LaBarre said to have tried to manipulate police interviews
May 29, 2008
Jumping from subject to subject, constant calls to the Epping Police Department and bizarre letters were just “typical Sheila LaBarre,” according to Epping police officers.
Four officers have now testified that her behavior around the time of Kenneth Countie’s murder in March 2006 was no different from usual.
LaBarre had been a regular correspondent with the police department since she arrived in Epping in 1987. Officers, including Chief Gregory Dodge, have testified that she called and wrote regularly, and they often were called to the horse farm on 70 Red Oak Hill Lane where she resided.
Full story from GRETYL MACALASTER.
LaBarre Jury Shown Cutting Tools Found On Property
May 29, 2008
New details were released Wednesday about how Sheila LaBarre may have disposed of the bodies of Michael Deloge and Kenneth Countie.
The jury in LaBarre’s insanity trial was shown various items, including pruning shears, bullet casings and a stick.
Assistant Attorney General Jane Young asked Epping Police Lt. Mike Wallace to describe some of the items found in and around the burn pit and barrel at LaBarre’s Epping farm. Wallace said police used a metal sifter to search through ashes looking for bone fragments.
“The bone fragments were very small,” he said. “The fragments were very brittle. Some would break in your hand.”
The bone fragments were later identified as human.
Prosecutors showed the jury pruning shears and hedge clippers found in the burn barrel. No mention was made of what they were used for, but the sight of them brought tears to Countie’s mother.
Full story from WMUR
Defense Asks Why Epping Police Did Not Intervene
May 29, 2008
Defense attorneys pressed an Epping police officer yesterday to admit his department did not intervene in the relationship between Kenneth Countie and Sheila LaBarre, despite LaBarre’s lengthy history of domestic violence.
LaBarre, 49, has admitted to murdering Countie and another boyfriend, Michael Deloge, but is pleading insanity.
Yesterday, Epping police Lt. Michael Wallace said he was well aware of statewide suggested protocols dictating how to intervene in domestic violence situations, but said his department did not do so on several occasions, including an encounter between Epping police and LaBarre and a sickly looking Countie, just days before he died.
Full story from RUSS CHOMA.
Victim’s Birth Record Found in LaBarre Home
May 29, 2008
Little is known about the circumstances surrounding Michael Deloge’s murder at the hands of Sheila LaBarre in 2005, but today the prosecution presented one of the few pieces of evidence they do have.
Prosecuting attorney Jane Young held up a mangled birth certificate in the name of Michael Deloge recovered from LaBarre’s septic tank during the course of the homicide investigation regarding Kenneth Countie, who LaBarre admitted to killing in 2006.
LaBarre has pleaded insanity to the charges and it will be in the hands of a jury to determine if in fact she was insane at the time of the two separate murders.
Full story from GRETYL MACALASTER.
Chief Dodge On the Stand: LaBarre did not seem insane in past encounters
May 27, 2008
Epping Police Chief Gregory Dodge testified today he never questioned Sheila LaBarre’s mental state or felt she met the criteria for involuntary commitment for a psychiatric evaluation during the time he knew her.
On Friday, two other Epping police officers provided similar testimony.
LaBarre moved to Epping in 1987, and lived there until her arrest in April 2006.
Defense attorney Brad Bailey questioned Doge about IEAs, or involuntary commitments and whether had ever considered executing one against LaBarre.
“I can honestly tell you that I never considered an IEA on Sheila LaBarre all the years I’ve known her,” Dodge said.
Full story from GRETYL MACALASTER, Fosters.
Another version from WMUR.com.
The sexual education of actress Sarah Kennedy
May 27, 2008
Sarah Kennedy is living two lives. Currently you can see her on stage at the Players’ Ring performing as Maggie Leland in the premier of “Roadside America” a new play by playwright (and Seacoast Media Group reporter) Susan Morse.
Acting is a passion.
