commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Jill Burke of the Alaska Dispatch writes:
The sensational headlines surrounding accused Craigslist killer Miranda Barbour portray a deeply troubled young woman. Her claims to be a practicing Satanist and that she killed not just once, but upwards of 22 times, gained immediate attention as people in four states where the supposed victims resided — including Alaska — began to question whether the newlywed teen mom’s story could be true.
I don’t believe that Barbour will turn out to be the “greatest” female serial killer of modern times, though it is of course possible that she has killed a few other unlucky individuals. What is frustrating is that there may be no good way to determine if there is any validity to her outrageous claims.
But as Jill Burke points out, despite Barbour’s grandiose claims, there is one aspect of her life story that is not in dispute — the sexual abuse she suffered as a toddler. Ms. Burke writes eloquently:
Barbour’s family suffered the same violent betrayal that too many families across Alaska experience: child sexual abuse carried out by someone they trust.
This, and the failed rehabilitation of her abuser offer a poignant reminder about the challenges in Alaska of keeping families and children safe. In this two-part story, we take a look at what Miranda went through, and how experiences like hers set children up for a life of challenge and hardship.
Uncle Rick
When Miranda Dean Barbour was almost 3 years old, her aunt and uncle, Melissa and Richard “Uncle Rick” Fernandez, moved into their neighborhood in North Pole, Alaska.
Miranda, who was the youngest girl in the Dean family, often spent weekends at her aunt and uncle’s house. “Uncle Rick”, of course, encouraged the sleepovers. Only later did the horrible realization that Uncle Rick was violating poor Miranda in every way possible surface. Miranda began complaining frequently that her “down there” parts hurt. The horrible truth was suddenly unavoidable; Miranda’s complaints were evidence of the multiple appalling attacks she had been subjected to. As one of the prosecutors put it, she had been “sodomized in every way imaginable.” It was one of the most physically extreme abuse cases that the trial judge had ever seen, and it happened to a girl whom the judge described as “hardly more than” a baby.
Strangely, Uncle Rick’s atrocities were apparently not the first time a member of the extended family had violated a child. Jill Burke writes:
It devastated a family that had already made great effort to overcome a similar violation of trust and safety within the generations of their extended family. To Miranda’s mother’s dismay, it was happening again.
And it appeared it was happening at the hand of a calculating man who knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it.
Fun with My Sister’s Kids
As part of the unfolding horror, while searching Uncle Rick’s personal belongings, the investigators, in addition to finding the obligatory pornography, discovered a sexual abuse manual titled Fun With My Sister’s Kids. According to a prosecutor, this atrocity exhibition of a book “encouraged uncles, fathers and grandfathers to engage in unclassified felony sex acts with their young nieces, daughters and granddaughters.”
The prosecutor stated further that the book offers a “stark reflection of an incestuous pedophile’s state of mind,” and “repeatedly portrays girls from twelve years old to infancy as enjoying and even craving full blown sexual relations with their uncles, fathers, and grandfathers.”
I know what you’re thinking – that the people responsible for this should be shot. Yet manuals of this sort are quite obtainable. Where there’s a will there’s a way and unfortunately, pedophiles seem to have plenty of determination.
Miranda’s family members pleaded for the toughest possible sentence for Fernandez, yet indicated that they had forgiven Fernandez despite the devastation he’d caused.
To me, this level of forgiveness is incomprehensible. It just is. There are certain lines that once crossed can never be retraced.
The judge sentenced Fernandez, who had his own children to worry about, to 19 years in prison. Furthermore, Fernandez had had to overcome his own family hardships, complete with its own history of sexual abuse.
The judge gave Fernandez a break, suspending 5 years of the 19-year term, thus enabling him to begin rebuilding his life while still a relatively young man, while simultaneously giving the justice system leverage to hold over his head to try to keep him on the straight and narrow upon his release from custody.
It didn’t work and Fernandez is now serving a 40 year prison term in a pornography case of which he must serve 20 years. He’s scheduled for release in 2035.
By the time Fernandez was first released from prison in 2007, Miranda was an immensely troubled teenager experiencing all the horrors that we as parents hope our daughters will never experience. It was a world of heroin, predators and prostitution, where, she claims, she became involved in a satanic cult where sex rituals controlled her world.
After endless travails which included bouncing in and out of mental health treatment programs and getting pregnant, Miranda eventually landed in North Carolina, where she lived near her mother, had her baby and met her future husband and co-defendant, Elytte Barbour. In North Carolina, the new mother worked as a grocery store cashier before moving to Pennsylvania with Elyette, which is where the newlywed couple is said to have lured Troy LaFerrara to his death by stabbing and strangling him after he got into their car.
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I cannot speak for anyone else, but I feel considerable sympathy for Miranda Barbour. Like the real female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, Miranda never had a chance. I would like to think that her parents tried their best to help her heal from the trauma she experienced at the hands of Richard Fernandez but it is discouraging to hear her father Sonny Dean speak of her so disparagingly while stating, among other things, that she was “just a heroin junkie looking for attention”.
I believe that our system will ultimately sentence Miranda to life in prison, probably with no chance of parole. She has stated that she needs to be locked up or else she will kill again, which despite whatever stories she has made up, could very well be true.
Meanwhile, Jill Burke writes that the rate of child sexual abuse in Alaska is six times the national average according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Not necessarily the safest place to raise the kids…
Click here to view our recent posts on the Miranda Barbour case:
Pennsylvania Newlyweds Thrill-Kill Craigslist Victim: “It Was One of Our Goals”