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Due to the graphic nature of this case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of sexual abuse of a minor, child abuse, assault, and domestic violence. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. To get help on domestic violence and sexual violence, visit spotify.com slash resources.
When we hear about a vicious crime, we usually point at the culprit and call them a monster. But the truth is often a little murkier than that. In the case of Sheila Labar, she seduced men who were vulnerable, then brought them to her farm and abused them.
But this instinct didn't come out of nowhere. A survivor of abuse herself, Sheila experienced delusions that made her think the world was full of bad men.
And it was up to her to kill them. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. You can find us here every Monday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast. And we'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts.
This is the second part of the story of Sheila Labarre. Today, we'll follow Sheila and learn what drove her to commit two horrific murders, then discuss her attempts to get away with the crimes scot-free. Before we get into this story, amongst the many sources we used, we found Wicked Intentions by Kevin Flynn to be extremely helpful to our research. Stay with us.
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In 2004, Sheila Labar lived by the motto, Out with the Old, In with the New. Sure, she was a little disappointed that another one of her lovers had gone and left her, but as luck would have it, she already had another man at her beck and call. She'd met Michael Deloge at a local shelter and brought him to live on her 115-acre farm in
In addition to giving him a roof over his head, she gave him food, companionship, and a warm place beside her in bed each night. To Michael, Sheila was his savior, and he wanted to introduce her to his mom, Donna. So in the spring of 2004, Michael and Sheila made the 21-mile trip up the road to Summersworth, New Hampshire, and surprised Donna on her front porch.
Donna wasn't quite sure what to make of the couple. Sheila treated Michael like a servant. When she was thirsty, she demanded Michael get her a drink. And when she decided the visit was over, Michael didn't argue. He just got up and exchanged hugs and kisses with his mother. That's when Sheila's expression soured. She didn't like the idea of sharing Michael with another woman. Even if that woman was his mom.
On their way back home, she told him as much. If he didn't stop that kind of behavior, they wouldn't go back to see Donna again. Michael nodded. Whatever Sheila wanted, she got.
And when she didn't, well, things got ugly. She lashed out whenever something didn't go her way. Even when it did, she'd fabricate stories to justify her abusive behavior. Like when she accused Michael of things like killing rabbits on the farm or tearing the fabric in Bill's stagecoach. He hadn't, but Sheila kept at him until he gave a false confession. And then she beat him.
Handymen who visited the farm later testified to seeing bruises and marks on Michael's body. Ever since her car accident in 1996, Sheila had been hearing voices and experiencing delusional thoughts. She was convinced God had brought her back from death to carry out a mission: rid the world of pedophiles. Her first target was Michael Deloge.
To prove her theory, she grabbed her tape recorder and asked him if he'd ever abused her animals on the farm. She also questioned whether his mom had ever assaulted him. Finally came the real kicker. She asked if he'd ever abused children.
According to author Kevin Flynn, Michael sounded weak, and he only gave one-word answers to Sheila's questions. He admits to sexually assaulting a young girl, and becomes convinced his mother sexually abused him when he was a child. But his mother Donna later said that was a false accusation, and investigators never found any evidence that Michael ever abused any children.
Sheila used Michael's supposed confessions to justify her violence. When she decided he'd done something wrong, she assaulted him. Sometimes it was as simple as he smiled too much. One day, she hit him in front of a handyman for his mistake.
On another occasion, during a fight in the car, Sheila stopped in the middle of nowhere and kicked him out. He had to walk home for miles in the pitch black darkness and ended up spending the night in the woods. This abusive pattern of behavior continued for the next eight or nine months. Michael realized nothing was going to change and he needed to get himself to safety.
So in the winter of 2004, he tried to leave. With the snow covering the ground, he ran away from the property and stumbled down a dirt road.
A neighbor happened to spot him and asked if he was okay. It looked like his ear had been injured and he was holding his hand to his head. He tried to slow the bleeding, but drops of red dotted the snow behind him. Michael looked up at the farmer in utter fear, but all he managed to get out was a single word: Sheila. Exactly what happened next isn't clear, but Michael didn't seem to make it far.
