Alleged killer attended Mat-Su schools

MAT-SU — Saying she started killing as a 13-year-old member of a Satanist cult and lost track of her body count at 22, a 19-year-old former Palmer resident is charged with murder in Pennsylvania, but claims to have killed mostly in Alaska.

Miranda Dean Barbour is accused of conspiring with her husband, 22-year-old Elytte Barbour, to lure Troy LaFerrara, 42, to his death using a Craigslist ad.

While Elytte Barbour allegedly strangled LaFerrara, Miranda Barbour allegedly stabbed him repeatedly, according to Pennsylvania media accounts.

Catherine Esary, spokesperson with the Mat-Su Borough School District, confirmed that Miranda Dean Barbour attended Colony High School and Valley Pathways as a freshman in 2009-10.

In a jailhouse interview with The Daily Item of Sunbury, Penn., Miranda Barbour claims to have started her murder spree six years ago, so many victims she “stopped counting” after 22.

Pennsylvania law enforcement officials said in the Daily Item story that they are taking the allegations seriously and investigating them.

A follow-up story in another Pennsylvania paper, the Shamokin News-Item, threw a little bit of water on Miranda Barbour’s claims.

“I am skeptical of her claims. We have been in contact with other law enforcement agencies where she has lived and haven’t received any information verifying what she said,” Northumberland County District Attorney Tony Rosini said in that account.

Initially published Saturday, the jailhouse interview with the Daily Item rocketed around the Internet over the weekend with Miranda Barbour’s claims repeated in papers from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to London, on websites for major magazines like Time and People, as well as gossip sites like TMZ.

Alaska media tended to focus on her claims that most of her murders were committed in Alaska. Media outlets seeking comment from Alaska State Troopers were told to check back in after the President’s Day holiday.