01x07 - Sheila LaBarre: Sheila the Peeler

[bunniefuu]

- I never imagined that
anyone in my family

would be labeled
a serial k*ller.

- She's been living on
that farm for 13 years.

It wouldn't surprise me
if there were others.

- I said, my son is dead.

My son is dead, isn't he?

- It was jarring seeing that
quantity of blood everywhere.

- Always kept notes.

If I thought they
were evil, I put evil.

- She used her sex
to lure men in.

It's arousing, it's
intoxicating, it's powerful.

- The only way of dealing
with her rage

was to seek revenge.

- Losing Kenny the way I
lost him is unbearable.

If you lose your child through
a sickness, a car accident,

you know, that's tragic,
but the way I lost Kenny?

No.

- I was the chief secretary.

And when somebody would call,

they're calling the
department, they're calling me.

So, I'm the first line of fire.

I received a phone call
and this woman said,

I'm not sure really
who to talk to.

- I said, I have
a 24 year old son

that is learning disabled
and he's missing.

- Carolyn sounded scared,
of course, it's her son.

His age is 24, but
he wasn't really 24.

- He couldn't read,
he couldn't write,

his social skills weren't there.

I never made him feel as though
that, that he had a problem

because I wanted him to
be like everybody else.

The roommate said that
Kenny never came home,

that he didn't take any
of his clothing with him.

And his vehicle was
still parked outside.

I didn't know what to think,
but I knew something was wrong.

And then that night
I got a phone call

and it was from Kenny.

And he said, mom,
I can't go home.

And I heard, "Let
me speak to her."

And she grabbed the
phone from Kenny

and she said, ma'am,
he's 24 years old.

Leave him the
alone, we're happy.

And she hung up.

Imagine hearing this
woman say this to you.

And there's nothing as
a mother you can do.

- She told me that
he's supposedly

in Epping with a Suzanne woman.

And I go, Suzanne?

She said that she was
blonde, driving a Cadillac.

And the more that
I spoke to her,

the red flags were
just going up.

And I'm like, that's Sheila.

- Sheila, she was born
on the 4th of July.

And when she would have
a little temper tantrum,

my dad would say, well
there's that firecracker.

- She had a very violent,

domineering father who
both physically abused her

and likely emotionally
abusing her.

- To the outside world, my
daddy was fun to be around

if you didn't know him,
but he'd drink to excess.

And he was mean when
he was drinking.

And it was...

- I was probably
nine or 10 and Sheila

who again is four
years younger than me

and our dad came home drunk.

- You could hear him
rusting through the corn.

And I just laid really still.

Then I could hear him
kicking something, screaming.

And I started crawling,
whispering "Mother, mother."

- So, now, she's got the
dilemma of loving her father.

And part of the
confusion was that hatred

was also fused
with love and sex.

And what does this
child do with that?

I mean, there are all sorts
of shame, guilt, rage,

and to make it even
worse, longing.

- I'm like, I kind
of have a gut,

just my feeling is
because it was Sheila.

- Sheila was very well known
amongst all the officers.

The Epping police
department had been

there on her property
hundreds of times.

It's a hundred plus
acres of farmland,

but she was viewed
as a nuisance caller.

I would put it that way.

- She's very intimidating
and she's loud.

And she's gonna take
over the conversation.

So I said to Gallagher,

is there any way that
you can go to the farm

just to look into the matter
and see if Kenny's there?

Her son.

- We went to Sheila's
residence, knocked on the door.

Sheila answered.

We asked if Kenneth
Countie was there.

Sheila was just like, you
know, "Why are you here?

This is ridiculous.

He's here, but you
can't talk to him."

We said, "We're just here to
make sure that he's okay."

And eventually he
came to the door.

He told us that he was fine

and was there of
his own free will.

- I'm thinking to myself,
okay, she's 47 years old.

She's with a 24 year old man,

the way that she spoke
to me as a mother,

I was determined to get my son.

- He was in a store wheelchair.

He looked like he had
been injured in some way.

So we asked if he
needed medical attention

and he was just simply
not talking to us.

- Sheila would call
every day, almost.

She would just be talking
about anything and everything.

So she called the
department on the 23rd,

it was about noontime.

And I said, hey, how's that
relationship going with Kenny?

And she goes, oh, he left
during the middle of the night.

- I got a phone call that Sheila
had called the department

to say that Kenny left her in
the night, that he was gone.

- So when we arrived at
Sheila LaBarre's property,

as we walked back, there was
what appeared to be a mattress.

And we noticed that the
debris in the front yard

was the charred
remains of a fire pit.

But the main thing that we
noticed was a piece of flesh.

And it had some
bones sticking out

of the piece of flesh
on either side of it

and it was pretty large.

We may be looking
at some type of a,

a crime scene or some type
of evidence destruction.

And then we heard a woman's
voice yelling at us.

It was Sheila.