Sheila tracked him down and dragged him back to the farm where the abuse continued. The next six months of Michael's life are a mystery. He didn't call his family or tell anyone else what his girlfriend did to him. All we have are Sheila's tapes and her journals.
By July of 2005, she was writing and sketching some disturbing things. On one page, she drew a body and listed specifics about its height and weight that matched Michael's description: 110 pounds, 5 feet 4 inches. And she brainstormed possible ways to kill him and get rid of the evidence.
Incinerated burned ashes. Private pilot. Helicopter. Boat. The same month Sheila wrote those journal entries, Michael finally made a public appearance. He went to see his mom Donna for her birthday, but he wasn't there to celebrate. See, Sheila had tagged along with him, and she wanted him to confront Donna about her supposed abuse.
For a while, Michael sat in silence, trying to avoid the inevitable. But Sheila continued to nudge him. He needed to speak up or they were leaving. Finally, he cleared his throat, looked up at his mom, then parroted the words Sheila had prepared for him. He accused Donna of raping him as a child.
Donna couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was so offended that she told them both to get out. If that's what Michael truly believed, then she never wanted to talk to him again. Sheila smiled as they left the apartment. She'd gotten exactly what she'd wanted. No one would come looking for Michael now.
After that, Sheila led him back to the farm, where she likely tortured him for a laundry list of crimes he never committed. Until finally, in the fall of 2005, she murdered him.
We don't know how she killed him, but once Michael was dead, she dragged his body to a burn pit outside of the farmhouse. Usually she used it to incinerate trash or animal carcasses. Now it'd be for something far more sinister. She set Michael on fire, watching as the smoke rose into the air and the evidence of her crime burned to ash.
In her mind, that was one pedophile gone. But she was just getting started. When Sheila Labar killed and cremated her boyfriend on her New Hampshire farm, she believed she was doing God's work. To her, she'd rid the world of one very bad man. And she was proud of it. But that didn't mean there weren't some downsides. Without him, her property felt lonely.
And as Valentine's Day of 2006 approached, Sheila joined a phone dating service. To set up a profile, she had to answer a series of questions and record a message about herself. Once she finished, she listened to the other postings to see if there might be a good match.
That's when she heard 24-year-old Kenny County's profile. There was something about him she liked right from the start. So after they traded messages for a while, Sheila suggested they go on a date.
On February 14th, 2006, the two met for drinks at a New Hampshire hotel. Kenny had a developmental disability, which doctors said made his mental capacity that of someone half his age. He'd been teased and ridiculed for his speech, so his social circle was small. To Sheila, this was perfect. She knew she could easily control him.
After that first night, she had him wrapped around her finger. She invited him to the farm for the weekend, which then turned into a full week.
But for Sheila, there was just one problem. Kenny was very close with his mother, Carolyn Lodge, and she called her son all the time. And as we already know, Sheila didn't like it when another woman took her man's attention, even if it was his mother. So Kenny stopped answering Carolyn's calls.
Carolyn had no idea where Kenny was. When he finally picked up one of her calls, she was greeted by a woman's angry voice on the other end. "Leave us alone. We're happy." Next, Carolyn checked in at Kenny's work and discovered that he'd missed all his recent shifts. She called his roommate next and learned that Kenny had moved to a farm with this "mystery woman."
Carolyn felt off about the entire situation and made a call to the authorities. When Police Sergeant Sean Gallagher heard Sheila's name, he more than understood her concerns.
Over the years, Gallagher had had countless interactions with Sheila. She'd gotten speeding tickets, been reported for disturbing the peace, and on one occasion, even sexually propositioned an officer. The Epping Police Department had one rule when it came to Sheila: bring backup. Gallagher assured Carolyn that he'd go to Sheila's farm and check on Kenny.
On February 21st, Gallagher and another officer drove out to Sheila's property to ask about Kenny. She assured them that he was fine and tried to shoo them away, but they insisted they needed to see Kenny for themselves. Sheila huffed and went inside. A few minutes later, she returned with Kenny in tow.
He seemed a little timid, with his arms folded in front of his chest, but all in all, he looked fine. And he told the cops as much. They had no choice but to take his word. Gallagher suggested Kenny give his mom a call so she could stop worrying. In response, Sheila yelled at the cops to get off her property and slammed the door.
