As Carol Sharrow barreled her maroon Honda sedan back through the gate at Goodall Park, Tim Curley jumped behind a concrete barrier to avoid getting hit. But he was close enough to the car that he recognized Sharrow, who had been a caregiver for his grandmother about 12 years ago.

“I was shocked,” said Curley, who coaches and sponsors the Curley Associates baseball team. “I had heard that she had issues, but to do something like that. She was talking to herself. She glanced over at me, and the look in her eyes, it didn’t seem like it was her. She had a blank stare.”

Carol Sharrow

Curley said Sharrow appeared to be talking and cursing to herself as she drove by. “It was like she didn’t know where she was,” he said.

Curley immediately told police on the scene that he believed it was Sharrow behind the wheel of the car that sent children scattering from the baseball field Friday night and killed 68-year-old Douglas Parkhurst of West Newfield.

This is not Sharrow’s first run-in with the law. She has a drunken driving conviction in Maine and an aggravated drunken driving conviction in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On Nov. 24, 2014, Sharrow was reported missing by family and friends, who said she had not been seen since the night before, Sanford police Detective Sgt. Matthew Jones confirmed. She was found by police less than 24 hours later in a wooded area near the high school.

Sharrow was booked into the York County Jail on a manslaughter charge at 5:20 a.m. Saturday and will be arraigned Monday, according to Cpl. Pete Turner, a supervisor at the jail. He said he did not yet know if the arraignment would be by video or if Sharrow would make a court appearance.

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Denise Bass of Sanford said she and other friends of Sharrow are in shock.

“I just can’t understand this whole thing,” Bass said. “She was a super person, inside and out. It’s just not like her.”

Bass said she considered Sharrow one of her best friends, and was the one who recommended Sharrow for her current job at Lowe’s in Sanford. They often went out dancing and singing karaoke together. “She was there for me when my parents died,” Bass said.

Bass says she had tried to set Sharrow up on dates, but Sharrow wasn’t interested.

“She said, ‘Denise, my life is just so good right now. I have a good job,’ ” Bass said, adding that Sharrow’s daughter is getting married in September and Sharrow had been helping to plan the wedding.

“She was so happy with life, and I have no idea what happened,” Bass said.

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Bass was unaware of Sharrow’s drunken driving convictions.

Curley said after Sharrow took care of his grandmother, he would run into her occasionally around town at Marden’s, where Sharrow once worked, or at Lowe’s.

“Her daughter was younger at the time,” he said. “She seemed like a good mom.”

 


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