(Newser) – The nation's devil-worshipers are scrambling to distance themselves from a teenage woman who claims to have killed at least 22 people as part of a satanic cult. "We have never had any contact from this woman, nor her accomplice," the head priest of the Church of Satan tells CNN. "Thorough investigation will likely demonstrate that this cult story is fiction." A spokesman for the rival Satanic Temple also says his group has no ties to 19-year-old Miranda Barbour or her husband. "I feel certain that Barbour's own relationship with any organized satanism will turn out to be vague or non-existent," he says.

The FBI and police in five states are still investigating Barbour's claim that she killed a lot of "bad people" during a six-year murder spree, reports the New York Daily News. Barbour and her husband are currently in prison in Pennsylvania, where they are accused of murdering a man they met on Craigslist with an offer of sex. In legal documents, Barbour argues that she should not face a death sentence if found guilty because "the criminal justice system is fallible, thereby subjecting inappropriate persons to the death penalty," TMZ finds. (Read more Miranda Barbour stories.)