By day Kennedy is down in Beverly, Mass., performing as director of education for a family planning organization.
Sexuality education is a passion.
Kennedy, 28, of Epping, initially went to Vassar College as a drama major; graduated with a Bachelor of Arts — same denotation. But she knew, love acting as she may, it wasn’t going to be a full-time career.
“I think I fantasized about going professional till about halfway through. About then, maybe junior year, I thought — this is really a hard life! I need stability and I need health insurance,” she says, no humor to her tone. “What got to me? I think probably some of the level of the competitiveness amongst people and hearing stories about how hard it is out there. I started to realize this wasn’t going to be easy.”
More from Jeanné McCartin on Seacoast Online.
Iraq War vet urges support for returning troops
May 27, 2008
John Worrel, a veteran of the Iraq War and recipient of the Purple Heart, spoke at the main Memorial Day ceremony downtown at the Daughters of the American Revolution Park.
“War is not glorious,” he told his audience yesterday. “It is a tough thing to do, but a job that still needs to be done.”
He urged the crowd to welcome u.s. military personnel as they come home, thank them for their service to the country and offer them support during times of need.
Worrel was one of many participants in yesterday’s Memorial Day observances. The annual parade began forming about 8:30 a.m., but several American Legion members were out earlier to deliver wreaths to local cemeteries that were not on parade routes.
“We were out to several cemeteries early this morning by around 6 a.m.,” said Joyce Maynard, an American Legion auxiliary member, “and the American Legion has a full color guard this year that is marching in the parade today.”
Full story from LAURIE A. OVENS PATEY in the Union Leader
LaBarre videos show heated exchanges
May 22, 2008
Videotaped interviews of admitted killer Sheila LaBarre showed investigators pushing her to explain a human bone found in a burning pile of trash on her Epping property.
At one point, a police officer raised his voice in the March 2006 recording, became confrontational and accused LaBarre of lying and harming Kenneth Countie, one of the men she now admits she killed. Jurors watched the tape yesterday.
LaBarre, who has since pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, denied throughout the taped interrogation any knowledge of what happened to Countie.
LaBarre also admitted killing a second man, Michael Deloge. Jurors will have to determine whether she was insane at the time.
When questioned on the tape about where the bone came from, LaBarre maintained it could have been from a rabbit she had cremated, but she couldn’t definitively say where it had come from.
More from The Associated Press
Jurors see flirtatious LaBarre on videotape
May 22, 2008
As Sheila LaBarre provided graphic details of her first sexual encounter with Kenneth Countie to police in March 2006, she asked if the interview was going to be played in court, which it was on Wednesday.
“I would be so embarrassed if I had to be in court and talk about that,” LaBarre told Epping Police Chief Gregory Dodge and New Hampshire State Police Sgt. Robert Estabrook.
For the second day in a row, jurors watched interviews LaBarre gave to police days after Countie’s disappearance.
Jurors spent most of the day on Wednesday watching the interview from March 27, 2006. LaBarre is particularly flirtatious and sexually explicit in the interview, leaning in to answer Estabrook’s questions, making hand gestures about what she and Countie did sexually in her car the night of Feb. 14, 2006, the day the two met.
Full story from GRETYL MACALASTER
Jurors see more police interrogation of Labarre
May 22, 2008
Sheila LaBarre remained calm and subdued while investigators continued to interrogate her late into the night on March 27, 2006.
Jurors today watched as LaBarre continued in the interview to deny having anything to do with Kenneth Countie’s death and tried to explain away why she pointed to a Wal-Mart bag and said he was in it.
In contrast to an earlier police interview, in which LaBarre’s emotions appear erratic, at the end of the interview, LaBarre’s tone remains calm even as questions are confrontational and angry and she is accused of being a liar and of killing Countie.
At one point, Epping Police Chief Gregory Dodge throws down the papers he is holding, stands up and points into her face and hollers at her about what happened.
More from GRETYL MACALASTER.
