Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / She Lured Men To Their Deaths - The Story Of Sheila LaBarre

Transcript

She Lured Men To Their Deaths - The Story Of Sheila LaBarre · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: I want you to try and construct a very specific
0:02
Speaker 1: image in your mind for a second. Think about a
0:04
Speaker 1: town called Epping, New Hampshire. Oh, wow. Right? Like, if
0:09
Speaker 1: you were to close your eyes and imagine the absolute,
0:11
Speaker 1: just quintessential, picturesque New England small town, Epping is precisely
0:18
Speaker 1: what your mind would build.
0:20
Speaker 2: It really is. It's exactly that vibe.
0:21
Speaker 1: Yeah. We are talking about a super tight-knit community. It's
0:25
Speaker 1: hovering right around, I think, 7,000 people.
0:27
Speaker 2: Which is tiny.
0:28
Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And it is fundamentally defined by its environment.
0:32
Speaker 1: You know, historic colonial architecture, these sprawling generations old farms, thick,
0:37
Speaker 1: beautiful woods. Right.
0:38
Speaker 2: The kind of place people move to specifically for the quiet.
0:41
Speaker 1: Exactly. Sociologically speaking, it has that classic reputation of being
0:46
Speaker 1: a place where everyone knows everyone else's business.
0:49
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. The kind of environment where a strange car
0:51
Speaker 2: driving down a dirt road instantly gets noticed.
0:54
Speaker 1: Right. Where neighbors supposedly watch out for each other. The
0:57
Speaker 1: overarching narrative of a town like Epping is that it's idyllic.
1:01
Speaker 1: I mean, it is a sanctuary.
1:02
Speaker 2: And that concept of the small town sanctuary, that is
1:05
Speaker 2: a massive psychological driver in American culture.
1:08
Speaker 1: It really is.
1:09
Speaker 2: It is the whole reason people flock to places like Epping.
1:12
Speaker 2: You trade the anonymity and the perceived danger of a
1:18
Speaker 2: dense urban city for space, for predictability.
1:21
Speaker 1: Yep.
1:22
Speaker 2: There is just this deeply ingrained belief that distance from
1:25
Speaker 2: the city naturally equates to distance from human malice.
1:28
Speaker 1: But I want you to hold on to that peaceful,
1:29
Speaker 1: predictable image for just a second. Yeah. Because today we
1:33
Speaker 1: really need to examine what happens when that assumption of
1:36
Speaker 1: security is just completely inverted.
1:38
Speaker 2: Right. When the sanctuary breaks.
1:39
Speaker 1: Exactly. Imagine driving down a public paved roadway in that
1:43
Speaker 1: beautiful town. The sun is shining. You look over at
1:45
Speaker 1: one of those sprawling, picturesque farm properties. Okay. And you
1:48
Speaker 1: see a woman in her front yard.
1:50
Speaker 2: Okay.
1:51
Speaker 1: But... She is not tending to a garden or fixing
1:54
Speaker 1: a fence. Far from it. She is standing over a
1:56
Speaker 1: fire pit. And she is actively burning a human body.
2:00
Speaker 2: It's just unimaginable.
2:02
Speaker 1: Right there in the front yard. Yeah. In broad daylight.
2:04
Speaker 1: Literal yards from where cars are just driving by.
2:07
Speaker 2: It is a visual that completely shatters that illusion we
2:11
Speaker 2: just built. I mean, it forces a massive cognitive dissonance.
2:14
Speaker 1: Oh, for sure.
2:15
Speaker 2: We simply do not associate visceral horrific violence with a
2:19
Speaker 2: serene rural landscape in the middle of the afternoon.
2:22
Speaker 1: And that profound disconnect, that is the exact foundation of
2:27
Speaker 1: what we are unpacking in today's deep dive.
2:29
Speaker 2: We have a lot to get through today.
2:31
Speaker 1: We really do. We have this massive stack of source
2:34
Speaker 1: material in front of us. Investigation details, psychological profiles, legal reports,
2:40
Speaker 1: witness accounts.
2:40
Speaker 2: It's dense.
2:41
Speaker 1: It's so dense. We are going to meticulously dissect this
2:45
Speaker 1: localized true crime nightmare that fundamentally broke the town of Epping.
2:50
Speaker 2: And we have a very specific goal here.
2:52
Speaker 1: Right. Our mission today is to dig into the mechanics
2:54
Speaker 1: of this case to answer one specific chilling question for you.
2:59
Speaker 1: How does a woman go from being a manipulative opportunist
3:02
Speaker 1: to a literal gravedigger operating a system of murder right
3:05
Speaker 1: under the noses of a community that prides itself on
3:08
Speaker 1: watching everything?
3:09
Speaker 2: To answer that, I mean, we really have to look
3:11
Speaker 2: past the sensationalism of the crimes themselves. We have to
3:15
Speaker 2: examine the systemic vulnerabilities that she exploited.
3:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, the blind spots.
3:19
Speaker 2: Exactly. This case is basically a masterclass in understanding how
3:23
Speaker 2: predators weaponize things we rarely even think about.
3:27
Speaker 1: Like what?
3:27
Speaker 2: Like bureaucratic red tape, societal apathy toward the unhoused, and honestly,
3:33
Speaker 2: the isolating nature of extreme wealth.
3:36
Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense.
3:37
Speaker 2: Predators do not always lurk in dark alleys waiting for
3:40
Speaker 2: a random victim. The most effective ones hide behind locked gates,
3:44
Speaker 2: behind legal documents, and behind the assumptions we make about
3:47
Speaker 2: safety in quiet communities.
3:49
Speaker 1: So let's start unpacking the mechanics of this, because this
3:52
Speaker 1: deep dive is going to completely reframe how you look
3:54
Speaker 1: at the concept of safety.
3:55
Speaker 2: It really will.
3:56
Speaker 1: To understand how these murders were allowed to happen, we
3:59
Speaker 1: first have to understand the environment where they took place. Specifically,
4:03
Speaker 1: we need to look at how this woman acquired the
4:07
Speaker 1: 115-acre fortress that basically served as the stage for this nightmare.
4:11
Speaker 2: The property itself is absolutely a central character in this narrative.
4:15
Speaker 1: It's massive.
4:16
Speaker 2: It is. When you have 115 acres in a rural area,
4:19
Speaker 2: you essentially have your own sovereign territory.
4:21
Speaker 1: Right, your own little kingdom.
4:22
Speaker 2: Exactly. The geography provides a physical buffer from societal oversight.
4:27
Speaker 2: And that is the exact environment a predator needs to
4:30
Speaker 2: operate long term.
4:32
Speaker 1: So let's look at the original owner of that territory.
4:35
Speaker 1: The sources introduce us to Dr. Wilfred Labar. Yes. He
4:38
Speaker 1: is a prominent chiropractor in the area. Yeah. By all
4:41
Speaker 1: traditional metrics, I mean he is highly successful, well-liked in
4:46
Speaker 1: his community, and incredibly wealthy.
4:47
Speaker 2: He is a pillar of the community.
4:49
Speaker 1: He is. He owns one of the largest and most
4:51
Speaker 1: sought-after pieces of real estate in the region, this magnificent
4:55
Speaker 1: 115-acre horse farm.
4:57
Speaker 2: Beautiful property.
4:58
Speaker 1: He has the status, the respect of his peers, the
5:00
Speaker 1: sprawling estate. But the source material highlights one massive vulnerability
5:05
Speaker 1: in his profile. It's great.
5:07
Speaker 2: A critical one.
5:07
Speaker 1: He was intensely lonely.
5:09
Speaker 2: Loneliness in highly successful wealthy individuals often creates a profound
5:13
Speaker 2: psychological blind spot.
5:15
Speaker 1: How so?
5:16
Speaker 2: Well, when someone has mastered their professional life and secured
5:19
Speaker 2: their financial reality, but they lack intimate companionship, they often
5:23
Speaker 2: become desperate to balance the equation.
5:26
Speaker 1: That makes sense. They have everything else but the one
5:28
Speaker 1: human connection.
5:29
Speaker 2: Right. And that desperation can cause an otherwise highly analytical,
5:34
Speaker 2: intelligent person to completely bypass their normal threat detection systems,
5:39
Speaker 2: especially when someone finally offers them the affection they are
5:42
Speaker 2: starving for.
5:43
Speaker 1: And that blind spot is the exact point of entry
5:46
Speaker 1: for Sheila Jennings. It is. The contrast here is super important.
5:50
Speaker 1: Sheila is a young woman a full 34 years younger
5:53
Speaker 1: than the doctor.
5:54
Speaker 2: That's a huge gap.
5:56
Speaker 1: Massive.
5:56
Speaker 2: Yeah.
5:57
Speaker 1: And we need to talk about her childhood nickname because
6:00
Speaker 1: it tells us so much about how her community viewed
6:02
Speaker 1: her long before any crimes were even on the radar. Yes.
6:05
Speaker 2: The nickname is very revealing.
6:07
Speaker 1: Her nickname was Firecracker. Now, superficially, people said it was
6:10
Speaker 1: because she was born on the 4th of July.
6:12
Speaker 2: Right. The polite explanation.
6:14
Speaker 1: Exactly. But the sources note that everyone in her life
6:17
Speaker 1: agreed the name perfectly encapsulated her highly volatile, explosive personality.
6:23
Speaker 2: When a community gives someone a nickname like firecracker to
6:28
Speaker 2: describe their personality, it is often a socially polite way
6:31
Speaker 2: of describing someone who is erratic, demanding and easily triggered.
6:35
Speaker 1: Like walking on eggshells.
6:36
Speaker 2: Exactly. It is a subtle warning label. And when you
6:40
Speaker 2: introduce an opportunistic, highly volatile personality to an older, wealthy,
6:45
Speaker 2: lonely target, you are watching the assembly of a very
6:49
Speaker 2: dangerous dynamic.
6:50
Speaker 1: The speed at which she infiltrates Dr. Labar's life is
6:54
Speaker 1: just staggering to me.
