Flynn Hopes LaBarre Case Is his “Career Changer.”
November 18, 2008
Article from GEOFF CUNNINGHAM Jr. at Fosters. (Click name to read whole story.)
First came the discovery of a smoldering pile of debris with a human bone sticking out of it on a farm in Epping.
In the hours following there were neighbors too afraid to talk about the female suspect and an overheard conversation between investigators that led reporter Kevin Flynn to believe a missing persons case was much darker.
The above came to light in the spring of 2006 and it didn’t take long for Flynn — former WMUR television reporter turned author — to realize he had been assigned the story of a lifetime whose full telling wouldn’t fit in a 30-second news segment.
Flynn, 38, of Hopkinton has moved on from reporting at Channel 9 and is set for the Dec. 1 release of his first book: “Wicked Intentions: The Sheila LaBarre Murders - A True Story
Flynn worked for WMUR for five years and delved into the murder case in far more detail than required by his job. He was assigned the story as a journalist, but it would later become the focus of a new book detailing one of New Hampshire’s most grisly murderers.
Former WMUR Reporter Releases Book on LaBarre Murders
November 17, 2008
The first of two true crime books about convicted murderer Sheila LaBarre has already been released.
The book, titled Wicked Intentions: The Sheila LaBarre Murders - A True Story
LaBarre was convicted in June of this year of murdering and then burning the body of her live-in boyfriend Kenneth Countie, as well as the murder of another boyfriend, Michael Deloge.
A jury rejected the defense case that LaBarre was insane at the time that she killed the two men. After researching her case for more than two years, and meeting her in person, Flynn also has an opinion on LaBarre’s mental status.
“Do I think she’s legally insane or not responsible for her actions? No. I think she belongs in jail. I think the jury got it right,” Flynn said. “But when we talk about the things she does, we use words like crazy, nuts, lunatic, and I think it actually describes her behavior. Just because she’s crazy doesn’t mean she’s legally insane.”
Full story from Lara Bricker
LaBarre Appeal Accepted By Court
August 1, 2008
The state Supreme Court this week accepted Sheila K. LaBarre’s appeal of her double murder convictions.
The court also granted her request to have the state pick up the more than $25,000 tab to provide her with a copy of her trial transcript and other legal documents needed to prepare her appeal.
More from the UnionLeader.com
Could The Epping Murders Have Been Prevented?
July 3, 2008
Carolyn Lodge said she had concerns about her son’s relationship with Sheila LaBarre from the very beginning. Reached by phone last week, days after LaBarre was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering Lodge’s son, Kenneth Countie, Lodge said she had worried for her son’s safety while he was with LaBarre.
Although she was glad to see her son’s murderer brought to justice and held responsible for her crimes, it doesn’t ease the pain of her loss. “I was happy with the outcome, but it should have been done years ago,” Lodge said. “It won’t bring my son back.”
On June 20, a Rockingham County Superior Court jury found that LaBarre was sane when she murdered Countie in 2006 and Michael Deloge in 2005, foiling her defense team’s efforts to show that she was not guilty by reason of insanity. But the defense plans to file an appeal, and the case is likely to drag on for more than a year.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Denner maintains that LaBarre was insane when she murdered the two ex-boyfriends on her Epping farm. “Sheila LaBarre was crazy. Sheila LaBarre was insane,” he said during a phone interview last week. “These are not the acts of a rational person.”
Full story from Matt Kanner in The Wire.
GUILTY
June 20, 2008
A woman who claimed she was an angel sent from God to punish pedophiles was sane when she killed two boyfriends whose remains were found scattered around her farm, a jury found Friday.
Because Sheila LaBarre already had admitted that the state could prove her guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, the jury’s only task during the five-week trial was determining whether she was insane when she killed Michael Deloge in 2005 and Kenneth Countie in 2006. She was sentenced immediately to life in prison without parole.
As the jury filed out after the verdict, family members of the victims burst into applause.
“This is for my son,” said Countie’s mother, Carolynn Lodge. “(For) two years, my son could not rest. Now he can rest.”