After that, things quickly went south. Within a few weeks, Sheila had reverted to her delusional state. She started to believe that Kenny was also a child molester. She even got him on tape admitting to it. Although, let's be clear, it was a coerced confession. On the recording, you can hear Kenny vomiting and then fainting.
It's possible she was drugging him, or controlling his food intake, or both. In any case, Sheila screamed at him to stop pretending and to admit the truth.
Forensic psychiatrist Malcolm Rogers suggested these tapes are evidence that Sheila may have had a schizoaffective disorder and a delusional disorder. This could have led to her belief that Kenny and Michael were pedophiles who needed to be killed. Dr. Rogers said the delusions may have come from the alleged sexual abuse in Sheila's own childhood, which she projected onto the men in her life.
That wasn't her only delusional idea, either. On her tape recordings, she says she believes Kenny is trying to assassinate the president. She even held her lover at gunpoint in a bizarre citizen's arrest.
One day in March 2006, Sheila called her older sister Lynn and tried to convince her that their mother had physically assaulted her. Lynn knew this wasn't true. Ruby Bailey had been an indifferent mom, but not an abusive one. Lynn tried to calm down her younger sister, but Sheila wasn't having it. She switched tactics and told her sister that Kenny had raped children in his family.
When Lynn didn't believe that either, Sheila screamed through the phone that Kenny was staring at her with demonic eyes. Lynn didn't know what else to do, so she offered to call the cops or paramedics, anyone. But Sheila refused it all. She didn't trust any law enforcement. But more importantly, she didn't want anyone taking Kenny from her grasp. She would handle him herself.
Three days later, on March 17th, Sheila brought Kenny to a Walmart. He was too weak to walk, so she pushed him around in one of the store's wheelchairs. But even beyond that, he didn't look good. His skin was pale, and he had scratches all over his face and hands.
Every once in a while, Sheila paused to ask him if he was going to faint. When he shook his head, she moved on down the aisle, grabbing supplies. First, she picked up a disposable camera. Then she found two five-gallon yellow containers, the kind meant for diesel fuel. She piled them up on Kenny's lap and went to check out.
After paying for her items, Sheila lingered. She used her new camera to take pictures of the store's security system. It was weird behavior, and the Walmart employees found it a little suspicious. Not to mention they were all worried about Kenny. So they called the police, hoping they might help.
When the officers showed up, one of them told Sheila she had to leave. The other tried to get Kenny alone to see if he was alright. But Sheila overheard the question and wheeled around. She told Kenny not to answer. He did as she said and dropped his head. Ultimately, despite his injuries, the officers let Sheila take Kenny away. And they did not include his condition in their report.
From there, Sheila went straight to a gas station and filled up the two diesel fuel containers. Then the two headed back to the farm. Six days later, Carolyn called Sheila and asked about Kenny's whereabouts. He'd been a no-show at a family get-together, which was unlike him. Sheila feigned ignorance. She said Kenny had left town and was headed to Massachusetts.
Carolyn didn't believe a word of it. She knew that Kenny struggled to take care of himself. If he'd left Sheila's farm, he would have called her for help. So on March 23, Carolyn phoned the police. She wanted to file a missing person report. Once again, Police Sergeant Gallagher was assigned to the case, and he promised to track Kenny down.
But before he even had a chance to go out and do another well-being check, Gallagher received another call. This time, it was Sheila. She was sobbing uncontrollably as she gave him the same story she'd told Carolyn. She had no idea where Kenny was. But then, she added, she didn't want to know because Kenny was a child molester.
She let that accusation sit for a moment. Then, when she got the sense that Gallagher didn't believe her, she played him the tape she'd made of Kenny. As Gallagher listened to Kenny's confession, he was sure the entire thing was coerced. But at this point, it was not only late, it was pitch dark outside. So he made plans to go out to Sheila's property the next afternoon.
When he and his partner reached the farm the following day, they realized they were too late to help Kenny. Smoke rose from Sheila's burn pit, emitting a horrible smell. When they looked closer, in the middle of the ashes, they caught sight of something that made their stomachs turn. It was a human bone.
