The story of Miranda Barbour, who turned from a victim of a pedophile into a maniac

Scientists have long proven that most people with pathological criminal tendencies are born quite ordinary. They become serial killers or rapists because of traumas suffered in childhood. A striking example is the story of American Miranda Barbour, who turned from a victim of a pedophile into a cold-blooded killer.

In 2012, 19-year-old Miranda Camilla Dean and 22-year-old Elitt Barbour officially registered their relationship. There was no wedding as such, but the newlyweds decided to mark this event with something unusual, so that it would be remembered for a long time. And they decided ... to kill a person.

The couple thought for a long time about how to carry out their plan. They did not consider themselves scumbags and did not want an innocent person to suffer. So Miranda and Elytte decided to find a “bad guy” - a person whose death, in their opinion, would benefit society. After some thought, the girl registered on the classifieds site Craigslist.

Once a simple platform for selling furniture, cars and pets, it gradually turned into a dating site where dubious characters often sought love affairs. Miranda's ad was answered by 42-year-old Troy LaFerrar. He agreed to pay $100 to meet the girl.

Miranda Barbour drove to the meeting in her car. Elytt was hiding under a blanket in the backseat, carrying a knife and a piece of TV cable. Troy, unsuspecting, got into the car. Miranda drove toward the woods, talking to the client along the way.

During the conversation, she mentioned several times that she was not yet of age. This statement did not bother LaFerrarra in the least, but it convinced the killers that they had chosen a suitable victim. Troy was more concerned about whether the girl would want to raise the price because of her age. Having chosen a secluded place, Miranda stopped the car. Later, the killers claimed that they attacked Troy when he began to rudely and obscenely harass the girl.

Elitt put a cable around the man's neck and began to strangle him. But Troy desperately resisted, and then Miranda stabbed him several times. The couple then searched the victim's pockets and took a small amount of money from his wallet. They pulled the body out of the car and dumped it in the bushes.

The couple then went to Walmart to buy wet wipes and wipe the blood off the car seats. After hiding all the evidence, they went to a restaurant where they spent the $150 they had gotten from the crime. Troy LaFerrara's body was discovered the next day. Since a phone was found in his pockets, the crime was solved while the trail was still hot.

In Troy's messenger, they found correspondence with Miranda, where they agreed to meet. The girl was detained, but she denied that she had seen the deceased. According to her, the man simply did not show up for the appointed meeting. At the same time, Miranda categorically refused to give the detectives her phone number. Later, Elitt was called in for questioning, and he repeated his wife's testimony word for word.

Returning home from the police station, Miranda unexpectedly told her child's nanny about the crime. The nanny was able to convince her to return to the police and confess. The girl described the murder in detail to investigators, but, on the advice of her lawyer, insisted that she had acted in self-defense. At the same time, she denied her husband's involvement in the incident.

But surveillance footage showed Elitt in the backseat of the car. The boy was called in for questioning again, and the investigator told him that the evidence confirmed his involvement in the crime. There was no point in denying it, so Elitt testified. He also added that he and his wife planned to continue killing pedophiles. After that, the couple was arrested.

To understand why Miranda was so determined to kill someone, it's worth looking back at her childhood. Miranda Camille Dean was born on December 14, 1994, in a small town in Alaska. The girl had congenital hip dysplasia. Because of this, she limped and couldn't run like her peers.

In the late 1990s, Miranda's mother, Elizabeth, divorced her first husband and remarried. She and her daughters, Miranda and Ashley, moved in with her new husband. The man's name was Richard, and he was raising a five-year-old daughter who was almost the same age as the girls. The stepfather seemed to be good to his stepdaughters—at least, that's how it looked from the outside.

Elizabeth worked long hours, leaving the children in the care of her new husband, whom they called "Uncle Rich." Sometimes she thought the girls were scared and didn't want to stay with their stepfather. But it wasn't until a year later that Ashley told her mother that she and her sister had been sexually abused. Elizabeth herself had experienced similar abuse as a child, so she immediately went to the police. "Uncle Rich" was sentenced to 20 years in prison, of which he served 10.

After a scandalous divorce, Elizabeth and her daughters moved to Palmer. There she remarried. At first glance, life seemed to improve - her new husband turned out to be a kind and decent man. However, at about thirteen, Miranda began to distance herself from her family. She became withdrawn, began drinking alcohol, and got involved with bad company.

Miranda's new friends turned out to be Satanists. She began dating the leader of their group, a guy named Forrest. Her mother tried to influence her daughter, took her to psychologists, but all attempts were unsuccessful. At 14, Miranda was diagnosed with a number of mental disorders: severe depression, attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

Miranda was prescribed medication, but she did not take it regularly. At 15, the girl began to disappear for several days at a time and bring suspicious individuals home. Her mother could not stand it and simply threw her daughter out. From then on, Miranda lived with friends, most of whom had problems with the law and used drugs.

At 16, Miranda became pregnant, but her boyfriend Forrest doubted his paternity. He persuaded her to have an abortion. At 17, she was pregnant again, but this time she decided to keep the baby. When her mother found out about her daughter's pregnancy, she took pity on her and allowed her to return home.

But Miranda turned out to be an ungrateful daughter. She continued to lead a wild life. And once she wrote a letter to a popular talk show, where she accused her mother of bullying. The letter remained unanswered. But Miranda had already decided to finally break with her family. She went to North Carolina to her friends Amy and Elitt Barbour.

Amy was also expecting a child, and she and Miranda quickly found common ground. But Elitt had schizophrenia and often behaved unusually. Because of this, Amy decided to break up with him, fearing for the future of her baby. After that, Miranda and Elitt began living together, and soon decided to formalize their relationship.

The young people had a lot in common: from similar diagnoses to addiction to alcohol and drugs. Both were also interested in Satanism. When Miranda turned 18, she gave birth to a daughter. The couple moved to Pennsylvania, where they believed it would be easier to find work. But Elitt was not interested in earning an honest living, and the young family constantly had financial difficulties. Nevertheless, they got married in 2012, and three weeks later they committed their first murder.

After her arrest, Miranda Barbour suddenly changed her tactics. She stopped talking about self-defense and admitted that the murder was pre-planned. Moreover, the girl said that she had committed 22 more murders over the past year. Investigators had to check each of the episodes.

None of these murders were confirmed. Miranda gave false names or the people she allegedly killed turned out to be alive. There was only one suspicious death in the girl’s circle: the father of her child was found dead in 2012. However, Miranda was thousands of miles away from the scene when he died.

On September 18, 2014, Miranda and Elytte Barbour were convicted of first-degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole. In prison, Miranda Barbour willingly talks to reporters. In 2017, she admitted that she lied about 22 murders, but could not explain why she did it.

Miranda Barbour's story makes us think about the impact of childhood trauma on personality development. Could her life have turned out differently if she had received timely help? Or is cruelty and violence a conscious choice of a person that cannot be justified by a difficult past? Share your opinion in the comments!