A 19-year-old woman arrested for allegedly killing a man she met on Craigslist has not only confessed to that crime but at least 22 other murders, claiming her first victim came when she joined at satanic cult at age 13.
In a jailhouse interview with a local newspaper over the weekend, Miranda Barbour said that Troy LaFerrara, who allegedly used used Craigslist to arrange a paid sexual encounter with Barbour, was not her first victim. Barbour was arrested along with her newly-wed husband Elytte Barbour, 22, last December in Sunbury, a small Pennsylvania town on the banks of the Susquehanna River.
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"When I hit 22, I stopped counting," Miranda Barbour told Sunbury's The Daily Item.
Barbour said her previous murders occurred in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California. She claimed most of her murders took place in Alaska, where she joined a satanic cult and began killing at age 13.
The cult's leader, whom Barbour would not identify, supposedly walked her though her first murder of a man who owed the cult leader money. After shooting the victim one time, the cult leader encouraged Barbour to take a shot.
"Then he said to me that it was my turn to shoot him. I hate guns. I don’t use guns," Barbour said. "I couldn’t do it, so he came behind me and he took his hands and put them on top of mine and we pulled the trigger. And then from there I just continued to kill."
In the interview, Barbour also told of how she was sexually molested by a relative at age 4. Her mother, Elizabeth Dean, told The Daily Item that her sister's husband was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexual abuse.
Barbour described her supposed murder spree as a sort of vigilante bent.
"I would lure these people in," she said. "I studied them. I learned them and even became their friend. I did this to people who did bad things and didn’t deserve to be here anymore."
There is no word yet on how often Barbour used Craigslist to find her alleged victims. Local police said they're working with authorities across the country, including the FBI, to investigate Barbour's claims. Law enforcement agencies have yet to comment further on the case.
Local investigators said Barbour stabbed her most recent victim, 42-year-old Troy LaFerrara, 20 times in the front seat of her car, after LaFerrara had agreed to pay $100 for sex with Barbour. Barbour's husband, who was in the back seat, allegedly sprang from his hiding spot to strangle LaFerrara with a cord.
Barbour said she lied to LaFerrara as a test, telling him she had just turned 16. LaFerrara supposedly was undeterred by Barbour's remarks.
"He told me that it was OK," Barbour said. "If he would have said no, that he wasn’t going to go through with the arrangement, I would have let him go."
In her interview, Barbour said the murder was her husband's first. As for the reason for her confession, Barbour said she feels that if she were to ever get out of jail that she would murder again and she doesn't want that to happen.
Read The Daily Item's full account of the interview with Barbour here.
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