6:56
Speaker 2: It happens so fast. Dr.
6:58
Speaker 1: Labar had placed a personal ad in a local publication
7:01
Speaker 1: seeking companionship. Sheila answers it. But she doesn't approach this
7:04
Speaker 1: like a standard, you know, getting to know you courtship.
7:07
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
7:08
Speaker 1: She initiates an overwhelming campaign. She floods him with intense affection,
7:12
Speaker 1: sheer adoration. And she actually sends him explicit nude photos
7:17
Speaker 1: right out of the gate.
7:17
Speaker 2: Which is incredibly aggressive.
7:19
Speaker 1: Duper aggressive. The doctor, who has been living in this quiet,
7:22
Speaker 1: lonely echo chamber of his giant form, is completely overwhelmed.
7:26
Speaker 2: He never stood a chance.
7:27
Speaker 1: He really didn't. He gets swept up by her youth,
7:30
Speaker 1: her intensity, and he invites her into his life.
7:32
Speaker 2: What the sources are describing here is the textbook application
7:35
Speaker 2: of love-bombing, but used in a highly weaponized manner.
7:39
Speaker 1: Like, beyond just being overly complimentary.
7:42
Speaker 2: Exactly. Love-bombing isn't just about giving someone a lot of compliments. Mechanically,
7:46
Speaker 2: it is about creating a literal chemical dependency in the
7:51
Speaker 2: victim's brain.
7:52
Speaker 1: Wow.
7:53
Speaker 2: She is flooding his system with dopamine and oxytocin. She
7:57
Speaker 2: identifies exactly what he perceives as a deficit in his life,
8:01
Speaker 2: intimacy and validation. And she provides it in such an
8:04
Speaker 2: overwhelming concentrated quantity that his cognitive reasoning just shuts down.
8:09
Speaker 1: So he becomes hooked on her.
8:10
Speaker 2: Right. He becomes emotionally dependent on her presence almost instantly.
8:14
Speaker 2: Because she has made herself the sole provider of his happiness.
8:18
Speaker 1: I want to use a metaphor here to really explain
8:20
Speaker 1: the mechanics of what she's doing. Because reading the sources,
8:23
Speaker 1: it reminds me of a corporate hostile takeover, but enacted
8:27
Speaker 1: entirely on a human being's life.
8:29
Speaker 2: That is a fascinating way to look at it.
8:31
Speaker 1: Think about it, right? She identifies an undervalued company, Dr. Labar,
8:35
Speaker 1: who has massive assets, but super low emotional morale. She
8:39
Speaker 1: charms her way into the boardroom. But she doesn't stop
8:41
Speaker 1: at just being present. to execute a hostile takeover. You
8:45
Speaker 1: have to devalue the existing shareholders and flood the market
8:48
Speaker 1: with your own currency.
8:50
Speaker 2: That is a very functional analogy. In this scenario, the
8:53
Speaker 2: existing shareholders are his friends, his family, anyone who might
8:57
Speaker 2: offer him objective advice.
8:58
Speaker 1: The people who could warn him.
9:00
Speaker 2: Exactly. The mechanism she uses to devalue them is isolation.
9:05
Speaker 2: By occupying all of his time and emotional bandwidth with
9:08
Speaker 2: her intense affection, which is her currency, she naturally forces
9:12
Speaker 2: the other shareholders out.
9:14
Speaker 1: Wow.
9:14
Speaker 2: She makes herself indispensable to the daily operation of his life.
9:18
Speaker 2: And once the board is clear of outside influence, she
9:21
Speaker 2: moves to secure the controlling interest.
9:23
Speaker 1: Which brings us to the next phase of her takeover.
9:26
Speaker 1: In a remarkably short amount of time, Sheila actually moves
9:29
Speaker 1: into the farmhouse.
9:30
Speaker 2: She gets on the property.
9:31
Speaker 1: She does. But she doesn't just act like a girlfriend.
9:34
Speaker 1: She begins demanding that everyone in town, from the local
9:37
Speaker 1: shopkeepers to the neighbors, address her as Mrs. Labar.
9:41
Speaker 2: Which is wild.
9:42
Speaker 1: It's insane. Let's pause here because this is where the
9:44
Speaker 1: legal mechanics get fascinating. Were they actually married?
9:48
Speaker 2: No, they were not legally married.
9:50
Speaker 1: Not at all. The sources indicate they only had a
9:53
Speaker 1: common law marriage. Dr. Labar never actually gave her his name.
9:57
Speaker 1: She just unilaterally decided to take it.
10:00
Speaker 2: We really need to drill down into the legal and
10:02
Speaker 2: psychological realities of this move because New Hampshire has highly specific,
10:07
Speaker 2: very restrictive laws regarding common-law marriage.
10:10
Speaker 1: Oh, really? It's not just living together?
10:13
Speaker 2: Not at all. In many states, sure, if you live
10:15
Speaker 2: together for a certain number of years and present yourselves
10:18
Speaker 2: as married... you are legally afforded the rights of a
10:20
Speaker 2: married couple. New Hampshire does not generally recognize common law
10:24
Speaker 2: marriage in the present tense.
10:26
Speaker 1: Wait, what does that mean in the present tense?
10:28
Speaker 2: Under their statutes, it typically only applies after one partner dies,
10:32
Speaker 2: specifically for the purposes of inheritance. And even then, you
10:35
Speaker 2: have to prove you cohabitated for three years and publicly
10:39
Speaker 2: acknowledged each other as spouses.
10:41
Speaker 1: So by demanding the town caller, Mrs. Labar, while he
10:45
Speaker 1: is still alive, she isn't exercising any kind of legal right. No.
10:49
Speaker 1: She is executing a massive social manipulation.
10:52
Speaker 2: Precisely. She is bypassing the legal system entirely and enforcing
10:56
Speaker 2: a social contract. This is a massive red flag of
11:00
Speaker 2: severe entitlement and coercive control.
11:02
Speaker 1: Because if the town believes it, it becomes real.
11:04
Speaker 2: Exactly. By forcing the community to recognize her as his wife,
11:09
Speaker 2: she is staking a territorial claim. She is constructing a
11:12
Speaker 2: reality where her authority over his life and his assets
11:16
Speaker 2: is unquestioned by the public. And she is forcing everyone,
11:19
Speaker 2: including the doctor himself, to live inside that manufactured reality.
11:23
Speaker 1: She is basically daring anyone to challenge her authority. And
11:26
Speaker 1: this corporate takeover reaches its absolute peak when she secures
11:30
Speaker 1: power of attorney over Dr. Labar.
11:32
Speaker 2: Which is huge.
11:33
Speaker 1: Is everything. Again, they are not legally married, but she
11:35
Speaker 1: manages to get him to sign a document granting her
11:38
Speaker 1: full power of attorney. I have to ask about the
11:40
Speaker 1: mechanics of this. Yeah. How does someone who isn't even
11:43
Speaker 1: a legal spouse convince a wealthy, educated professional to sign
11:47
Speaker 1: away that level of control?
11:48
Speaker 2: It requires a profound level of psychological surrender.
11:51
Speaker 1: From the victim. He just gave up.
11:53
Speaker 2: Essentially, yes. Power of attorney is a formidable legal instrument.
11:57
Speaker 2: Depending on how it is drafted, it can grant someone
11:59
Speaker 2: the authority to make financial decisions, manage real estate, access
12:03
Speaker 2: bank accounts, and basically operate as the legal proxy of
12:07
Speaker 2: the individual.
12:07
Speaker 1: Could do whatever they want.
12:09
Speaker 2: Right. To get someone to sign that, the abuser usually
12:12
Speaker 2: manufactures a narrative of necessity. They might convince the victim
12:16
Speaker 2: that their health is failing, that their family is trying
12:19
Speaker 2: to steal from them, and that only the abuser can
12:21
Speaker 2: protect their assets.
12:23
Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
12:23
Speaker 2: It is the final lock on the door of the
12:25
Speaker 2: hostile takeover.
12:26
Speaker 1: And once that final lock clicks into place, something incredibly
12:30
Speaker 1: convenient happens.
12:31
Speaker 2: Very convenient.
12:32
Speaker 1: Suddenly and mysteriously, Dr. Labar passes away from a heart attack.
12:37
Speaker 2: The timing of that cardiac event, considering the legal positioning
12:40
Speaker 2: she had just finalized, is profoundly suspicious.
12:44
Speaker 1: It is the ultimate convenience. I mean, because of the
12:46
Speaker 1: power of attorney, the socially enforced common law status, and
12:50
Speaker 1: the way she had systematically isolated him, Sheila Labar's reality
12:54
Speaker 1: completely shifts overnight. She is suddenly a very rich single woman,
13:00
Speaker 1: and she is in total unquestioned control of everything Dr.
13:04
Speaker 1: Labar owned. She has the wealth, she has the local status,
13:08
Speaker 1: and most importantly for our story, she now has sole
13:11
Speaker 1: dominion over that 115-acre isolated fortress.
13:15
Speaker 2: This marks the true transition in her pathology.
13:18
Speaker 1: How do you mean?
13:18
Speaker 2: Well, she has successfully extracted the wealth, but predators rarely
13:22
Speaker 2: cease their behavior once they acquire resources.
13:25
Speaker 1: They don't just retire.
13:26
Speaker 2: No, almost never. The resources typically just fund the next,
13:30
Speaker 2: more escalated phase of their compulsion. With the wealth secured,
13:33
Speaker 2: she no longer needs to manipulate for financial gain. Her
13:37
Speaker 2: focus shifts entirely to extracting total psychological and physical control
13:41
Speaker 2: over another human being.
13:42
Speaker 1: Oh, God.
13:43
Speaker 2: But to do that effectively, without arousing the suspicion of
13:46
Speaker 2: the town she now holds status in, she requires a
13:49
Speaker 2: very specific type of target.
13:51
Speaker 1: Which means she needs to hunt for vulnerable prey.
13:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
13:54
Speaker 1: And that shifts us into the next phase of this investigation.
13:57
Speaker 1: Sheila is rich and single. And the sources tell us
14:00
Speaker 1: she turns to dating sites. This is where she crosses
14:02
Speaker 1: paths with a man named Kenneth County. Now, the physical
14:06
Speaker 1: and demographic contrast between them is stark. Kenneth is a
14:09
Speaker 1: young man, roughly half her age.
14:11
Speaker 2: Another big age gap, but inverted this time.
14:14
Speaker 1: Exactly. But the most crucial, devastating detail that the investigation
14:18
Speaker 1: uncovers is is that Kenneth is developmentally disabled.
14:21
Speaker 2: This is a key point.
14:23
Speaker 1: The medical and legal records specifically note that while he
14:26
Speaker 1: is biologically an adult, he possesses the cognitive capacity and
14:29
Speaker 1: IQ of a 12-year-old child.
14:31
Speaker 2: This is the definition of predatory selection. She is not
14:35
Speaker 2: logging on to dating sites to find a peer, a partner,
14:38
Speaker 2: or an equal. She is actively hunting for a dependent.
14:42
Speaker 1: Because they're easier to control.
14:43
Speaker 2: Exactly. An individual with a 12-year-old's cognitive capacity is exceptionally
14:48
Speaker 2: vulnerable to the exact tactics she honed on Dr.
14:51
Speaker 1: Labar.
14:52
Speaker 2: They are susceptible to manipulation, easily overwhelmed by false affection,
14:57
Speaker 2: and highly vulnerable to isolation.
14:59
Speaker 1: And their first interaction sets a terrifying precedent. They meet up,
15:02
Speaker 1: they consume alcohol, and they end up having sex in
15:05
Speaker 1: her vehicle right on the property of the Epping farmhouse.
15:08
Speaker 2: It escalates immediately.
15:09
Speaker 1: Immediately. Yeah. And right after that, Sheila goes to work
15:12
Speaker 1: dismantling his life. She initiates a campaign to completely isolate
15:17
Speaker 1: Kenneth from his family, specifically his mother.
15:21
Speaker 2: We touched on isolation earlier, but we really need to
15:23
Speaker 2: examine why it is the foundational tool for any abuser.
15:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. Break that down for us.
15:29
Speaker 2: Human beings rely on a social consensus to validate their reality.
15:33
Speaker 2: If a friend or family member tells you, hey, the
15:36
Speaker 2: way your partner is treating you isn't normal, that is
15:39
Speaker 2: an external reality check.
15:41
Speaker 1: Right. It grounds you. Exactly. Exactly.
15:43
Speaker 2: If an abuser can sever those ties, they eliminate all
15:46
Speaker 2: external reality checks. They become the victim's sole source of truth, sustenance,
15:51
Speaker 2: and reality.
15:52
Speaker 1: Which is terrifying. It is.
15:53
Speaker 2: Once you isolate someone, especially someone with cognitive limitations, you
15:57
Speaker 2: can completely rewrite the rules of their existence without any
16:00
Speaker 2: outside interference.
16:01
Speaker 1: But Kenneth's mother is highly engaged, and she realizes very
16:05
Speaker 1: quickly that something is terribly wrong. She hasn't heard from
16:08
Speaker 1: her son in weeks, which is completely out of character
16:11
Speaker 1: for him.
16:12
Speaker 2: So she acts.
16:13
Speaker 1: She does. She takes action. She files a formal missing
16:16
Speaker 1: persons report with the authorities down in Massachusetts, which is
16:19
Speaker 1: where Kenneth is from. The police process this and issue
16:23
Speaker 1: a Be On The Lookout bulletin across state lines.
16:26
Speaker 2: And that bulletin has some very good information on it.
16:29
Speaker 1: It does. It provides a crucial lead. It states that
16:32
Speaker 1: the missing man was last seen being picked up by
16:34
Speaker 1: a woman from New Hampshire with a first name starting
16:37
Speaker 1: with S, and she was driving a black Cadillac.
16:40
Speaker 2: A BELO, with that level of specificity, a vehicle, make
16:43
Speaker 2: and color, a geographical location, and a partial name, is
16:48
Speaker 2: highly actionable intelligence for law enforcement.
16:51
Speaker 1: It is a roadmap. Exactly.
16:52
Speaker 2: It gives the local New Hampshire authorities exactly what they
16:56
Speaker 2: need to connect the dots to the prominent widow living
16:58
Speaker 2: on the large estate.
16:59
Speaker 1: And it works. The local police put the pieces together.
17:02
Speaker 1: They drive down that long driveway and conduct a welfare
17:05
Speaker 1: check at the farmhouse. They bang on the door.
17:07
Speaker 2: And this is where things get so frustrating.
17:09
Speaker 1: This is where the story hits a massive, infuriating bureaucratic wall.
17:14
Speaker 1: Kenneth actually comes out of the house. The police are
17:16
Speaker 1: standing face to face with him.
17:17
Speaker 2: They see him.
17:18
Speaker 1: They see him. But Kenneth looks at the officers and
17:20
Speaker 1: tells them he is fine. He explicitly states that he
17:24
Speaker 1: wants to be there. Right. And because Kenneth is biologically
17:27
Speaker 1: and legally over the age of 18, the authorities determine
17:31
Speaker 1: that their hands are tied.
17:32
Speaker 2: Because of the law.
17:33
Speaker 1: Right. They report back to his mother. that her son
17:36
Speaker 1: has been located, he is an adult asserting his independence,
17:40
Speaker 1: and the missing person's case is officially closed.
17:43
Speaker 2: This interaction highlights one of the most tragic and complex
17:47
Speaker 2: limitations of our legal and social systems.
17:50
Speaker 1: I really, really need to push back on this legal
17:52
Speaker 1: philosophy because it is incredibly hard for me, and probably
17:56
Speaker 1: for you listening, to digest.
17:58
Speaker 2: It is very tough to accept.
18:00
Speaker 1: If law enforcement officers are standing right in front of
18:02
Speaker 1: a man who they know or can clearly perceive is
18:05
Speaker 1: developmentally disabled, a man operating with the mental capacity of
18:09
Speaker 1: a literal child? How can the law demand they walk
18:12
Speaker 1: away simply because he crossed a biological age threshold?
18:16
Speaker 2: I know it sounds wrong.
18:17
Speaker 1: If he was chronologically 12 years old, they would have
18:19
Speaker 1: intervened immediately, right?
18:21
Speaker 2: Absolutely. It is a phenomenal question, and it requires us
18:24
Speaker 2: to look at the intersection of constitutional law and social
18:27
Speaker 2: work philosophy. There's a concept known as the dignity of risk.
18:31
Speaker 1: Dignity of risk? What is that?
18:33
Speaker 2: Historically, society used to institutionalize adults with developmental disabilities, essentially
18:38
Speaker 2: stripping them of all autonomy. In response to those historic abuses,
18:43
Speaker 2: the legal pendulum swung heavily toward protecting their independence.
18:47
Speaker 1: Okay, I see.
18:48
Speaker 2: So the current legal presumption is that an adult, regardless
18:50
Speaker 2: of cognitive challenges, has the right to autonomy, including the
18:54
Speaker 2: right to make poor, risky, or even dangerous choices.
18:57
Speaker 1: But he doesn't have the capacity to make a safe
18:59
Speaker 1: choice in this environment. He is actively being manipulated by
19:03
Speaker 1: a predator.
19:03
Speaker 2: You are entirely correct regarding his subjective reality, but law
19:07
Speaker 2: enforcement operates on constitutional boundaries, not subjective reality.
19:11
Speaker 1: Right, the Fourth Amendment.
19:13
Speaker 2: Exactly. Under the Fourth Amendment, police cannot unreasonably seize a person.
19:18
Speaker 2: To override an adult's stated autonomy when he is looking
19:21
Speaker 2: an officer in the eye and saying, I want to
19:23
Speaker 2: be here, requires a very, very high legal burden.
19:27
Speaker 1: Like what? What would they need?
19:29
Speaker 2: Unless there is visual evidence of a crime in progress,
19:32
Speaker 2: or unless a judge has previously stripped that individual of
19:35
Speaker 2: their rights through a total legal guardianship, the police cannot
19:39
Speaker 2: legally force him into a cruiser against his stated will.
19:42
Speaker 1: That is just awful.
19:44
Speaker 2: It is. Predators like Sheila intimately understand this legal architecture.
19:48
Speaker 2: They specifically hide... hunt for victims who fall into this
19:51
Speaker 2: exact bureaucratic gray area.
19:53
Speaker 1: Loophole.
19:54
Speaker 2: Yes. Individuals vulnerable enough to be easily manipulated into saying,
19:58
Speaker 2: I'm fine, but legally independent enough to repel police intervention.
20:03
Speaker 2: It is a devastating constitutional loophole.
20:06
Speaker 1: It is a loophole that essentially functions as a shield
20:08
Speaker 1: for abusers. And the tragic consequence of the police being
20:12
Speaker 1: legally forced to walk away from that farmhouse is that
20:14
Speaker 1: Sheila realizes the system cannot touch her.
20:17
Speaker 2: She feels invincible.
20:18
Speaker 1: She knows she beat the welfare check.
20:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
20:20
Speaker 1: And that realization emboldened her to a terrifying degree, leading
20:24
Speaker 1: to a public escalation of her abuse.
20:26
Speaker 2: This is a very well-documented psychological pattern.
20:28
Speaker 1: Pushing the boundaries.
20:29
Speaker 2: Exactly. When an abuser tests the boundaries of their control
20:33
Speaker 2: and encounters zero consequences from authority figures... The pathology demands
20:37
Speaker 2: an escalation. They need to see how far they can
20:40
Speaker 2: push the envelope. Not just in private, but out in
20:43
Speaker 2: the open.
20:44
Speaker 1: Which brings us to a local Walmart in the area.
