Woman arrested for allegedly murdering, incinerating co-worker
E/C Annie
REVERE -- A woman wanted in the murder and incineration of a farmhand
has been arrested.
47-year-old Sheila LaBarre was spotted by a Revere police officer on
his lunch break, outside of the Northgate Mall. Officials say her
appearance was altered and her hair dyed.
An arrest warrant had been issued for LaBarre on March 31 for the
alleged murder of 24-year-old Kenneth Countie, a farmhand who worked
for LaBarre and lived with her. She is also accused of burning his body
at her Epping, New Hampshire horse farm. Countie recently moved from
Wilmington, Massachusetts to work on the farm.
LaBarre had not been seen since March 28, when authorities say she was
spotted at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester.
LaBarre will be arraigned on Monday.
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO17158/
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Court documents detail Epping woman's violent past
By MARK HAYWARD AND KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
Wednesday, Mar. 29, 2006
Sheila LaBarre is no stranger to men, or violence.
The 47-year-old - whose Epping property is the location of an intense
search for a missing Massachusetts 24-year-old - had a string of
relationships: a boyfriend, a husband and a near-husband since moving
to New Hampshire in 1987.
And the relationships frequently descended into threats or violence. At
times, LaBarre was the perpetrator; other times, the victim, according
to records reviewed yesterday in several courts.
Yesterday, police continued their search of the 115-acre horse farm at
70 Red Oak Hill Lane. Massachusetts resident Kenneth Countie, who had
moved there within the last month, was last seen March 17.
Authorities have classified the property and road a crime scene.
Yesterday the New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals said they removed horses from the farm Monday. The organization
did so at the request of the Epping animal control officer, according
to a press statement.
Assistant Attorney General Peter Odom said it would be premature to
discuss foul play, but he would not rule out homicide as a possibility.
"We're not ruling out anything at this point," he said.
"We're looking at every possible avenue."
Odom would not discuss who owns the farm, but neighbors have identified
LaBarre as the owner. Neighbors have said a string of young men came to
live at the farm, each one staying only a short time.
LaBarre took possession of the farm in 2000, upon the death of Wilfred
LaBarre. Wilfred was a respected Hampton chiropractor who moved her to
New Hampshire from Tennessee in 1987 after meeting her through a
personals ad, according to his daughter, Laura Melisi.
Sheila LaBarre moved to New Hampshire with the name Sheila Bailey
Jennings, said Melisi's husband, John Melisi. Bailey was her maiden
name, Jennings the name of a man she had married and left in her native
state of Alabama, according to Melisi.
She never married LaBarre. But Melisi said in a 2002 request for a
restraining order against her that the woman ended up controlling
everything Wilfred LaBarre owned through extortion and threats on his
life and property.
Melisi has said Sheila LaBarre became Wilfred's office manager and
lived in the apartment above the office in Hampton. Sometime in the
1980s, Sheila and Wilfred ended their romantic involvement, according
to papers filed in a court case in Rockingham County.
In 1995, Sheila LaBarre married Wayne Ennis, a native of Jamaica. In
complaints filed in Hampton District Court, she claims Ennis tried to
force her car off the road, punched her in the head and kicked her.
She divorced Ennis in 1997.
At the same time, Sheila LaBarre continued to have contact with Wilfred
LaBarre.
"After chasing (Wilfred LaBarre) with a gun, she twice asked her
husband, Wayne Ennis, to murder Dr. LaBarre in an attempt to take over
his business in Hampton and farm in Epping," Melisi wrote in the
request for a restraining order, which was granted for a period of one
year.
Meanwhile, Sheila LaBarre had met James Brackett.
In 1998, Hampton police arrested Sheila LaBarre for stabbing Brackett
in the head with a pair of scissors. Brackett had threatened her, and
both were arrested in the incident. Police termed the matter a
"lover's quarrel/argument," and eventually the case was dropped,
according to court records.
When Wilfred LaBarre died, he willed Sheila LaBarre the Epping farm,
the Hampton office, two Somersworth properties and a Portsmouth house,
John Melisi said. He valued them at $2 million.
