victim card,the detective brings up something appalling which she said to the chief o fthe police that day.
after that they concluded the intervie but now they have more than enough to execute a search warrant inside the house .
so for you ‘ve seen sheila labarre speaking controlled and montone style but later that day she finally went back home she called sergeant gallagher again and in simple words she gave him a mouthful.
sheila : is this sergeant gallager? i just talked to the new hampshire state police and i said ..i mentioned you and not in a negative way, feel free to call over there and ask for (indiscernible) court law .now , what i would like is to inform you ,that when my attorney is going to be sending a letter to the PD,because the state police men i just talked to,
so i asked him if he had a copy of the NCI, he said no it ws never (indiscernible),because he wouldn’t know to drive in (indiscernible)
and then , when i (indiscernible) my comment on the speaker phone unless it can’t be heard ,to me when i said how sis tou know to come to my house?
he said something to do with (indiscernible).we put tow and two together , now i ‘m upset about this, i contacted my lawyer, i wanna now how the epping police tog the (indiscernible) to come in my farm and mr (indiscernible) too .
so how did yoi know to come in my house?
so while she’s building her ridiculouse case,the investigator’s request for a warrant to search inside the residence
by now the evidence is not strong enough to put sheila
so in the meantime sheala flee from eping,but on march 26th sheilas face is all over the news
and as soon as she finds out she starting taking out large sums of money from her accounts and starts living off the the grid.
she was living with some local pet store owners ,who were kind enough to giver her a place to stay… that is until they realized who she was and called the police.
on the 27th of march sheila was apprehended and the search warrat allowed the investigtors
to tear apart the labarre residence .from the search inside the house they
founde strokes of dried blood covering some of the farmhouse walls
and a bloody knife that looked like it was dipped in maroon paint that matched kenneth’s DNA
they found other bunr piles on the estate that contained clothing remnants and burned out mattresses with fatty bits stil clinging to the wireframe and box springs.
the highlight of the search however was them finding a walmart bag with fine debris that included bones
amongs the mess, was sheila’s notebook, her journal had bizarre entries that made investigtors wonder if they were related to kenneth’s murder.
one page dated july 2005 had a drawing of a human body with the words 110 lb 5’4 inches and the list of words that followed, included incinerated burned ashes.
berry and and death in all caps.
based on the bones fragments collected from the crime scene and the blood spatter on the wall there is conclusive proof that sheila Labarre killed kenneth countie.
now the interrogation is purley based on proof that she killed kenneth countie
and even thoug she ends up denying everything… it is soo satisfying to see her getting brutally yelled at, this time there’s no deceit no manipulation, it’s just a raw and loud interrogation of sheila Labarre
when officer wallace who was part of the search team recovered the walmart bag he asked sheila about it, to which she subtly said and i’m quoting, “kenny is in the bag”.
this one slip up not only incriminate her but is also now the subject of this entire interrogation.
sheila never confessed or cracked under pressure but with this information she was booked for first- degree murder.
although sheila was only charged with kenneth’s murder,investigators still suspected that there might be others…..
when they went up to the bathroom of her resident and tried flushing they found something clogging the pipe.
thinking that it could be narcotics ,the investigators ripped apart the septic tank
and found a birth certificate ,the birth certificate was not of kenneth or bill or any of the men she married or lived with – the name was michael todd deloge,on top pof that the blood spatter on the walls wasn’t just of ken it was also of michale todd deloge
35 year old michael todd deloge from connecticut was a peculiar character,unlike the men that sheila has been with before, he considered himself quote a lost soul and a aspiring songwriter and poet who unfortunately ended up being a drug addict .while his family supported him as much as they could he ended up living homeless in portsmith new hampshire
in 2003 he met sheila at his homeless shelter as she would go there to find workers for the farm and that’s where michael caught her eye.
sheila and michael”s relationship began almost immediately after he got the job,micheale eventually trew away everything he had and every family member who cared about him
and just like that michael would basically become a slave.
michael : …molest me? and where did this happen? and who was around? why did anythin happen , i cannot believe you did that ,i cannot believe you let that happen ,i’ve been messed up since i visist ,thinking about this,now i got all this repressed hatred , and i starting to rembember things about the past and you really messed me up “
this was the only videotape logged into evidence which demonstrated how much sheila owerpowered him .
he not only accuses his mother but he also talk about how sheila is his savior.
the search of the house led them to kenneth.
but the deep search of her septic tank which needed to be manually dug and pumped out led them to michael’s birthcertificate.
and his bones
in addition to that , investigators also found a letter that had bee n notorized by sheila and supposedly written by michael that he admitted he was a pedophile.
he wrote quote , there is no hope for me , i’m a lost cause i’ve even tortured this kind lady’s baby rabbits .
now sheila was set to face trial for not one but two counts of premeditated murder
the trial was scheduledto begin i march of 2008, but in february sheila’s legal team made a bombshell announcement , she essentially admitted that she had murdered kenneth countie and michael deloge but she claimed quotequote not guilty bt reason of insanity
after more than 40 witnesses and 5 weeks of testimony the jury took 2 days and 13 hours to declare a guilty verdict
the judge sentenced sheila labarre to life in prison without the possiblility of parole
in th eend we can’t say for sure the extent of her crimes
from the crime scene they revcovered toes that belonged neither to kenneth nor michael
the victim was never identified and while the toes were never brought up during the trial
it compels us to wonder how many more poor men fell for sheila’s manipulative and deceitful ways……