20:46
Speaker 1: Sometime after the police closed the missing persons case, local
20:50
Speaker 1: officers happened to spot Kenneth at this Walmart.
20:52
Speaker 2: Okay.
20:53
Speaker 1: And the physical transformation in him is horrific. He is
20:57
Speaker 1: no longer the man who walked out onto the porch
21:00
Speaker 1: during the welfare check. He is now confined to a wheelchair.
21:03
Speaker 2: That's a huge decline.
21:04
Speaker 1: Huge decline. The officers observe that he is covered in
21:08
Speaker 1: visible bruising and his skin is taken on this ashen,
21:11
Speaker 1: sickly color.
21:12
Speaker 2: He's fading.
21:13
Speaker 1: The officers approach him. They recognize him from the check.
21:16
Speaker 1: They ask him several times if he is okay, if
21:18
Speaker 1: he needs help. And Candace completely refuses to speak to them.
21:21
Speaker 2: The silence in that moment is deafening.
21:23
Speaker 1: It really is.
21:24
Speaker 2: It speaks to a profound level of psychological conditioning and
21:27
Speaker 2: absolute terror. To have a lifeline standing right in front
21:31
Speaker 2: of you in a police uniform and to be too
21:33
Speaker 2: terrified to even speak... It means the victim's internal reality
21:37
Speaker 2: has been entirely rewritten by the abuser.
21:40
Speaker 1: He's just trapped in her world.
21:41
Speaker 2: Exactly. He likely believes that any attempt to seek help
21:44
Speaker 2: will result in a punishment far worse than his current suffering.
21:48
Speaker 1: And the scene in the Walmart gets even darker, demonstrating
21:51
Speaker 1: exactly how she views him. As the officers are observing
21:54
Speaker 1: them in the store, they watch Sheila purchase several empty
21:57
Speaker 1: gas containers.
21:58
Speaker 2: Gas containers?
21:59
Speaker 1: Yes. And with this chilling casualness, she begins stacking these
22:02
Speaker 1: empty gas cans directly on top of Kenneth, as he
22:05
Speaker 1: sits helpless in the wheelchair.
22:07
Speaker 2: The psychological objectification here is deeply disturbing. She is using
22:11
Speaker 2: a human being as a pack mule, a piece of
22:13
Speaker 2: furniture to hold her errands.
22:15
Speaker 1: It is so degrading.
22:16
Speaker 2: It is the ultimate degradation. She is rendering him completely
22:19
Speaker 2: invisible as a person. And on a much darker note,
22:22
Speaker 2: she is forcing him to physically carry the very instruments
22:25
Speaker 2: that she will likely utilize in his eventual destruction.
22:28
Speaker 1: The audacity of that public display is just staggering. But
22:32
Speaker 1: just five days after that terrifying Walmart sighting, the investigation
22:36
Speaker 1: takes a bizarre, completely unexpected turn.
22:39
Speaker 2: A very weird turn.
22:41
Speaker 1: Sheila makes an unprompted phone call to a local detective
22:45
Speaker 1: named Detective Gallagher. Now, context is crucial here. The police
22:50
Speaker 1: are not actively investigating her at this moment.
22:53
Speaker 2: The case is closed. Right.
22:54
Speaker 1: The missing persons case is closed. And despite the Walmart sighting,
22:57
Speaker 1: they have no active warrant. But she calls the detective anyway.
23:02
Speaker 1: She tells him she just wanted the police to know
23:04
Speaker 1: that Kenny left the farm.
23:05
Speaker 2: Unprovoked.
23:06
Speaker 1: Completely unprovoked. And then out of nowhere, she labels Kenneth
23:10
Speaker 1: a pedophile. She insists that she is going to play
23:13
Speaker 1: an audio tape for the detective right there over the
23:15
Speaker 1: phone to prove her allegations.
23:17
Speaker 2: We have to analyze the psychology at this moment because
23:20
Speaker 2: this is what investigators call an unforced error.
23:22
Speaker 1: Why do that?
23:23
Speaker 2: Why on earth would an individual who is currently orchestrating horrific,
23:26
Speaker 2: violent crimes actively reach out to a homicide detective to chat?
23:31
Speaker 1: It honestly reads like a trope from a bad movie.
23:34
Speaker 1: You know, the villain who is so arrogant and so
23:37
Speaker 1: desperately obsessed with controlling the narrative that they accidentally hand
23:41
Speaker 1: the detective the murder weapon while trying to brag. Detective
23:45
Speaker 1: Gallagher obviously tells her, OK, play the tape. And what
23:48
Speaker 1: he hears broadcasting over the phone line is chilling. He
23:52
Speaker 1: hears Sheila's own voice on the recording saying, why are
23:55
Speaker 1: you throwing up? Stop throwing up. Oh, God. Then there
23:58
Speaker 1: is total dead silence from Kenneth. No voice, no movement.
24:02
Speaker 1: And then you hear Sheila ask, why are you passing out?
24:05
Speaker 1: Why did you pass out?
24:06
Speaker 2: This phone call is a critical pivot in understanding her
24:09
Speaker 2: mental state.
24:10
Speaker 1: How so?
24:10
Speaker 2: She isn't just trying to throw the police off her
24:12
Speaker 2: trail by saying he left. She is actively beginning to
24:15
Speaker 2: construct a delusion to justify her actions. By framing Kenneth
24:20
Speaker 2: as a pedophile... She is attempting to rationalize the severe
24:24
Speaker 2: violence she is inflicting on him.
24:25
Speaker 1: Like she's the good guy.
24:26
Speaker 2: Right. She is building a narrative where she is the
24:29
Speaker 2: righteous avenger. This obsessive need to control the narrative completely
24:32
Speaker 2: overpowers her basic sense of self-preservation.
24:35
Speaker 1: She just outed herself.
24:36
Speaker 2: She is so blinded by her own manufactured reality that
24:40
Speaker 2: she literally plays an audio recording of herself actively torturing
24:44
Speaker 2: a man for a sworn police detective.
24:47
Speaker 1: It is a level of arrogance that is hard to comprehend.
24:50
Speaker 1: But that A bizarre, self-incriminating phone call, combined with the
24:54
Speaker 1: fact that Kenneth's mother confirms her son never actually returned
24:57
Speaker 1: home to Massachusetts.
24:59
Speaker 2: That gives them what they need.
25:00
Speaker 1: It finally gives the detective the legal leverage they desperately need.
25:04
Speaker 1: They now have reasonable suspicion to breach the perimeter of
25:07
Speaker 1: the property. So let's set the physical scene for you
25:10
Speaker 1: as the investigation officially launches.
25:12
Speaker 2: It's a very dramatic scene.
25:13
Speaker 1: It is around 6.00 p.m. It is dusk, and the
25:17
Speaker 1: light in rural New Hampshire is fading fast. Detectives drive
25:21
Speaker 1: up that massive 115-acre farm, and almost immediately upon exiting
25:26
Speaker 1: their vehicles, they spot a burn pile sitting right in
25:28
Speaker 1: the front yard.
25:29
Speaker 2: A burn pile situated in the manicured front yard of
25:32
Speaker 2: a luxury horse farm is an immediate glaring anomaly.
25:36
Speaker 1: It sticks out like a sore thumb.
25:37
Speaker 2: It does. It draws the investigative eye instantly because it
25:40
Speaker 2: totally violates the expected aesthetic of the environment.
25:43
Speaker 1: One of the lead detectives walks over to the pile
25:45
Speaker 1: and just lightly moves the debris. And what he uncovers...
25:49
Speaker 1: changes the entire trajectory of the case. He looks down
25:53
Speaker 1: and clearly identifies a piece of human flesh. Wow. Right
25:57
Speaker 1: next to it, resting in the ashes, he sees a bone,
26:00
Speaker 1: which his training allows him to estimate as an upper
26:02
Speaker 1: arm and shoulder joint.
26:04
Speaker 2: In a fraction of a second, the operational reality of
26:06
Speaker 2: law enforcement shifts. This is no longer a missing person inquiry,
26:10
Speaker 2: and it is no longer a welfare check.
26:12
Speaker 1: It's murder.
26:13
Speaker 2: It is officially a homicide investigation. Finding human remains in
26:17
Speaker 2: a fire pit is a massive... irrevocable game changer.
26:20
Speaker 1: The detectives have seen exactly what they need to see.
26:23
Speaker 1: They immediately move toward the main house. As soon as
26:25
Speaker 1: a detective kicks the screen door and it opens up,
26:28
Speaker 1: a woman's voice yells at them from the driveway area.
26:31
Speaker 1: It's Sheila.
26:32
Speaker 2: She's right there.
26:33
Speaker 1: Now, surprisingly, instead of barricading herself, she actually allows the
26:36
Speaker 1: detectives to step inside the house.
26:38
Speaker 2: This is likely a desperate pivot on her part. She
26:40
Speaker 2: probably realizes they are close to the burn pit, and
26:43
Speaker 2: she is hoping she can use her charm to talk
26:45
Speaker 2: her way out of it, or at least distract them
26:47
Speaker 2: from focusing on the front yard.
26:49
Speaker 1: But the distraction tactic fails spectacularly because the interior of
26:53
Speaker 1: the house is an absolute horror show.
26:55
Speaker 2: That's unbelievable.
26:56
Speaker 1: Remember the context we set up earlier? This was Dr.
27:00
Speaker 1: Labar's dream home. This was a multi-million dollar luxury farmhouse
27:05
Speaker 1: sitting on prime real estate. But the interior the detectives
27:09
Speaker 1: step into is in absolute ruins.
27:11
Speaker 2: Total squalor.
27:12
Speaker 1: The reports describe it as completely filthy. It reeks of
27:15
Speaker 1: rotting food that has been left piled up in the
27:17
Speaker 1: sink for weeks. And most bizarrely, and this detail is
27:21
Speaker 1: almost surreal, the entire house is overrun by hundreds of
27:25
Speaker 1: wild rabbits just running loose across the floors, destroying the property.