Sheila Labar knew exactly why the police were on her farm, but she was confident that she was untouchable. So on that March afternoon in 2006, she let detectives search her New Hampshire property. It wasn't like they'd find anything. The inside of the house was a mess. There were rabbit droppings everywhere, and the stench of rotten food filled the air.
But once they got outside to the burn pit, Police Sergeant Gallagher pointed to the bone and asked what it was. A look of panic flashed across Sheila's face before she said it was a rabbit's bone. But Gallagher knew better. It was too big to come from such a small animal, and he said as much. At that, Sheila got defensive and said, "Well, it's either a rabbit or a pedophile."
Gallagher recalled his earlier chat with Sheila when she'd accused Kenny of being a child molester, so he knew exactly who she was referring to. But when he pushed for more information, she clammed up and told them to leave. Legally, they couldn't stay or seize evidence, but Gallagher warned her they'd be back with a warrant, so she shouldn't touch anything while they were gone.
Sheila nodded and watched them drive off. Then she did the exact opposite. She climbed into the burn pit and sifted through the ashes, looking for bones. She collected everything she found in a blue Walmart bag, but she didn't have enough time to dispose of it before the police returned with the warrant.
When they pulled onto her property, Sheila was covered head to toe in ash. She knew it looked bad and tried to explain herself. She said she'd been helping out by collecting the bones for them and even pointed to the Walmart bag. She insisted the bones were from a rabbit she'd cremated. And then she put on an act. She alternated between giving police information to breaking down in sobs and telling them to shoot her.
Fortunately, the officers weren't distracted by her theatrics. They pressed her on Kenny's whereabouts until finally she just said, "'He's in the bag.'"
Despite this admission, detectives didn't have enough to arrest her. You see, New Hampshire had a no suspicion of murder statute. This meant that without hard evidence, such as proof the bones were human or Sheila outright confessing to murder, police couldn't hold her.
Hoping they could get her to say more, the officers convinced her to voluntarily come down to the station with them. But in the interview room, Sheila fed them a story. She told them that she'd kicked Kenny out after finding out he was a pedophile, but she swore she had no idea where he'd gone from there. Then she suggested that Kenny had either killed himself or may have fallen into the pit while it had been burning.
No one believed that for a second. But while there was a mountain of circumstantial evidence, physical evidence was harder to come by. The heat from the fire had burned everything so severely, the forensic team couldn't run DNA tests. They needed a piece of bone that was untouched. And that was going to take a while.
In the meantime, Sheila was free to go. But it wasn't like she could go back home. Her property was now crawling with law enforcement. But without her there, the animals on her farm needed someone to watch over them. So she went to the pet store. There, she met and befriended a woman and her brother.
Sheila said she was running away from a boyfriend and needed someone to take care of her rabbits. They sympathized with Sheila and agreed to help. Not only that, they welcomed her into their home.
When they got to the siblings' home, their mother, Pamela, was already hosting her friend. Sheila told them the same sob story she gave earlier, and the women were charmed. The ladies gushed over their shared love of animals, while the TV acted as background noise. But the screen came into sharp focus when a news report announced that Kenny County was officially a missing person.
Sheila froze as she watched the segment. Then she told the women that Kenny was the boyfriend she'd mentioned. She feared everyone would think she killed him, but she swore she didn't. It was a lot for anyone to swallow. But somehow, her new friends believed her. In fact, they believed Sheila so much, they even let her stay the night.
The next morning, Sheila flipped through the Yellow Pages looking for a lawyer. She scheduled a meeting, but it quickly fell through when she learned he wanted $60,000 as his retainer. She had the money, but apparently seemed to think it could be put to better use. So she went to the bank and withdrew $85,000 to fund her escape.
Before she left town, though, she wanted to go back to the farm and make sure her horses were well taken care of. Pamela and her visiting friend thought it was a terrible idea, but Sheila was adamant. She had to check on them. But by the time she got there, the SPCA had already taken the horses away.
Sheila was furious. She insisted that Pamela go down to the police station and get the animals back. She even gave the woman a bill of sale so Pamela could say that she owned the horses. It was a lot to ask of someone who was practically a stranger. But Pamela agreed. She felt bad for Sheila and genuinely believed she was telling the truth.
