Questioning gets confrontational in LaBarre tape
BRENTWOOD, N.H.—Videotaped interviews of admitted killer Sheila LaBarre show investigators pushing her to explain a human bone found in a burning pile of trash on her 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's now admits she killed. Jurors watched the tape Wednesday.
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 has 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 couldn't definitively say where it had come from.
When police returned to LaBarre's farm the next day, she was again burning items in her yard. Seeing the police, LaBarre ran into her house. When questioned about this, LaBarre said she was burning clothes and other household items and that she ran into the house because she felt intimidated by the police. She also said she was sifting through the ashes looking for rabbit bones and metal objects.
Police said that during this visit, LaBarre asked one of the officers to shoot her and she exclaimed she wanted to go to heaven. The officers asked why she would say that and if she wanted to die, but LaBarre played it off like she was joking, a claim the police threw back in her face.
"You weren't joking. To me you were panicked. You were screaming. You're crying. You're hysterical," said Police Sgt. Robert Estabrook. "You're making it sound like a casual joke. It was not."
Investigators also questioned why, when asked where Countie went she said, "He's in the bag," and pointed to a plastic
LaBarre instead said Countie's disappearance could have been caused by a group of Irish men she believes are out to get her and that she had previously said she suspects are lurking in the woods surrounding her house.