27:28
Speaker 2: The physical environment we are looking at here is a
27:31
Speaker 2: direct external manifestation of her internal cognitive state.
27:34
Speaker 1: That makes total sense.
27:36
Speaker 2: In psychology, severe hoarding and squalor are often indicators of
27:39
Speaker 2: profound internal chaos and a loss of executive function.
27:42
Speaker 1: So the outside doesn't match the inside.
27:44
Speaker 2: Exactly. You have this staggering juxtaposition. Immense wealth represented by
27:50
Speaker 2: a 115-acre estate, contracted with absolute, squalid biohazard conditions inside
27:56
Speaker 2: the walls. The polished facade of Mrs. Labar, the wealthy widow,
28:01
Speaker 2: is completely stripped away, revealing the decaying, chaotic reality of
28:06
Speaker 2: a deeply disturbed mind.
28:07
Speaker 1: It is unfathomable. I mean, imagine the reality of this scene.
28:10
Speaker 1: You are sitting on millions of dollars of pristine real estate,
28:14
Speaker 1: and you are choosing to live in a biohazard filled
28:17
Speaker 1: with Rotting food and hundreds of loose, defecating rabbits.
28:20
Speaker 2: And it's chaos.
28:22
Speaker 1: But as the detectives are standing in this madhouse trying
28:24
Speaker 1: to process the sensory overload, one detective spots something highly specific.
28:28
Speaker 1: He looks down and sees a pair of Kenneth's old
28:30
Speaker 1: shoes sitting on the floor.
28:31
Speaker 2: Okay.
28:32
Speaker 1: He points them out and says casually to Sheila, well,
28:34
Speaker 1: there's his shoes.
28:35
Speaker 2: Now, this is a fascinating moment in the mechanics of interrogation.
28:39
Speaker 2: Watch how a simple, seemingly mundane observation completely corners her.
28:43
Speaker 1: Sheila immediately gets defensive. She snaps back. Well, those are
28:46
Speaker 1: his old shoes. I bought him brand new shoes.
28:47
Speaker 2: She thinks she's covering her tracks.
28:49
Speaker 1: Right. Though the detective knows this statement is actually factually true.
28:54
Speaker 1: Because he vividly remembers seeing Kenneth wearing brand new shoes
28:58
Speaker 1: when he spotted him at the Walmart in the wheelchair.
29:01
Speaker 2: Oh, okay.
29:02
Speaker 1: But here is the massive logistical catch. As the detectives
29:06
Speaker 1: continue walking through the chaotic house... They open the basement
29:10
Speaker 1: door and right there, sitting neatly at the bottom of
29:13
Speaker 1: the basement stairs, are the brand new shoes.
29:16
Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
29:17
Speaker 1: So the detective turns back to Sheila and asks the
29:19
Speaker 1: million dollar question. There's his new shoes. There's his old shoes.
29:23
Speaker 1: What's he wearing?
29:24
Speaker 2: And she is completely paralyzed. She couldn't explain it.
29:27
Speaker 1: She's trapped.
29:28
Speaker 2: This is a perfect real world application of what psychologists
29:31
Speaker 2: call cognitive load theory, specifically as it applies to deception.
29:36
Speaker 1: What does that mean exactly?
29:37
Speaker 2: When a suspect is lying, their working memory is heavily taxed.
29:40
Speaker 2: They're trying to maintain the false narrative, monitor the detective's reactions,
29:45
Speaker 2: and suppress the actual truth all at once.
29:47
Speaker 1: That's a lot for the brain to do.
29:49
Speaker 2: It is. Criminals usually rehearse the big, grand lies, like
29:53
Speaker 2: he ran away or he went to a new state.
29:56
Speaker 2: They rarely rehearse the mundane logistical detail.
29:59
Speaker 1: Like the shoes.
30:00
Speaker 2: Right. When the detective asks a simple question about footwear,
30:04
Speaker 2: the lie collapses. Her brain simply didn't have the bandwidth
30:08
Speaker 2: to stage the entire environment down to the placement of
30:11
Speaker 2: the props. She is caught in a logistical trap she
30:14
Speaker 2: hadn't prepared for.
30:15
Speaker 1: The sheer panic of being caught in that trap must
30:18
Speaker 1: have set in immediately for her. Because before they can
30:21
Speaker 1: pivot and question her about the human flesh they found
30:23
Speaker 1: in the yard, she forcefully kicks them off the property.
30:27
Speaker 1: She demands they leave immediately because they do not have
30:30
Speaker 1: a signed search warrant. And legally, she is entirely within
30:33
Speaker 1: her rights and they have to leave.
30:35
Speaker 2: That is so frustrating.
30:36
Speaker 1: The detectives are forced to walk away from that bone
30:39
Speaker 1: in the yard, knowing full well that the suspect is
30:42
Speaker 1: now acutely aware that they are on to her.
30:44
Speaker 2: It is an agonizing, high-stakes position for law enforcement. They
30:48
Speaker 2: have to secure the perimeter from the public roadway as
30:51
Speaker 2: best they can and basically scramble to draft and get
30:54
Speaker 2: a judge to sign a search warrant, knowing that a
30:56
Speaker 2: highly motivated suspect is currently inside with crucial evidence.
31:01
Speaker 1: The detectives work through the night to secure the warrant,
31:04
Speaker 1: and they return to the farm at first light the
31:06
Speaker 1: very next morning. And when they pull up the driveway,
31:09
Speaker 1: they find a scene straight out of a gothic nightmare.
31:12
Speaker 2: What did they see?
31:13
Speaker 1: Sheila is kneeling directly by the burn pit in the
31:16
Speaker 1: front yard. She is literally covered head to toe in
31:19
Speaker 1: gray ashes, frantically and desperately sifting through the fire pit
31:23
Speaker 1: with her bare hands.
31:24
Speaker 2: She utilized the entire night trying to obliterate the physical
31:28
Speaker 2: evidence they had seen at dusk. It is the frantic
31:30
Speaker 2: desperation of someone whose manufactured reality is collapsing.
31:34
Speaker 1: She was unfortunately somewhat successful in her efforts. The large
31:37
Speaker 1: upper arm and shoulder bone that the detective clearly identified
31:40
Speaker 1: the night before, it is completely missing.
31:42
Speaker 2: She hid it.
31:43
Speaker 1: She managed to dispose of it or hide it somewhere
31:45
Speaker 1: on the property. but she couldn't account for the mechanics
31:48
Speaker 1: of fire and bone. Crime scene investigators take over, comb
31:52
Speaker 1: meticulously through that pit, and recover several tiny bone fragments
31:56
Speaker 1: that survive the heat and appear definitively human.
32:00
Speaker 2: And the moment that physical evidence is secured and bagged,
32:03
Speaker 2: the entire scope of the operation explodes.
32:05
Speaker 1: Explodes is the only word for it. This sprawling 115-acre
32:09
Speaker 1: property officially becomes the largest single crime scene in New
32:13
Speaker 1: Hampshire state history.
32:14
Speaker 2: That's a massive undertaking.
32:16
Speaker 1: The logistics of processing a scene this large are staggering.
32:20
Speaker 1: The farm is absolutely swarmed. We are talking hundreds of personnel,
32:23
Speaker 1: state police troopers, local police officers, and the specialized major
32:27
Speaker 1: crime unit descending on this quiet town.
32:29
Speaker 2: Everyone is there.
32:30
Speaker 1: They don hazmat gear, reenter that madhouse of a farmhouse,
32:34
Speaker 1: wading through the wild rabbits and the biohazard filth, and
32:37
Speaker 1: they start uncovering horrific forensic evidence. They find human blood
32:41
Speaker 1: spatter in multiple distinct rooms across the house.
32:44
Speaker 2: The presence of blood spatter in multiple locations is highly indicative.
32:48
Speaker 1: What does it tell them?
32:49
Speaker 2: It tells investigators that this was not a sudden, isolated
32:52
Speaker 2: incident of violence in one room. It points to prolonged violence,
32:57
Speaker 2: a chase, or movement throughout the house. It corroborates the
33:01
Speaker 2: physical torture that was hinted at on the bizarre audio
33:04
Speaker 2: tape she played over the phone for the detective.
33:06
Speaker 1: But the most shocking, paradigm-shifting discovery happens in the bathroom.
33:11
Speaker 2: This part is wild.
33:12
Speaker 1: The bathroom is in ruins. I mean, the toilet doesn't
33:15
Speaker 1: even have a seat on it. But investigators are thorough.
33:17
Speaker 1: They decide to pull the plumbing and flush the septic
33:20
Speaker 1: system to see if any evidence was disposed of down
33:22
Speaker 1: the drain.
33:23
Speaker 2: Always check the plumbing.
33:24
Speaker 1: Always. When they do, they pull up a clogged piece
33:28
Speaker 1: of material that changes the entire trajectory of this deep dive.
33:32
Speaker 1: It is a birth certificate.
33:33
Speaker 2: Okay.
33:34
Speaker 1: But when they clean it off and read it, the
33:36
Speaker 1: name does not belong to Kenneth County. The name on
33:40
Speaker 1: the birth certificate belongs to a man named Michael DeLange.
33:43
Speaker 2: I want to use a metaphor here because the mechanics
33:46
Speaker 2: of this discovery are fascinating. This is exactly like pulling
33:49
Speaker 2: a microscopic loose thread on a sweater. The police came
33:52
Speaker 2: to this isolated farm looking for one specific missing person
33:56
Speaker 2: driven by a mother's report and a billow. They had
33:59
Speaker 2: a singular focus. But by pulling on this one tiny
34:03
Speaker 2: logistical inconsistency, a clog in a septic pipe, they completely
34:08
Speaker 2: unraveled the fabric of her hidden life revealing a second,
34:12
Speaker 2: entirely unknown victim.
34:14
Speaker 1: It just blows the case wide open.
