Dedham traveler reflects on hitchhiker’s demeanor

DEDHAM – Roland Labbe might not help any more hitchhikers.

“I don’t know. I’m still debating that one,” Labbe said Tuesday. “It’s a rough one to call. It makes me nervous. I have helped out quite a few people like that. I know it sucks walking, especially when you’re stuck in the middle of a storm like that … I’ll probably be a little more observant next time.”

It’s been a jittery few days for Labbe since police on Monday charged the hitchhiker he picked up on Interstate 95 in Lincoln late Sunday night with murdering a 20-year-old coffee shop supervisor just a few hours before Labbe spotted him standing alongside the highway.

News that police found the body of Erin Sperrey of Presque Isle on the back seat or floor of the snowbound car Christopher Shumway had abandoned makes Labbe and his family very uneasy.

Labbe’s fiancee, Amy Gray, said she got a good look inside the front seat area of the car, which Sperrey owned, and didn’t see anything suspicious, although it was at least 50 feet away.

Guilt. Disbelief. Suspicion. Sadness. Bewilderment. Horror. Labbe said he and his family have been touched by all those emotions over the past few days. Labbe didn’t get to bed until about 6 a.m. Tuesday, he said, because he couldn’t stop thinking about Sperrey and Shumway, who identified himself only as Chris during their ride from Lincoln to Bangor.

“It’s really strange, eerie, because he was just calm, cool and collected,” Labbe said. “I can’t believe it because I want to give the kid the benefit of the doubt.”

The incident culminated what has been a strange, stressful year for Labbe, he said. A family member committed suicide this summer; he’s moving from Dedham to Presque Isle in midwinter; he’s an unemployed carpenter; and he’s soon to marry, he said.

And now this.

“It just shows that you never know,” he said.