We explained that we were
trying to find Kenneth.

She said, "Well, he's
not here anymore."

We asked if we could go
inside and look around,

make sure he wasn't
there and she said, yes.

The house was cluttered
with belongings.

There were rabbits everywhere
and the house smelled.

After we finished
looking around the house,

we went back outside.

I pointed to a bone
in the fire pit

and I said, this piece of
flesh in this bone, what is it?

And she looked right at us
and she just simply stated,

"It's from a rabbit or a
pedophile, I don't know."

And at that point I
said, "You just said

it's from a pedophile,
what do you mean?"

And she said, "No, no, no, no.

It's from a rabbit,
that's what it is."

And all of a sudden, Sheila
threw us off the property.

But I was going to apply
for a search warrant

because I believed that that was

a piece of Kenneth
Countie in that fire pit.

- She didn't go through that
ugly duckling stage, you know,

she just went from
a pretty little girl

right into good
looking young lady.

She was very smart and talented.

All the local high schools
had a little beauty pageant.

And whoever advanced
from that would be

in a actual junior miss pageant.

And one of Sheila's teachers
had wanted her to enter.

So Sheila did, and she
got to read a poem.

- Some of Sheila's poems
that she had written

give us a window into a
very troubled young woman.

Some men give treasures,
some men give pleasures.

Some men give nothing at all.

Some men like daughters,
some men like nieces,

some men prefer broken pieces.

She was a broken piece.

She was broken from early on.

- She knew how to dress,
the seductive type dress.

She could flaunt it.

She was very sexual.

Didn't hide the fact.

- This way Sheila
could use her charm,

use her beauty,
her sexual prowess

to make these men do whatever
she wanted them to do.

And that's the type of
relationship she wanted.

- She really, and
truly could read people

and could figure out
their weaknesses.

And she just had that
uncanny ability to use them,

befriend them, or destroy them.

- I got a phone
call saying to me

that we couldn't find Kenny.

He was no where to be found.

I said, "My son is dead,
my son is dead, isn't he?"

- When we arrived to
serve the search warrant,

Sheila was a mess.

She had actually,
when we arrived

been on her hands and
knees in the fire pit,

just sifting by hand through it.

It was obvious at that
point that she was probably

trying to get rid of evidence.

My initial fear that
the large piece of flesh

and bone would be gone
was absolutely true.

It was gone.

- We still had an incredible
amount of the evidence

to examine, but we
didn't have enough

at that point to arrest her.

Sheila LaBarre was
free to go after

that initial interview
with the detectives.

So she left.

- Sheila was not in
custody at this point.

We were trying to find
out exactly what we had.

I think some of the
most damaging evidence

was the sifting
of the burn piles.

We were regularly
bringing buckets

full of bones and other
ash to the anthropologist.

We located evidence
within the home,

including a knife,
what they believed

to be blood on the knife.

You could see blood spatter

in the living room against
the wall and in the kitchen.

Her bathroom downstairs,

there were blood stains
covered with dust.

And then there was fresh blood.

It was jarring, seeing that
quantity of blood everywhere.

- As a young adult,
Sheila wanted to be loved

by somebody in a way
that isn't hurtful.

Well, it was wonderful,
you know, in the beginning.

- It was just one
fight after another.

It was always a
knock down brawl.

- In a sense,
that's a repetition

of what she must have
experienced as a kid.

On some level she must have
been saying, I don't get it.

How can this be?

This loving man is all
of a sudden horrendous.

- She told me the
story of in the coma.

There were a lot of
men around her bed

with long white beards
wearing white robes.

They told her that
she was an angel

and she was being
sent back to Earth.

- That's sort of a
rebirth experience.

She now lives as a new life

with everything that
she wants here on earth.

Now she's powerful enough
to protect herself.

- And so she decided
she was gonna have to,

I guess, find new territory.

- At this point, it
was our burden to prove

that the remains that we found

was the remains of Ken Countie.

Sheila.

My main focus was
just to lock her into

a statement of what
happened to Ken Countie.

- She was accusing Carolynn
of being a pedophile.

Same thing she was
saying about Ken.

She was saying that
Ken was a pedophile.

She was just making all this up.

You k*lled that kid.

- Even though on the tape,
she says, "He's in that bag."

Even though she
tells the officers,

"I was burning rabbits
or a pedophile,"

she just continued saying that

she had no idea where Ken was.

- [Detective] Doesn't
have to be a motel.

You can stay wherever
you'd like to stay.

- She was not allowed
to return to her home.

There was a search
warrant on that home.

So she had to go elsewhere.

Our next hurdle
was to prove that

Sheila LaBarre had
m*rder*d Ken Countie.

- In the beginning, she was
just Sheila Bailey Jennings.

She didn't become
Sheila LaBarre until

she moved in with Dr. LaBarre.

She was 27 years old,
and she answered an ad

that Dr. LaBarre had
put in a magazine.