34:16
Speaker 2: Furthermore, we have to acknowledge the deep symbolism of attempting
34:19
Speaker 2: to flush a birth certificate. A birth certificate is the
34:22
Speaker 2: foundational legal document of a person's existence in society.
34:27
Speaker 1: It proves you exist.
34:28
Speaker 2: Exactly. By trying to flush it into a septic system,
34:31
Speaker 2: she isn't just disposing of paper. She is attempting to
34:34
Speaker 2: literally erase a human being's identity from reality. She is
34:38
Speaker 2: trying to turn his very existence into waste.
34:41
Speaker 1: It is a chillingly accurate assessment because up until that
34:43
Speaker 1: plumber's snake pulled up that document, absolutely nobody in the
34:47
Speaker 1: investigation had any idea who Michael DeLange was.
34:49
Speaker 2: Which immediately forces the entire investigative team to pause and
34:53
Speaker 2: ask a very dark question. Who is this man and
34:56
Speaker 2: why was absolutely nobody in the world looking for him?
34:58
Speaker 1: Here is the heartbreaking reality they uncover. There were no
35:02
Speaker 1: missing persons reports filed for Michael DeLange because nobody knew
35:06
Speaker 1: he was missing. That was so sad. The investigation reveals
35:10
Speaker 1: he was completely estranged from his family, and at the
35:13
Speaker 1: time he crossed paths with Sheila, he was living in
35:16
Speaker 1: a homeless shelter.
35:17
Speaker 2: This detail highlights a terrifying evolution in her modus operandi.
35:21
Speaker 1: She changed her tactics. Yes.
35:23
Speaker 2: Kenneth County, despite her best efforts to isolate him, had
35:27
Speaker 2: a mother who cared. A mother who filed a report,
35:30
Speaker 2: who navigated the system, and who ultimately sent the police
35:33
Speaker 2: to Sheila's door.
35:34
Speaker 1: Right, the below.
35:35
Speaker 2: Sheila learned from that structural failure. She realized that targeting
35:39
Speaker 2: a victim with active ties to the outside world brings
35:42
Speaker 2: investigative heat. So she adapted. She shifted her hunting grounds
35:46
Speaker 2: to the invisible margins of society. She went to a
35:49
Speaker 2: homeless shelter to find a target who wouldn't generate a below.
35:53
Speaker 1: The source material details exactly how she executed this lure.
35:57
Speaker 1: She approached Michael when he was at his absolute lowest point.
36:00
Speaker 2: Very vulnerable.
36:01
Speaker 1: She offered him a proposition that, to a man in
36:03
Speaker 1: a shelter, seemed like a miracle. She spun this narrative.
36:07
Speaker 1: She told him her wealthy husband had recently died, she
36:09
Speaker 1: had this massive farm, and she desperately needed a strong
36:12
Speaker 1: man to help her maintain it.
36:13
Speaker 2: Playing the helpless widow.
36:15
Speaker 1: Yes. She offered him warm food on the table, a
36:17
Speaker 1: solid roof over his head, and sexual intimacy. If you
36:21
Speaker 1: are a man living on a cot in a shelter,
36:23
Speaker 1: how do you possibly say no to that?
36:25
Speaker 2: You don't say no. It is the ultimate, perfectly engineered
36:29
Speaker 2: predatory trap.
36:30
Speaker 1: It really is.
36:31
Speaker 2: In sociology, we talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the
36:34
Speaker 2: fundamental requirements for human survival. Shelter, sustenance, and intimacy. She
36:39
Speaker 2: targets those exact foundational needs and weaponizes them as bait.
36:43
Speaker 1: It's brilliant in the worst way.
36:44
Speaker 2: And because he is estranged and unhoused, society has already
36:48
Speaker 2: culturally turned a blind eye to him. He is the perfect,
36:52
Speaker 2: invisible victim for a predator who desires total control without
36:56
Speaker 2: the consequence of police intervention.
36:58
Speaker 1: But society didn't entirely turn a blind eye. And this
37:00
Speaker 1: is the part of the story that is sociologically fascinating,
37:03
Speaker 1: but deeply, deeply unsettling on a human level.
37:06
Speaker 2: What happened?
37:07
Speaker 1: As the investigation into Michael ramps up, police canvas the
37:10
Speaker 1: area and an eyewitness account surfaces. Sometime in the middle
37:15
Speaker 1: of a brutal New England winter, local residents actually saw Michael.
37:19
Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
37:20
Speaker 1: They saw a man stumbling down the long paved road
37:23
Speaker 1: leading away from the farm right in the middle of
37:26
Speaker 1: the snowdrifts. And he was visibly bleeding from a wound
37:29
Speaker 1: on his forehead.
37:30
Speaker 2: He was clearly injured, disoriented, and actively fleeing the property.
37:34
Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly. And the witness statements say that when someone
37:37
Speaker 1: in a vehicle finally stopped to ask him what happened,
37:40
Speaker 1: Michael didn't beg for rescue.
37:42
Speaker 2: He didn't.
37:42
Speaker 1: He didn't ask them to call the police. He just
37:44
Speaker 1: kept walking, head down in the snow, and mumbled one
37:47
Speaker 1: single word. Sheila.
37:49
Speaker 2: We need to analyze the profound psychological terror of that
37:53
Speaker 2: specific moment. Put yourself in his mindset.
37:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, try to imagine it.
37:57
Speaker 2: He is bleeding, freezing, and running for his life from
38:00
Speaker 2: a nightmare. But he doesn't ask the passerby for help
38:03
Speaker 2: because in his internal calculus, he has nowhere to go.
38:06
Speaker 1: He feels totally trapped.
38:07
Speaker 2: He is a homeless transient man. She is a wealthy, influential,
38:12
Speaker 2: established local landowner. He likely believed, based on how society
38:17
Speaker 2: had treated him thus far, that no one would side
38:19
Speaker 2: with a transient over the wealthy widow.
38:21
Speaker 1: That makes total sense.
38:23
Speaker 2: Or worse, he feared that asking for help from the
38:25
Speaker 2: authorities would just result in him being delivered right back
38:28
Speaker 2: to her doorstep. The tragedy of his perceived helplessness is
38:32
Speaker 2: just overwhelming.
38:33
Speaker 1: It is overwhelming, but it also demands we ask a
38:36
Speaker 1: hard question about the community. We established at the very
38:39
Speaker 1: beginning that Epping is a small town where the cultural
38:42
Speaker 1: narrative is that everyone watches everyone and neighbors look out
38:46
Speaker 1: for each other.
38:47
Speaker 2: Right.
38:47
Speaker 1: How does a strange man wander down a snowy road,
38:50
Speaker 1: bleeding from the head, mumble the name of a wealthy
38:52
Speaker 1: local resident, and nobody picks up a phone to call
38:55
Speaker 1: the police?
38:55
Speaker 2: It speaks to the bystander effect, compounded by the tragic
38:59
Speaker 2: invisibility of the unhoused in rural areas.
39:01
Speaker 1: The invisibility.
39:02
Speaker 2: Even in a tight-knit community, there is often an unspoken,
39:06
Speaker 2: rigid hierarchy of who belongs and who is an outsider.
39:11
Speaker 2: A transient man bleeding in the snow is frequently perceived
39:14
Speaker 2: through a lens of suspicion rather than empathy.
39:17
Speaker 1: Like he's a threat. Right.
39:18
Speaker 2: He is seen as a nuisance, a potential addict, or
39:21
Speaker 2: a danger to avoid, rather than a human being in
39:24
Speaker 2: desperate need of rescue. Sheila banked entirely on that apathy.
39:28
Speaker 2: She understood the sociological dynamics of the town better than
39:31
Speaker 2: the town did. She knew they would look the other
39:34
Speaker 2: way if the victim didn't look like one of them.
39:36
Speaker 1: It is a devastating indictment of our blind spots. And
39:39
Speaker 1: while the police are uncovering this horrific hidden history of
39:42
Speaker 1: Michael Delange, they are also playing a waiting game.
39:45
Speaker 2: Waiting for forensics.
39:46
Speaker 1: They're waiting on the forensic DNA results from the bone
39:48
Speaker 1: fragments in the fire pit to officially confirm they belong
39:51
Speaker 1: to Kenneth County, which is a legal threshold they need
39:54
Speaker 1: to make a formal arrest. During this agonizing waiting period,
39:58
Speaker 1: a massive logistical slip-up occurs.
40:00
Speaker 2: A huge mistake.
40:01
Speaker 1: Sheila is supposed to be under heavy surveillance, but somehow
40:04
Speaker 1: she exploits a gap in the watch. She slips away
40:07
Speaker 1: from the farmhouse, vanishes, and crosses state lines down into Massachusetts.
40:13
Speaker 2: It is a critical, almost catastrophic failure by law enforcement.
40:17
Speaker 2: You have a prime suspect tied directly to a burn
40:20
Speaker 2: pit containing human remains, and you lose visual containment.
40:24
Speaker 1: She goes completely on the run. She dyes her hair
40:27
Speaker 1: bright red in an attempt to change her physical appearance.
40:31
Speaker 1: She hits the banks and withdraws thousands of dollars in
40:34
Speaker 1: cash to fund her escape.
40:36
Speaker 2: Ready to disappear.
40:37
Speaker 1: And when she packs up her vehicle to flee, what
40:40
Speaker 1: do you think her most prized possessions are? The items
40:42
Speaker 1: she absolutely refuses to leave behind.
40:44
Speaker 2: Fiction's not money or jewelry.
40:46
Speaker 1: It isn't jewelry or family heirlooms. It is her bunnies.
40:49
Speaker 1: She packs up her pet rabbits and goes on the
40:51
Speaker 1: run as a fugitive.
40:52
Speaker 2: The bizarre attachment to the rabbits is a fascinating psychological
40:56
Speaker 2: element that we see in certain types of violent offenders.
40:59
Speaker 1: What's it called?
40:59
Speaker 2: It is a phenomenon known as compartmentalized empathy. You often
41:04
Speaker 2: see a profound, almost obsessive empathy for animals paired with
41:07
Speaker 2: an absolute, total disregard for human life.
