Tomas Jivanda
A woman charged with the murder of a man she and her husband lured to a meeting point after meeting him on Craigslist, has admitted to the murder and claimed she has killed over 20 other people.
Miranda Barbour, 19, of Pennsylvania said she killed at least 22 others across the US as part of her involvement in a Satanic cult.
Speaking to Pennsylvania’s Daily Item newspaper from jail, Barbour said: “When I hit 22, I stopped counting,” adding that she was coming clean now as she wanted to be honest.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Barbour and her newly-wed husband Elytte Barbour, 22, for the murder of Troy LaFerrara, 42, who they met through the classified advertisements website in November.
“He said the wrong things and then things got out of control,” she said. “I can tell you he was not supposed to be stabbed. My husband was just supposed to strangle him.”
Mr LaFerrara had met Barbour after she agreed to have sex with him for $100. She picked him up from a mall while her husband hid in the back of the car. It was the couple’s three week wedding anniversary.
Speaking to the Sunbury based newspaper by telephone after requesting the interview, Barbour said she was first involved in a murder at 13 after joining an Alaskan Satanic cult. The leader took her along to kill someone who owed him money, she claims.
“Then he said to me that it was my turn to shoot him,” she said. “I hate guns. I don’t use guns. 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.”
The majority of the killings happened in Alaska, but there were also murders in Texas, North Carolina and California, which she can “pinpoint on a map where you can find them”, she said.
Barbour told the newspaper she has no regrets for what she has done, adding that if she is released she “would do this again”.
Barbour’s mother confirmed to the Daily Item that she had been sexually abused by her uncle at the age of four. He served a 14 year sentence.
Sunbury police chief Steve Mazzeo told Reuters that investigators had contacted the FBI and police in several other states in response to the claims. It is not clear if police have any evidence that might link Miranda Barbour to killings other than Mr LaFerrara’s.
