Sister: Craigslist killing suspect is lying

SUNBURY, Pa. (AP) — A woman charged with her newlywed husband in the murder of a man they allegedly lured through Craigslist made up the claim that she killed more than 20 people, her sister said.

Ashley Dean told The Daily Item newspaper of Sunbury, Pa., that her sister Miranda Barbour is drawing on the escapades of television serial killer "Dexter."

"She is a master at lying," Dean told the newspaper. "She takes a lot of truths and puts the lie in the middle so when people talk to her they see all these truths and then they believe the lie."

Dean said she hasn't spoken to her sister since Barbour was arrested Dec. 3. When she heard her sister had been arrested, she assumed it was for drugs because her sister had a drug problem.

The 19-year-old Barbour was in Northumberland County court on Tuesday morning for a pretrial hearing.

Barbour is awaiting trial on charges she killed a man she allegedly lured through a Craigslist ad offering companionship for money. She and her husband, Elytte Barbour, have pleaded not guilty.

Investigators allege the young woman stabbed 42-year-old Troy LaFerrara about 20 times in her parked car as Elytte Barbour held a cord tight against LaFerrara's neck from the back seat and then dumped his body in an alley.

In a jailhouse interview with The Daily Item, Barbour admitted to LaFerrara's slaying and said she had killed at least 22 other people from Alaska to North Carolina in the last six years as part of her involvement in a satanic cult. She told the newspaper that she targeted people "who did bad things and didn't deserve to be here anymore."

Investigators say they have found no evidence to substantiate her claims about a cross-country killing spree.

Ashley Dean said Elytte Barbour loved the TV show "Dexter," and suggested that her sister was repeating its justifications for killing.

"If you listen to what she is saying, she is using descriptions from the show," Dean told The Daily Item.

In "Dexter," a Miami Police Department blood-spatter analyst secretly sought out proven killers and killed them to prevent them from finding more victims.

Dean's assertions make her at least the second relative to cast doubt on her tale. Barbour's father, Sonny Dean, told The Daily Item in February that his daughter was a heroin addict, a liar and a manipulator who "lives in a fantasy world."

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Information from: The Daily Item, http://www.dailyitem.com