41:10
Speaker 1: Why animals and not humans?
41:12
Speaker 2: Animals are pliable. They don't challenge authority. They don't have
41:16
Speaker 2: complex emotional needs. And they offer unconditional acceptance without requiring
41:21
Speaker 2: the offender to compromise their need for control. Humans, on
41:25
Speaker 2: the other hand, are complicated, messy, and require subjugation.
41:29
Speaker 1: So they prefer the pets.
41:30
Speaker 2: So in her mind, there is no contradiction in tenderly
41:33
Speaker 2: packing up her beloved bunnies while having just burned a
41:36
Speaker 2: human being in her front yard.
41:37
Speaker 1: And while she's on the run, caring for these rabbits...
41:40
Speaker 1: The DNA results finally come in from the lab. The
41:43
Speaker 1: remains in the fire pit are officially scientifically confirmed to
41:46
Speaker 1: be Kenneth County.
41:47
Speaker 2: They have the proof.
41:47
Speaker 1: Sheila is formally charged with murder. But she is armed.
41:51
Speaker 1: She has cash. She is highly dangerous. And she is missing.
41:54
Speaker 1: Law enforcement is in an absolute panic. But 30 miles
41:57
Speaker 1: away in Manchester, Massachusetts, Sheila's bizarre priorities completely undo her
42:02
Speaker 1: escape plan.
42:03
Speaker 2: Her obsession with maintaining control over the rabbits becomes the
42:06
Speaker 2: exact mechanism of her downfall.
42:08
Speaker 1: It really does, and the logistics of her capture play
42:11
Speaker 1: out with a deep, almost absurd irony. She stops at
42:15
Speaker 1: a pet store in Manchester. She realizes the logistical impossibility
42:19
Speaker 1: of living on the run out of a car with
42:21
Speaker 1: multiple rabbits.
42:22
Speaker 2: It's just not practical.
42:24
Speaker 1: So she starts approaching random strangers inside the pet store,
42:27
Speaker 1: utilizing her charm... asking if they would be willing to
42:30
Speaker 1: watch her bunnies for a few days.
42:32
Speaker 2: Which, objectively, is an insane request to make of a
42:34
Speaker 2: complete stranger in a retail environment.
42:37
Speaker 1: But the truly staggering part is that the strangers inexplicably agree.
42:41
Speaker 1: That's wild. Not only do they agree to take custody
42:44
Speaker 1: of the rabbits, but Sheila is so manipulative and charming
42:48
Speaker 1: that they actually invite this red-headed stranger to stay the
42:52
Speaker 1: night in their own living room.
42:54
Speaker 2: The irony here is profound. She spent years utilizing her
42:58
Speaker 2: predatory charm to lure vulnerable people into her home to
43:01
Speaker 2: destroy them. And now, while actively on the run for
43:05
Speaker 2: a brutal murder, she seamlessly flips the script and uses
43:08
Speaker 2: that exact same charm to infiltrate the home of complete
43:11
Speaker 2: strangers to secure her own survival.
43:14
Speaker 1: It's chilling.
43:14
Speaker 2: It demonstrates just how effective and adaptable her manipulative facade
43:18
Speaker 2: can be.
43:19
Speaker 1: So picture the tension in this scene. Yeah. You are
43:22
Speaker 1: a fugitive on the run for a highly publicized murder.
43:25
Speaker 1: You were sitting comfortably in the living room of strangers
43:27
Speaker 1: you just met at a pet store, playing with your
43:29
Speaker 1: pet rabbits on their floor. And what happens?
43:31
Speaker 2: The news.
43:32
Speaker 1: The clock strikes 11.00 p.m. The homeowners turn on the
43:35
Speaker 1: local late-night news, and the lead story broadcasting across the
43:39
Speaker 1: screen is about the horrific, shocking murders in Epping, New Hampshire,
43:43
Speaker 1: prominently featuring the face of the wanted fugitive who is
43:46
Speaker 1: currently sitting right there on their couch.
43:48
Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
43:49
Speaker 1: Her cover is instantly, irrevocably blown.
43:51
Speaker 2: The sheer terror those strangers must have felt in that
43:54
Speaker 2: moment is unimaginable. But it leads to the immediate intervention
43:58
Speaker 2: of local police and her arrest without incident.
44:01
Speaker 1: Yes, she is taken into custody right there in the
44:03
Speaker 1: living room and quickly extradited back to New Hampshire. The
44:07
Speaker 1: detectives finally get her in an interrogation room. And while
44:10
Speaker 1: they have her secured, the crime scene investigators process the
44:14
Speaker 1: traces of DNA evidence from the blood spatter found inside
44:17
Speaker 1: the farmhouse.
44:18
Speaker 2: And they get a match.
44:20
Speaker 1: The lab confirms it is a definitive match to Michael DeLanche.
44:24
Speaker 2: So law enforcement now has solid physical evidence tying her
44:29
Speaker 2: directly to the deaths of two distinct men. Even though
44:32
Speaker 2: Michael's body was never fully recovered in a traditional sense,
44:35
Speaker 2: the volume of his blood inside the home, paired with
44:38
Speaker 2: her established proven method of disposal in the front yard,
44:41
Speaker 2: allows prosecutors to confidently assert that she murdered and burned
44:44
Speaker 2: his body as well.
44:46
Speaker 1: Exactly. Sheila officially faces two counts of first-degree murder. And
44:50
Speaker 1: the trial that follows is an absolute spectacle. The courtroom
44:53
Speaker 1: essentially becomes a theater for her twisted reality. I can imagine.
44:56
Speaker 1: The trial features five full weeks of grueling emotional testimony.
45:02
Speaker 1: And then, when it is her turn, Sheila shocks the
45:04
Speaker 1: entire courtroom. She doesn't die the acts. She freely, openly
45:09
Speaker 1: admits to killing both Kenneth and Michael.
45:11
Speaker 2: The admission of the physical acts is a calculated legal strategy.
45:15
Speaker 2: She isn't doing it out of a sudden sense of
45:17
Speaker 2: remorse or a desire to confess.
45:19
Speaker 1: Then why?
45:19
Speaker 2: She is doing it to pivot the trial toward an
45:22
Speaker 2: affirmative defense. She is arguing that, yes, she committed the homicides,
45:26
Speaker 2: but she lacked the mental capacity to understand that they
45:29
Speaker 2: were legally or morally wrong.
45:32
Speaker 1: The sources label her justification in court as a wannabe
45:35
Speaker 1: Dexter defense.
45:36
Speaker 2: Let's dissect the mechanics of that defense because it is
45:38
Speaker 2: crucial to understanding the outcome of the trial.
45:41
Speaker 1: She claims on the stand that Kenneth and Michael were
45:43
Speaker 1: not innocent victims, but pedophiles who deserve to die. She
45:47
Speaker 1: tells the jury that she was acting as a protector,
45:49
Speaker 1: an avenging angel ridding the world of evil.
45:52
Speaker 2: She spins herself as the hero.
45:54
Speaker 1: And the most chilling piece of evidence she introduces is
45:57
Speaker 1: her own documentation. She reveals she actively tortured them to
46:02
Speaker 1: force false confessions to these acts. She recorded the audio
46:06
Speaker 1: of Kenneth that we discussed earlier, and she actually filmed
46:09
Speaker 1: a video of Michael actively torturing him on camera to
46:13
Speaker 1: try and force him to admit to doing horrible things.
46:16
Speaker 2: It's sickening.
46:17
Speaker 1: Her defense team argues this proves she was legally insane,
46:21
Speaker 1: that she genuinely deeply believed she was a righteous Avenger,
46:24
Speaker 1: totally blind to the reality that she was the monster.
46:28
Speaker 2: Let's break down the legal threshold for an insanity defense,
46:31
Speaker 2: which is often rooted in variations of the M'Nutton Rule.
46:34
Speaker 1: Okay, what is that?
46:35
Speaker 2: To be found legally insane, the defense generally has to
46:38
Speaker 2: prove that the defendant suffered from a severe mental disease
46:40
Speaker 2: or defect. And because of that defect, they either did
46:43
Speaker 2: not know the nature of their actions or they did
46:45
Speaker 2: not know that their actions were wrong. The defense is
46:48
Speaker 2: trying to argue she suffered a psychotic break that created
46:50
Speaker 2: a manufactured delusion of righteousness.
46:53
Speaker 1: I want to challenge that concept for a moment. Given
46:56
Speaker 1: the extreme squalor, the isolation, the hundreds of wild rabbits,
47:00
Speaker 1: is it possible her mind was so genuinely broken by
47:03
Speaker 1: her environment? that she actually believed this avenging angel narrative?
47:08
Speaker 2: That's a fair question.
47:09
Speaker 1: Or is the consensus that this Dexter defense was a
47:13
Speaker 1: highly calculated, premeditated legal strategy designed from day one to
47:18
Speaker 1: avoid a prison cell?
47:19
Speaker 2: The consensus, and the way prosecutors dismantled it, is that
47:24
Speaker 2: it was almost certainly a manufactured delusion designed to serve
47:27
Speaker 2: her needs, rather than a genuine psychotic break. And the
47:30
Speaker 2: key piece of evidence that destroys the insanity defense is
47:34
Speaker 2: the very evidence she thought would save her.
47:36
Speaker 1: The recordings.
47:37
Speaker 2: Yes, the recordings of the forced confessions.
47:39
Speaker 1: Explain the logic there. How do the recordings prove she
47:42
Speaker 1: was sane?
47:42
Speaker 2: It comes down to premeditation and awareness of wrongfulness. If
47:46
Speaker 2: you are truly suffering from a severe psychosis and you
47:49
Speaker 2: genuinely believe you are an avenging angel acting on divine
47:52
Speaker 2: or righteous impulse, you simply act.
47:54
Speaker 1: You just do it.