In a court document, Melisi said LaBarre threatened the director of
Brewitt Funeral Home if he did not alter Wilfred LaBarre's death
certificate to say she was the wife.
Yesterday, Miguel Brewitt, a director at the home, said neither he nor
his father has a concrete memory of the incident. He said there may
have been a request to change the death certificate, but he does not
believe his father was threatened.
Regardless of the death certificate, the state Department of Revenue
Administration said LaBarre was not Wilfred's wife and moved to
collect inheritance tax on the estate.
In 2001, LaBarre challenged the DRA in a Rockingham County Probate
Court case and claimed she and Wilfred were common-law spouses. But the
DRA said LaBarre and Wilfred lived in separate addresses during the
three-year period needed to claim common-law status. The agency also
noted LaBarre lived with Brackett at some point during that time.
LaBarre dropped the matter after documents surfaced in which she told a
psychologist she and Wilfred LaBarre had not been romantically involved
since the 1980s.
Sheila LaBarre grew up in Fort Payne, Ala., where her mother, Ruby
Bailey, yesterday said she had heard from her daughter not too long
ago. She said she was unaware that her daughter's New Hampshire farm
was the focus of a missing person search.
"I don't know nothing about that," Bailey said during a brief
telephone conversation.
Union Leader Correspondents Toby Henry, Jerry Miller and Clynton Namuo
also contributed to this report.
Michael Snyder
"E/C Annie" <cab...@cavtel.net> wrote in message
news:1144032303.3...@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Woman arrested for allegedly murdering, incinerating co-worker
Anybody asking how Mr. Labarre Sr. died?
E/C Annie
Michael Snyder wrote:
> "E/C Annie" <cab...@cavtel.net> wrote in message
> news:1144032303.3...@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> > Woman arrested for allegedly murdering, incinerating co-worker
>
> Anybody asking how Mr. Labarre Sr. died?
>
passed away on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2000, at his farm.
Born on April 23, 1926, in Norwich, Conn., he was the only son of the
late Wilfred Joseph LaBarre Sr., and the late Emma Fink LaBarre.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/2000news/12_7obit.htm
Well, I'd like to know.......... Seems strange that he'd leave so much
to someone who had not lived with him since the 80's. Can't imagine
his son and daughter didn't contest the will and question his death.
annie
Michael Snyder
Thanks Annie -- but it doesn't answer my question (*how* he died).
Just that he "passed away". In case it isn't obvious, I'm asking because
this gal seems to have established violent, possibly homicidal, and
excessively aquisitive tendencies -- and murder by poison (for instance)
often goes undetected.
E/C Annie
If it isn't obvious to you, "Well, I'd like to know", I'm still looking
for that answer myself.
.... I read most articles looking for an extended illness; was his
son/daughter living with him at the time of his death, etc. The only
thing I found was a plain and simple obit. Some articles hint at his
heirs having filed something in Court regarding inheritance.
Michael Snyder
Yeah, I don't blame them!
Thanks for your efforts.
Bo Raxo
"Michael Snyder" <msn...@socmen.org> wrote in message
news:4430daea$0$70834$742e...@news.sonic.net...
>
> In case it isn't obvious, I'm asking because
> this gal seems to have established violent, possibly homicidal, and
> excessively aquisitive tendencies -- and murder by poison (for instance)
> often goes undetected.
>
Er, how can you tell something that is undetected frequently occurs?
Michael Snyder
"Bo Raxo" <fore...@earthcorp.removethistoreply.com> wrote in message
news:bdlYf.13542$sL2....@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
Good question. Here's a good answer -- because it gets detected later.
Usually in the case of a serial poisoner, whose earlier victims are
exhumed and examined only many victims later.
The fact that husband-poisoners can usually go thru 4 or 5 victims
(or more) before being caught or detected suggests that many who
only poison one are probably never caught or detected.
Bo Raxo
That is a good answer!
Michael Snyder
Thank you for asking!
E/C Annie
"An autopsy was performed when Wilfred LaBarre died. Melisi said the
cause of death was listed as a massive heart attack, hypertension,
arterial sclerosis and high blood pressure."
