N.H. woman arrested in man's death

Revere police, acting on a tip, arrested an Epping, N.H., woman wanted in the death of a 24-year-old Wilmington man, whose body was allegedly incinerated after he was killed, officials said.

Lieutenant Michael McLaughlin said that Revere officers developed the tip in a joint effort with Boston police and arrested Sheila LaBarre, 47, near the Northgate Shopping Center yesterday afternoon. LaBarre, who will be charged with murder, being a fugitive from justice, and possession of marijuana, was arrested without incident, McLaughlin said.

LaBarre is wanted in New Hampshire on a warrant for first-degree murder in the death of Kenneth Countie, who recently moved to New Hampshire from Wilmington.

He had been living with LaBarre for several weeks, possibly working as a farmhand, officials and neighbors said.

Countie was last seen in Epping on March 17, and his parents reported him missing on March 23.

Officials allege that LaBarre killed Countie around March 21 in Epping, then incinerated his body.

LaBarre's 115-acre horse farm on Red Oak Hill Lane has been the focus of investigators and forensic technicians since shortly after Countie's disappearance, officials said. As rumors swirled about the investigation, LaBarre proclaimed her innocence last week in a letter delivered to a New Hampshire television station, WMUR-TV.

''I am innocent, and God knows I am," she said in the letter, according to press accounts.

Neighbors told local media outlets that LaBarre took over the horse farm from her common-law husband, Wilfred LaBarre, a local chiropractor who died in 2000.

McLaughlin said that LaBarre would be held in the Revere police lockup until this morning, when she is scheduled to be arraigned in Chelsea District Court.