When Jordan LaBarre told her parents she wanted to leave her home state of Massachusetts, they told her she needed to get a bachelor’s degree and “we’ll talk again.” 

LaBarre earned a degree in history from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and set her sights on Breckenridge. Several of her friends did the same, but when the time came to make the move, only LaBarre followed through.

“Some of those people decided that they were going to go to Delta, Colorado,” Joann Shugrue, LaBarre’s mother, said. “Some people decided that they weren’t going to go (to Colorado) at all, but she had her mind set, so she went by herself.”

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LaBarre, who was killed in Blue River on July 7, was confident and independent, her parents said. If she decided to do something, she would follow through, like when her parents told her to find a job and housing in Breckenridge before making the move. 

Having worked as a snowboard instructor at Vermont’s Mount Snow in college, LaBarre applied to be an instructor at Breckenridge Ski Resort.

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“She got the job,” Joann Shugrue said. “Then they put her in the lottery for housing, and she waited, and she finally got the OK. That was all she needed. October 2015, she packed her car and drove to Colorado.”

Timothy Shugrue, LaBarre’s stepfather, said she had a love for Boston sports franchises. Four months after she moved to Colorado, her New England Patriots played in Denver in the AFC Championship Game. Timothy Shugrue bought her a ticket, and she went alone.

“She sat in the upper sections all by herself,” Timothy Shugrue said. “There’s all these people around, Denver Broncos fans, and she’s wearing a Tom Brady jersey. That’s the kind of person she was.”

LaBarre drove two hours to Denver, tailgated with strangers in the parking lot before the game and sent her parents photos of her adventure, Timothy Shugrue said. She often went to football, baseball and hockey games when her Boston teams were in town, he added.

Her confident and independent personality developed long before her move to Colorado, LaBarre’s parents said. The family lived in Washington, Massachusetts, when LaBarre was young, but around high school, she decided she wanted to move to the more heavily populated Pittsfield to be closer to her friends.

“She found a listing book, and she located a house in Pittsfield,” Timothy Shugrue said. “She found everything that she’d basically want. She got us to go take a look at it, and we fell in love with it.”

The family bought their Pittsfield home in October 2009 and moved in by December, Timothy Shugrue said. Their old home sold in a week, despite a weak housing market at the time.

“It was just meant to be,” Timothy Shugrue said, “and she did it.”

LaBarre’s parents said she was active and loved the outdoors. In Massachusetts, she did judo and played softball, basketball and golf. Timothy Shugrue said LaBarre fell in love with golf after he and his wife took her out on a course one day.

“(LaBarre) became an excellent golfer and played for the varsity team in high school,” Timothy Shugrue said. “I know she took her clubs up there, and she liked to golf in Colorado.”

Her parents also said LaBarre loved to hike 14ers in Colorado and “was a hell of a snowboarder,” even though she, her brother and stepsister all first learned to ski.

“They all went off and snowboarded, much to our chagrin,” Timothy Shugrue said.

Driven by her Catholic faith, her parents said, LaBarre was community-oriented and cared for others. She went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and to Florida after a hurricane there to build homes with Habitat for Humanity.

“She was on the ladders, putting up two-by-fours and building the walls,” Timothy Shugrue said. “She did a lot of stuff like that that was above and beyond.”

Lincoln, LaBarre’s dog, got its name from President Abraham Lincoln when she adopted him six years ago. Joann Shugrue said she was worried when LaBarre decided to get a dog because she lived with roommates in Breckenridge.

“I said, ‘Oh, are you sure about that?'” Joann Shugrue said. “She said, ‘Yeah, I am.'”

LaBarre adopted Lincoln, who is now with her parents in Massachusetts, from a shelter in Denver. She also picked out her parents’ last dog online after the one she grew up with passed away.

“She found a good one, that’s for sure,” Joann Shugrue said. “She has a knack. … She makes good choices. I trusted her as a human and as a responsible adult.”

While she was close with her whole family, LaBarre had a special bond with her mother, who said three weeks after her death that this was the longest she had gone without speaking to her daughter.

“It’s been really hard not to, you know, not to text her, or not to just call her because I feel like it, or to have her text me, ‘Hi, mom!'” Joann Shugrue said. “I just love that part of my day.”

LaBarre and her siblings were close in age, with gaps of about 18 months separating them, and in their relationship, talking often, even after LaBarre moved away, and always “busting each other’s chops,” Timothy Shugrue said.

“We have a very close family,” Timothy Shugrue said. “She was the one that sort of kept everything together and made everybody laugh.”

Joann and Timothy Shugrue said LaBarre was a happy person who made others happy as well. Her stepfather said he will miss her “infectious” laugh the most. Her mother said she was special and “the ultimate cool chick.”

“She was the best child that anybody could ever want,” Timothy Shugrue said.

While she was known for her humor, LaBarre’s parents said she had a more serious side as well. Joann Shugrue said her daughter liked poetry, and after buying Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Gmorning, Gnight!” poetry book, she sent a copy to her mother so they could read it together.

“I still have the note she sent me with the book, and she said, ‘So far I like it, and I think you’d like it too,” Joann Shugrue said. “One quote from the book is on the back of the mass card that we had for her … funeral.”

The serious, reflective side of LaBarre made her accountable, responsible, compassionate and a great friend, her parents said. She had no shortage of friends in Breckenridge, they added, and they considered her friends in Colorado to be her family as well.

From their visits to Breckenridge, the Shegrues thought of Summit County as a small, tight-knit community. They expressed gratitude for those who knew LaBarre and have reached out to them or celebrated her in some way since her death.

Alan Bullock, the owner of Ollie’s Pub & Grub in Breckenridge, organized a celebration of life for LaBarre, who worked at his restaurant.

“Alan was very kind,” Joann Shugrue said. “He actually called and asked permission if he could (host the event), and I said, ‘of course.’ It was such a horrible, tragic event, and people needed that.”

The Shugrues said the Breckenridge friends of LaBarre they have met have been kind to them, and they know they are hurting “probably as much as we are.”

“This was the place for her to be, because the community was so good to her,” Timothy Shugrue said. “We don’t regret (her moving there) at all.”

A GoFundMe raising money to help LaBarre’s family cover costs related to “bring(ing) Jordan home and lay her to rest with dignity and love” has raised over $31,000. Remaining funds will be donated to organizations that work to prevent domestic violence, the fundraiser’s description states.