Nineteen-year-old Miranda Barbour, already in custody in Pennsylvania on charges of murdering a man whom she met via the online classifieds website Craigslist in November, now says that she has killed dozens of people since she was 13, including numerous victims in Alaska. That's according to reporter Francis Scarcella with the Sunbury, Penn., newspaper The Daily Item, who interviewed Barbour on Friday night.
Barbour is accused of murdering 42-year-old Troy LaFerrara after meeting him online via a Craigslist "companionship" ad and agreeing to have sex with him. Barbour allegedly picked LaFerrara up at a mall on Nov. 11 while her new husband, 22-year-old Elytte Barbour, hid in the backseat. After parking the vehicle, LaFerrara was stabbed to death, and both Elytte and Miranda reportedly admitted to the murder, in which Miranda allegedly stabbed LaFerrara while Elytte wrapped a cord around the victim's neck. They then reportedly went and celebrated Elytte's birthday at a strip club after dumping LaFerrara's body.
In the recent interview, Miranda Barbour said LaFerrara was Elytte's first victim, but not hers.
"When I hit 22, I stopped counting," Miranda told the Daily Item when asked how many people she had killed. She added that the majority of those murders took place in Alaska.
She also claimed that she was a longtime Satanist.
"She said she was sexually molested at age 4 and was introduced to murder at 13, literally in the hands of a man who led her to Satanism -- beliefs that she said she held at the time of the LaFerrara homicide," Scarcella reported in The Daily Item.
Contacted by Alaska Dispatch in December about Miranda Barbour's ties to Alaska, the FBI said it was not currently investigating the young woman in Alaska. Alaska State Troopers said they had been contacted about Barbour's history in the 49th state, but it was only a brief phone call.
The Anchorage FBI office said Sunday that there was no new information to release. Troopers said any updates would be addressed "during normal business hours."
Miranda Barbour (née Dean) listed her hometown as North Pole, Alaska in her Facebook profile. She reportedly left Alaska sometime in 2011, before she turned 18.
Authorities in Pennsylvania said they were aware of Miranda Barbour's claims and were taking them seriously while working with investigators in other states. Asked why she was coming forward with this information now, after having already pleaded not guilty to the LaFerrara murder, Barbour told The Daily Item that she feels the need to be honest.
"I feel it is time to get all of this out," she told The Daily Item. "I don't care if people believe me. I just want to get it out."
Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com.