He was about 57 years
old, had his practice,

he had the 115 acre farm.

He had a lot of money, but
he was incredibly lonely.

- She actually sent topless
photographs of herself,

and she used that to
ensnare Dr. LaBarre.

She used her sex to lure men
in to get things from them.

- She actually was
able to convince him

that he should change
all the legal documents

in his will so that she became
the heir to everything.

- She genuinely
has a brief period

of stability with, you know,

somebody who is something of
a father figure as it were.

And then he dies
and the rug has been

totally pulled out
from underneath her.

- All of this with him seemed to

start triggering
memories in me and fears

and things traumatic.

- After Dr. LaBarre passed away,

she started with
the phone chats.

And the first time I'd heard
anything about pedophilia

was when she said she
was talking to a guy

and she would ask questions

and see if they were
interested in kids.

- Always kept notes
usually when I talk

to these men on Telemates,
I just jotted notes down.

If I thought they were
evil, I'd put evil.

- And I said, "Why
are you doing that?"

And then this is where the
conversation come about

from the white bearded men that

she was sent back to
Earth to venge pedophilia.

- She's saying, "I
came back from God.

He sent me back as an
angel to k*ll pedophiles.

All sex offenders must die."

- We had a large
amount of personnel

doing the search
within the house.

And then one of the
detectives approached me

and said that they
found a bank statement

with the name of Michael
Deloge with Sheila's address.

We found an identification
card of Michael Deloge

and they started
finding other documents

with Michael Deloge's name.

So now we don't know,
who is Michael Deloge?

I kind of got a sick feeling
in my stomach at that point.

- We didn't know if
we would find more

bodies on the property or not.

There could have
been more victims.

I contacted his mother, asked
if she's heard from him.

She said, "No, I haven't heard
from him from a very long time."

And she was very concerned.

The last time that
she saw Mike was when

he visited her with Sheila
LaBarre, his new girlfriend.

- And she said that she was

in fear for Mike
because of Sheila.

An arrest warrant was
issued for Sheila LaBarre

but she had fled the area.

I was just about all set to
go on America's Most Wanted

at one point, when I was told

she was located and arrested
by Revere Police Department.

A truck driver who had been

watching the news,
recognized her.

She was a woman that he had
driven into Massachusetts.

She said that she was an angel

and that she was put on
this Earth to hunt down

and k*ll pedophiles.

- She picks up
Michael Deloge knowing

that he's a desperate,
vulnerable human being.

He's homeless, nobody
is taking care of him.

And he thinks he's
won the lottery.

At this point, the men that
she had relationships with

were her means of
getting revenge.

Her means of expelling her hate.

- She starts
developing this persona

of the revenging angel

and the narrative becomes
stronger in her mind

as time goes on.

- I'm not someone who
planned any of this,

- Sheila could have
chose many things,

to as*ault Michael Deloge.

She could have chose a club,
a knife, a pair of scissors.

- There's blood spatter on
the walls that belongs to him.

So he clearly was
stabbed at some point.

She stabbed him to death

and she dismembered
him with a knife.

- Yeah, I think that Sheila,

if you take a look
at the totality

of what she had done
to these people,

she certainly fits the
profile of a serial k*ller.

- We're pretty sure that
Ken's the last one she k*lled.

But what happened before?

Who knows how many
victims are out there?

She's been living on
that farm for 13 years.

It wouldn't surprise me
if there were others.

- We did turn up the tailbones

on the outskirts of the property

that we have been
unable to match

to any person at this stage.

- Sheila absolutely would've

continued to k*ll
in horrific ways.

And I think that's true
of all serial K*llers.

For Sheila, this is
building up over the years

to be sort of the avenging angel

that God sent to take
care of pedophiles.

k*ll sex offenders.

Does this have anything
to do with your dad?

Very likely it does.

- Sheila was not able
to escape her past.

She was broken into pieces.

There was never much
that enabled her

to put any of the pieces back
together in a healthy way.

The only way of
dealing with her rage

was ultimately to
retaliate and seek revenge.

- At some point,
you move from just

abusing these guys to finally
saying, you know what?

I have the right to k*ll them.

And you cross that line.

That line where you
make your first k*ll,

it's arousing, it's
intoxicating, it's powerful.

You can't have more
power than controlling

whether somebody lives or dies.

That is the ultimate power.

- I never imagined that
anyone in my family

would be labeled
a serial k*ller.

Sheila was probably the most
intelligent one of all of us.

Beautiful girl.

Funny, had it all.

Never in a million years

did I think that she
would trade all of that

for a small cell with a bunk

where they don't even
give you a pillow.

- I had a son who was
a loving, caring son

and he trusted,
trusted everybody.

As much as you try to
instill in him that

there are bad people out there,

he never thought
anybody was bad.

Even though I know that
in my heart and mind,

he's gone, I still
wait for that day,

he comes home.