47:54
Speaker 2: You execute the perceived threat. You do not take out
47:58
Speaker 2: a video camera, set up the lighting, and methodically torture
48:01
Speaker 2: a person to manufacture a taped confession.
48:04
Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
48:04
Speaker 2: The act of recording implies that you know you need proof.
48:08
Speaker 2: It implies a desire to create a retroactive alibi for
48:11
Speaker 2: the violence. By gathering evidence, she proved that she knew society,
48:15
Speaker 2: and specifically the legal system, would view her actions as
48:18
Speaker 2: a crime. It proved she possessed the awareness of wrongfulness,
48:22
Speaker 2: and she was trying to build a case to justify
48:24
Speaker 2: it just in case she was ever caught.
48:26
Speaker 1: That is a brilliant legal distinction. And the prosecution hammers
48:30
Speaker 1: that exact point home. They completely dismantle her defense, labeling
48:34
Speaker 1: it in front of the jury as absolute psychobabble. Which
48:37
Speaker 1: it was. They methodically prove that these murders were not
48:40
Speaker 1: the frantic result of a sudden psychotic break. They require
48:43
Speaker 1: complex logistical planning, isolating the victims, managing the estate, hiding
48:48
Speaker 1: the bodies, and manufacturing fake evidence tapes. They were highly capulated, deliberate,
48:53
Speaker 1: and unspeakably violent acts committed by a rational, albeit deeply evil, mind.
48:58
Speaker 2: Juries are traditionally very quick to see through an insanity
49:01
Speaker 2: defense when the crimes require that level of complex, sustained
49:04
Speaker 2: logistical planning. Psychosis is chaotic. Her system was organized.
49:09
Speaker 1: After five weeks of this intense trial, the jury deliberates
49:13
Speaker 1: and finds Sheila Labar guilty on two counts of murder.
49:17
Speaker 2: A huge relief for the town.
49:18
Speaker 1: She receives two life sentences. without the possibility of parole.
49:22
Speaker 1: She's officially labeled by law enforcement and the media as
49:25
Speaker 1: a black widow and a highly organized violent predator who
49:29
Speaker 1: preyed on vulnerable men. She is locked away forever. And
49:33
Speaker 1: the town of Epping tries to start the incredibly long,
49:35
Speaker 1: painful process of healing their community.
49:38
Speaker 2: But the physical cleanup of a 115-acre crime scene is
49:41
Speaker 2: a massive, prolonged undertaking.
49:43
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, that land had one more terrifying secret to
49:46
Speaker 1: give up.
49:47
Speaker 2: It did. And this is the lingering, absolute horror of
49:49
Speaker 2: this entire deep dive.
49:51
Speaker 1: To be classified legally or academically as a serial killer
49:54
Speaker 1: by authorities, you generally need to have at least three
49:57
Speaker 1: confirmed victims across separate events. Going into prison, Sheila Labar
50:01
Speaker 1: has two confirmed. Kenneth County and Michael Delange.
50:04
Speaker 2: So technically, by the strictest definitions used by law enforcement
50:07
Speaker 2: at the time, she falls just short of this serial
50:10
Speaker 2: killer classification.
50:11
Speaker 1: Not yet, anyway. Because months after Sheila's locked away in
50:15
Speaker 1: a cell, police are still occasionally searching the brush in
50:18
Speaker 1: the areas near the horse ranch, and they find something
50:21
Speaker 1: that reopens the nightmare.
50:23
Speaker 2: What do they find?
50:23
Speaker 1: They find a set of human toes.
50:25
Speaker 2: Just the toes. No other remains.
50:27
Speaker 1: Just a set of human toes. And when the crime
50:30
Speaker 1: lab runs the DNA testing on these specific remains, the
50:34
Speaker 1: results come back with a horrifying conclusion. They do not
50:38
Speaker 1: belong to Kenneth County. And they do not belong to
50:41
Speaker 1: Michael DeLange.
50:42
Speaker 2: That is a chilling forensic discovery. It unequivocally, scientifically proves
50:46
Speaker 2: the presence of a third, completely unidentified victim.
50:50
Speaker 1: And the context around this discovery makes the implications even worse.
50:54
Speaker 1: During the massive, highly publicized investigations, Multiple people from the
50:59
Speaker 1: community finally came forward to detectives.
51:01
Speaker 2: What did they say?
51:02
Speaker 1: They stated that they knew of other men who had
51:04
Speaker 1: stayed at the farmhouse over the years. Men who just
51:07
Speaker 1: seemed to arrive, stay for a bit, and then quietly disappear.
51:10
Speaker 2: And this is where her final adaptation of her modus
51:13
Speaker 2: operandi becomes truly terrifying because it reveals a system of murder.
51:18
Speaker 1: When the police dig deeper into the logistics of her
51:21
Speaker 1: life at the farm, they uncover hundreds of hours of
51:24
Speaker 1: audio cassettes. These cassettes feature Sheila speaking for hours to
51:29
Speaker 1: random men on various telephone chat lines. Oh, wow. Authorities
51:32
Speaker 1: strongly believe, based on the toes and the tapes, that
51:35
Speaker 1: there are other victims out there who are completely consumed
51:38
Speaker 1: by her system.
51:39
Speaker 2: Let's expand on the spider web metaphor we touched on earlier,
51:42
Speaker 2: because the mechanics of her system are horrifyingly perfect.
51:45
Speaker 1: Let's hear it.
51:46
Speaker 2: Think about the logistics. If she utilized anonymous chat lines
51:50
Speaker 2: to lure a lonely, transient, or estranged man from a
51:53
Speaker 2: major metropolitan area, say... New York City or Boston, and
51:57
Speaker 2: convinced him to travel up to her isolated 115-acre fortress
52:02
Speaker 2: in rural New Hampshire.
52:03
Speaker 1: Okay.
52:04
Speaker 2: If she murdered him and utilized the fire pit as
52:06
Speaker 2: a total means of disposal, turning the body completely to ash,
52:10
Speaker 2: that man would simply vanish from existence without a trace.
52:12
Speaker 1: It is a perfect crime.
52:14
Speaker 2: No one in his home city would know to look
52:16
Speaker 2: for him in a small town in New Hampshire, and
52:18
Speaker 2: no one in New Hampshire knew he was there to
52:20
Speaker 2: begin with. She engineered a self-contained ecosystem where she could
52:24
Speaker 2: kill indefinitely.
52:25
Speaker 1: It is exactly like a massive invisible spider web. The
52:29
Speaker 1: police managed to find the bodies of two flies caught
52:32
Speaker 1: in the trap. But those hundreds of hours of audio cassettes,
52:36
Speaker 1: that is the vibration on the web showing just how
52:39
Speaker 1: many others might have been caught, lured in, and completely
52:42
Speaker 1: consumed before the police ever arrived to pull that thread.
52:46
Speaker 2: Here's a staggering thought.
52:47
Speaker 1: The toes they found in the brush are just a
52:49
Speaker 1: singular physical glitch in an otherwise flawless system of disposal.
52:54
Speaker 2: It leaves you with the deeply unsettling realization that we
52:57
Speaker 2: will likely never know the true body count. The 115
53:00
Speaker 2: acres provided the necessary isolation, the wealth provided the irresistible lure,
53:05
Speaker 2: and society's indifference to the lonely and the unhoused provided
53:08
Speaker 2: the perfect invisible victims.
53:10
Speaker 1: Which brings us back to the image we started with.
53:12
Speaker 1: This case completely shatters the deeply held illusion of the
53:15
Speaker 1: idyllic small town.
53:16
Speaker 2: It absolutely does.
53:17
Speaker 1: It proves that horrific violence, predatory behavior, and unspeakable cruelty...
53:23
Speaker 1: don't just happen in dark city alleys or abandoned urban warehouses.
53:27
Speaker 1: It can happen in a sprawling, multi-million dollar farmhouse right
53:31
Speaker 1: at the end of a long, beautiful, tree-lined driveway.
53:35
Speaker 2: Right, in plain sight.
53:36
Speaker 1: It can be disguised by wealth, protected by local status,
53:40
Speaker 1: and shielded by the assumptions we all make about quiet communities.
53:43
Speaker 2: And it serves as a stark mechanical reminder of our
53:47
Speaker 2: collective responsibility to those on the fringes of society.
53:50
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
53:51
Speaker 2: Kenneth County and Michael Delange were deeply vulnerable, one due
53:54
Speaker 2: to cognitive limitations, the other due to homelessness and estrangement.
53:58
Speaker 2: We saw how bureaucratic red tape, like the rigid constitutional
54:02
Speaker 2: frameworks around missing persons and adult autonomy, unintentionally protected the
54:06
Speaker 2: predator instead of the prey.
54:08
Speaker 1: It shielded her.
54:09
Speaker 2: We have to pay closer attention to the people that
54:11
Speaker 2: society structurally tends to ignore because predators are already watching
54:15
Speaker 2: them very closely, looking for the gaps in our protection.
54:18
Speaker 1: That is a profound takeaway. So as we wrap up
54:21
Speaker 1: this deep dive into the nightmare of napping, I want
54:24
Speaker 1: to leave you with one final chilling thought to mull over.
54:28
Speaker 1: Think about those hundreds of hours of audio cassettes found
54:31
Speaker 1: boxed up by the police in that ruined farmhouse. Imagine
54:34
Speaker 1: you are one of those lonely men on the other
54:36
Speaker 1: end of that chat line.
54:38
Speaker 2: A scary thought.
54:39
Speaker 1: You are sitting in a small apartment in a big city,
54:42
Speaker 1: feeling completely isolated from the world, and suddenly you hear
54:46
Speaker 1: the charming, intensely affectionate voice of the firecracker crackling through
54:50
Speaker 1: the phone. She is offering you companionship, a beautiful farm,
54:54
Speaker 1: a way out of your loneliness. What subtle, terrifying red
54:57
Speaker 1: flags might you have completely missed right before she invited
55:00
Speaker 1: you to visit her 115-acre horse farm in New Hampshire?