Teen on trial ‘killed men who do bad things’

A TEENAGE girl has claimed she killed at least 22 people after being urged to murder by a Satanic cult.

Barbours claims to have killed 22 people are being investigated. Picture: AP

Miranda Barbour said she started at the age of 13 by shooting a man in an alley and “stopped counting” once she hit 22 people. She said in an interview from her cell: “I killed men who do bad things.”

Barbour, 19, and her husband Elytte Barbour, 22, are in custody in Pennsylvania awaiting trial for the alleged murder of Troy LaFerrara, 42, in November.

They met him through a fake advert she put online at classified advertisements website Craigslist.

She allegedly knifed Mr LaFerrara 20 times as Elytte tried to strangle him from behind.

Barbour, who was raised in North Pole, Alaska, claimed she was inducted into the Satanist cult as a girl and sexually molested at the age of four.

Reports in the United States have likened her claimed motivation to that of the main character in the hit television series Dexter. In the show, Dexter ­Morgan, played by Michael C Hall, is a forensics expert who finds an outlet for his homicidal tendencies by executing those he deems guilty of wrong­doing.

Speaking to a newspaper from her cell, Barbour said that at 13 she was forced to shoot a man dead by one of the satanic group’s leaders. She continued killing for six years.

Her first victim was somebody who owed the cult leader money. After firing one bullet into him, the leader told her it was “my turn to shoot him”.

She told the newspaper: “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.”

She refused to reveal who her victims were, but said she could “pinpoint on a map where you can find them”. Police believe the murders happened mostly in Alaska but also in Texas, North Carolina and California.

Barbour said: “I would lure these people in. 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.”

Should her claims prove to be true – they are being investigated by the FBI – it will make Barbour one of the most prolific serial killers ever to be caught.

Barbour said that she spoke out now because it was “time for me to be honest”.

Sunbury police Chief Steve Mazzeo said it was taking Barbour’s claims seriously and had been in touch with law enforcement agencies across the US.