The burden of proof was on the defense to show both that LaBarre, 49, of Epping, suffered from a mental disease and that the murders were a product of that illness. Defense lawyers argued that LaBarre was a delusional woman who believed every man in her life was a pedophile and who saw herself as an avenging angel. But the prosecution countered that she was a “crude, manipulative, cruel and vindictive” woman who violently lashed out at the men she dated.
Full story from The Associated Press
Also see:
Victims’ Families Denounce LaBarre After Guilty Ruling - WMUR
LaBarre Jury Gets Case
June 19, 2008
Over the six weeks of her trial, the fury and violence of Sheila LaBarre has not been disputed, nor has the fact that she lured men to her farm and eventually tortured them to death, then tended blazing fires that reduced their bodies to ashes. And yesterday, as they handed the case to jurors to decide, prosecutors and defense attorneys split on why LaBarre committed her crimes.
Prosecutors portrayed LaBarre, 49, as a cunning killer, a black widow who preyed on victims for no reason other than her own sadistic enjoyment. Defense attorneys said their client, who has admitted to killing Kenneth Countie and Michael Deloge, is an emotionally conflicted, profoundly disturbed, absolutely insane woman who kills as the boundaries between the hellish world inside her mind and the real world crumble.
Full story from Russ Choma.
Also see:
LaBarre case goes to jury (Fosters)
Jury gets case in Sheila LaBarre trial (AP)
LaBarre Case In Hands Of Jury (WMUR)
LaBarre Dragged From Courtroom After Outburst
June 17, 2008
Sheila LaBarre began screaming in court today, insisting she never hurt an animal, and was dragged from court.
“I didn’t harm my animals, I didn’t kill any animals,” she screamed at a psychiatrist hired by the state, who was testifying that he believed that it was possible LaBarre had harmed a number of her pets who lived on her remote Epping farm with her.
LaBarre, 49, has admitted to murdering two men, Kenneth Countie and Michael Deloge, but is pleading insanity. According to LaBarre, she killed Deloge because he admitted that he was harming her pet rabbits and that he was going to hurt her next. Defense experts testified that LaBarre suffers from paranoid delusions that men in her life are pedophiles and harm animals and she needs to protect society and children.
Full story from Russ Choma.
Friend sensed nothing unusual about LaBarre until her arrest
June 12, 2008
In the days leading up to Sheila LaBarre’s arrest, there was nothing unusual about her behavior or her appearance, according to an acquaintance who spent time with LaBarre from March 20 to March 24, 2006.
Prosecution witness Michelle Bennett testified Wednesday about the only time she met Kenneth Countie, foul odors inside and outside the LaBarre home, and strange statements LaBarre made over those few days — but nothing she found to be out of the ordinary.
Most poignantly, Bennett recalled joking with LaBarre about how she would kill someone.
“Sheila said she would take a knife and do this,” Bennett said, mimicking a stabbing motion in the chest.
“I did not,” LaBarre shouted from the defendant’s table before her defense attorneys hushed her.
Get the full story from Gretyl MaCalaster in Fosters.
LaBarre Victim’s Mother Breaks Down On Stand
June 12, 2008
The mother of one of Sheila LaBarre’s victims broke down in tears on the stand Wednesday as she testified about false allegations her son made against her.
Donna Boston told jurors that her son, Michael Deloge, was a slow student who left high school after his freshman year.
Get the full story on WMUR.com.
LaBarre Did Little to Hide, Despite Being Investigated for Murder
June 10, 2008
On March 29, 2006, Roxbury resident Kenneth Washington saw an attractive woman walking through a store parking lot and decided to try and pick her up.
Four days later, he discovered the woman he had been having sex with, getting money from and spending time with in the Boston area, was wanted for murder in New Hampshire.
Sheila LaBarre told Washington her name was Casey, that she was from Tennessee and was in the Boston area for real estate business. Her hair was dyed a burgundy red and she was carrying a shopping bag with clothes. She told Washington she had just come in from the airport and they had lost her luggage.
In fact, LaBarre had hitched a ride into town from Manchester and she was being investigated for the murder of Kenneth Countie.
Washington saw a news report on television the night of April 1, 2006, and called police the next morning. That day, LaBarre was arrested and has been in custody ever since.
Full story from Gretyl MaCalaster - Fosters Daily Democrat.