Well, you know I posted this one knowing it would probably interest
you. I was sorta hoping you'd do the researching. Unfortunately,
looks like Sheila got off with driving Mr. LeBarre to his death ;(
Interview with Mr. LeBarre's daughter follows.
annie
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/04012006/news/95543.htm
The late Wilfred LaBarre owned the 115-acre Epping farm inherited by
Sheila LaBarre upon his death. Sheila LaBarre unsuccessfully claimed
their long-term relationship was a common-law marriage.
Laura Melisi, Wilfred LaBarre's daughter, said in an interview
earlier this week she thought LaBarre was capable of violence.
Melisi said she has documentation of many threats made against people
by Sheila LaBarre, items she collected when she was considering
challenging the will that left all of her father's property to Sheila
LaBarre.
"She has made threats at gunpoint," said Melisi. "I feel very badly for
the Countie family because I fear that Kenneth is not coming back."
Melisi said she and her husband, John, met with Wayne Ennis,
LaBarre's former husband, after her father died in December 2000.
In 1995, Sheila filed assault charges against Ennis.
Ennis and Melisi's father knew and liked each other.
"Wayne told us that Sheila had asked him two times to kill my father,
so they could have the farm and practice," she said. "Wayne, who is the
nicest guy, said he told her he liked my father and would not do that."
Melisi said she's not sure if her father met Sheila LaBarre in
Tennessee, or if it were through a personal ad. Either way, she said
the minute she met Sheila, she told her father not to get involved.
Melisi said she believes Sheila LaBarre coerced her father into putting
her name on everything.
"I believe she came up here to reach that goal," said Melisi. "She knew
he was a doctor, that he had money and property. She knew he recently
lost his wife and that he needed help at the office.
"When I talked to her the first time on the phone, I said, 'Dad, you
don't want her in your life, she's bad news,'" said Melisi.
Incident after incident proved to the family that Sheila LaBarre was
not a nice person, said Melisi.
"My cousin Ed, also a chiropractor and my father's first business
partner, used to live in the apartment over the office," said Melisi.
"Sheila wanted to raise his rent. He was living there for practically
nothing and didn't want to pay more. He had a Doberman, and she
threatened if the rent didn't go up to $700 she was going to kill his
dog. Three days later the dog, who was not sick, dropped dead.
"Before he died my father called and we made plans to go riding. He
took me into the living room to show me where he had hidden money for
my brother and I, as she had control of all his accounts. He probably
thought the money was safe on the farm."
Melisi said after her father's funeral, Sheila called to report she
had found the money.
"She said 'Ha ha, how's it feel to have nothing?'"
The Melisis went to several lawyers but were told that since her father
was not incompetent or unable to work, their chances of challenging the
will were 50/50 and that it would cost $50,000 upfront to try.
"She stiffed me for the catering bill and the musician for the funeral,
too," said Melisi.
No matter how many people, Melisi included, tried to get Wilfred
LaBarre to toss Sheila out of his life, he couldn't do it. She said
he countered suggestions by saying Sheila was too smart and would
outfox anyone.
"I think she intimidated him," said Melisi.
Melisi said Sheila often had various men on the farm, both to work and
for relationships, even when her father was there. He finally moved to
the apartment above his office to get away, she said.
"From the first time she entered his life, she stressed him out," she
said. "He was having chest pains, lying down in between patients. The
doctors told him it was stress. Plus, she had him doing things more
suited to someone in his 20s when he was in his 60s and 70s - working
on his apartment buildings, wallpapering and painting, plus his work on
his practice and the farm.
"I loved my father so much and couldn't handle what she was doing to
him. I used to yell at him. We encouraged him to get restraining
orders. He got two, then she'd cry and he'd feel sorry for her."
Melisi said Sheila kept telling her father she would leave but never
did. She said he encouraged her to try for a singing career and gave
her substantial amounts of money.
"He said when she left, he wanted me to come back and work in the
office," said Melisi.
An autopsy was performed when Wilfred LaBarre died. Melisi said the
cause of death was listed as a massive heart attack, hypertension,
arterial sclerosis and high blood pressure.
"Sheila recently tried to get a copy of the coroner's report," said
Melisi. "I'm not sure why."