Miranda Barbour

Parties

• Miranda Barbour, 19, defendant.
• Elytte Barbour, 22, defendant and husband of Miranda Barbour.
• Troy LaFerrara, 42, victim.

Background

Miranda Barbour claimed she had an alter ego and had killed “bad people,” including those who abused children or owed money. She said her satanism controlled her murderous rages and that she had adopted an alter ego she dubbed “Super Miranda” when she killed. She also said she did not want to be executed and argued that execution was a “cruel and inhumane punishment,” and that there was no evidence she tortured the man she was accused of luring to his death with a Craigslist ad.

The offence

Police said that Elytte Barbour and Miranda Barbour lured Troy LaFerrara to his death with a Craigslist ad because they wanted to kill someone together. Sunbury police said Elytte Barbour told investigators that he hid in the back seat of the couple’s SUV as Miranda Barbour picked up LaFerrara at a mall. Elytte Barbour told police that, on his wife’s signal, he wrapped a cord around LaFerrara’s neck and restrained him while Miranda Barbour stabbed him. Police said LaFerrara was stabbed 20 times.

Miranda Barbour told police that LaFerrara was still alive and “choking and gasping for air” as she and her husband tried to find somewhere to dump his body after stabbing him 20 times.

Two competing accounts were described:

• Miranda Barbour initially told police she killed LaFerrara in self-defense after he started to grope her.
• Elytte Barbour gave police a different story, saying they conspired to kill a stranger together, and he helped hold LaFerrara down while his wife wielded the knife.

Police said Miranda Barbour advertised herself as a “companion” on Craigslist and LaFerrara responded. She arranged to pick him up on November 11 at a mall, three weeks after her marriage. Police said the victim’s body was discovered the next morning in an alley by Sunbury resident Brittany Settler.

After disposing of the victim’s body, the Barbours went to Wal-Mart to buy cleaning supplies but it “wasn’t enough.” Police said that there was “a lot of blood and she wasn’t able to get it all.” Afterward, they went to a strip club to celebrate Elytte Barbour’s 22nd birthday.

Sunbury police said the couple murdered LaFerrara the day of their three-week wedding anniversary and Elyette Barbour’s 22nd birthday.

LaFerrara had married his girlfriend of eight years, Colleen Keeney, in June 2011. The couple did not have children. According to his obituary, LaFerrara was employed as the senior resident engineer at the Lycoming County Landfill.

Investigation

• Miranda Barbour was the first to be arrested when police traced LaFerrara’s last call to her cell phone.
• Investigators said they traced the killing through evidence including the discovery that the last call received by LaFerrara’s cellphone was made from her number, according to a police affidavit.
• The affidavit said Miranda Barbour acknowledged meeting the victim in Selinsgrove, then driving with him to Sunbury, where they parked.
• The affidavit said Miranda Barbour said LaFerrara groped her and that she took a knife from between the front seats and stabbed him after he put his hand around her throat.

Police also said they would be looking into the death of a man with whom Miranda Barbour had a 1-year-old child.

Authorities said they were working with investigators from other states and the FBI about Miranda Barbour’s possible connection to other killings. A spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers said AST had contact with authorities in Pennsylvania regarding Miranda Dean Barbour, would follow up on credible leads, and that AST was not aware of any information—beyond Barbour’s comments quoted in the press—or evidence implicating Barbour with a homicide committed in Alaska.

The district attorney of Northumberland County said: “As of this date, there has been no verification of any of the information that has been the subject of media coverage regarding prior acts of the defendant, Miranda Barbour.”

Alaska law enforcement sources said they couldn’t comment on whether they had launched their own investigations into her time in Alaska until after the President’s Day weekend.

Arrest

Miranda Barbour was charged last Wednesday in LaFerrara’s death, followed by her husband on Friday. Elytte Barbour told officers before his arrest Friday night that he and Miranda had planned to kill before but their plans never worked out until last month when LaFerrara responded