So, the next day, Pam went down to police headquarters to present their case. The officers looked over the bill of sale and agreed to give back the horses, but then they had a request of their own: convince Sheila to come in for questioning.
Pamela and her friend passed the offer along to Sheila, but she refused to turn herself in. Instead, she hopped into Pamela's car, barely giving the woman time enough to climb in, and sped out of town. However, she didn't make it far before she started panicking and hyperventilating. Sheila pulled over, and her friends tried to calm her down. That's when another car boxed them in.
It was two undercover officers. They had a warrant to search Sheila and escorted her back to the station. There, officers took swabs of DNA from her cheeks and pictures of her body. Then they interrogated her for seven hours. But she didn't break. Eventually, they had to release her. This time though, they sent a trooper to follow her.
The officer tailed Sheila to a local motel, where she parked and got a room. But at some point, she snuck out the door without him noticing. She knew it was too risky to go back to Pamela's house. So she walked down the highway and put out her thumb. She figured she could hitchhike her way out of town.
It wasn't long before a man named Steven Martello offered her a ride. She said she was going to Boston, and he told her to hop in. Sheila immediately dialed up the charm and convinced him to spend the night with her in a hotel. Steven put down his ID for the room, and Sheila paid for it. It was the perfect setup.
In the morning, the two parted ways. But when Stephen got home and turned on the news, Sheila's face stared back at him through the screen. He called the police, but Sheila was long gone.
With Sheila in the wind, the authorities needed all the help they could get tracking her down. So on March 31st, they put out a warrant for her arrest, officially charging her for the murder of Kenny County. They also asked on live TV for the public's help finding her.
Then the manhunt began. It seemed like the entire eastern seaboard was looking for her, so much so that two days later, someone recognized her in Revere, Massachusetts, about 55 miles outside of Epping.
When an officer arrived at the location, Sheila pretended like she had no idea what he was talking about. She gave him a fake name, but when asked to show ID, she couldn't give him one. At least, not one that matched the new name.
Fortunately, the officer had brought along the morning paper. It featured a photo of Sheila that was an exact match for the woman standing in front of him. There was no point in denying it now. She reluctantly admitted who she was. After that, she was arrested and sent back to New Hampshire.
For the next year and a half, Sheila sat in jail, insisting she was innocent. Then in April 2008, just a month before her trial, the defense dropped a bombshell. Sheila was confessing to not one, but two murders. Sheila admitted she killed both Kenny Couty and Michael Deloge.
She altered her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity in both cases. By doing this, her team took the burden off the prosecution and put it on themselves, but for a different question. Rather than debating whether Sheila had killed the men, it became a case of whether or not she was sane when she committed the murders.
Sheila's sister Lynn got on the stand to testify about the sexual abuse Sheila experienced as a child, and psychologists argued this abuse shattered Sheila's trust and led her to delusional belief that she'd been sent by God to rid the world of pedophiles.
But the prosecution argued that while Sheila may have had a mood disorder that led to her delusions, her attempts to cover up and explain away evidence pointed to her knowledge that she could determine right from wrong.
Ultimately, the jury found Sheila sane and guilty on both counts of murder. In July 2008, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
As of 2024, Sheila remains behind bars. But her story isn't over. In 2012, four years after her trial, reporters revealed a new twist in the case. There might have been a third victim.
Turns out there were toes found on Sheila's property that didn't belong to Kenny or Michael. Law enforcement tried to figure out if any other men went missing from the farm around the mid-2000s, but without a potential victim to compare the DNA to, officials were at a loss as to whose they might be. They asked the public to come forward if they had any information.
So far, no one has, and the mystery of what truly happened out on that farm continues.
Thanks for listening to Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. We're here with a new episode every Monday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast. And we'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Amongst the many sources we used, we found Wicked Intentions by Kevin Flynn to be extremely helpful to our research. Stay safe out there.
Serial Killers is a Spotify podcast. This episode was written by Alex Burns, edited by Jane Oh, Joel Callen, and Chelsea Wood, researched by Mickey Taylor and Chelsea Wood, fact-checked by Laurie Siegel, and sound designed by Kelly Gary. Our head of programming is Julian Boirot, our head of production is Nick Johnson, and Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor. I'm your host, Vanessa Richardson.