MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Bethany Deaton from Kansas City

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Speaker 2 Hi, Crime Junkies. It's me, Britt.

Speaker 2 And on this special Thursday episode, I'm jumping in because I'm taking you to a place we actually don't go to very often, but is very near and dear to my heart, Kansas City, Missouri.

Speaker 2 And listen, I love Me Some T Swift. I mean, she inspired this whole kind of era's tour idea we're doing with these episodes, taking you through the rest of the year.

Speaker 2 But I've loved the Kansas City Chiefs long before she joined the ranks. I just love them and the city itself even more now.

Speaker 2 So today, I'm bringing you a story that only our fan club members have heard up until this point, right out of Kansas City. And buckle up because it's a doozy.

Speaker 1 Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Britt.

Speaker 1 And the story I have for you today is one that asks serious questions about culpability.

Speaker 1 Because even if at the end of this story, you believe this was a tragic case of death by suicide, it doesn't necessarily mean nothing more sinister was at play. This is the story of Bethany Deaton.

Speaker 1 Shortly after 9:30 p.m. in Kansas City, Missouri, a call comes into the Jackson County Sheriff's Department about a body that's been found out at a park near Longview Lake.

Speaker 1 Detective Penny Cole, who appears in the 48 hours episode Fall From Grace, is one of the first to arrive on the scene.

Speaker 1 According to that episode, as well as court documents for the case, she sees a tan Ford Windstar, one of those like old classic minivans, and it's parked in a spot facing the tree line of the park from the northwest corner of the lot.

Speaker 1 And when Detective Cole looks inside, she can see a woman dressed in athleisure wear in the very back third row.

Speaker 1 And she's sitting upright, propped against the window on the passenger side of the car with a white trash bag around her head tied loosely underneath her chin.

Speaker 1 And it looks like the trash bag has, I mean, she can kind of see an outline of her face, like it's been sucked into the woman's mouth as if she'd been like gasping for air in her last moments.

Speaker 1 And they don't know how long she's been in the van, but when they get inside to take a closer look at her, they can tell that her body is already in rigor. So she is long past saving.

Speaker 1 So now that life-saving measures are off the table, there's, I mean, this moment of pause. No longer like do, do, do, but instead it becomes, what do you see?

Speaker 1 You have to kind of slow everything down because you get one shot at processing a crime scene. And this is Detective Coles.

Speaker 1 So she begins to take stock of the van, and in the back near where this woman was sitting are some thank you notes.

Speaker 1 And it's strange because it almost looks like she was literally in the middle of writing them.

Speaker 2 Do we know thank you notes for what?

Speaker 1 Well, they look, at least to the detective, like thank you notes for maybe like a wedding or a bridal shower or something, but they're not fully completed, like they weren't addressed to anyone.

Speaker 1 Now in the back, along with those notes, they also find the keys to the van, a pair of glasses neatly folded up in the cup holder, and there are a a bunch of CDs from a nearby church, the International House of Prayer, but those CDs are actually, they're not in the back with them, they're in the front seat.

Speaker 1 And there's something else that they find. A full bottle of painkiller/slash sleep aid pills, basically like a generic Tylenol PM.

Speaker 1 And then there's a second bottle that is completely empty in one of the cup holders. And there's a receipt for the pills from Walmart dated for that day, which is October 30th, 2012.

Speaker 1 And among all of that, there's also a note. Here, why don't you read it, Britt? I found it quoted in an article on Fox 4KC.

Speaker 2 My name is Bethany Deaton. I chose this evil thing.
I did it because I wouldn't be a real person. And what is the point of living if it is too late for that?

Speaker 2 I wish I had chosen differently a long time ago. I knew it all and refused to listen.
Maybe Jesus will still save me.

Speaker 2 So this note is obviously typed up here in this article, but is it handwritten when they find it?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it is. I don't know if it's in the same handwriting as the notes that were in the back or what,

Speaker 1 but it is handwritten. And a nursing ID from the nearby Menorah Medical Center is on the floorboard of the van and it's more proof that the woman in the back is Bethany Deaton.

Speaker 1 So once she's identified, they're able to find her next of kin, a husband who detectives find out she just married a little over two months ago.

Speaker 1 When they speak to him, his name's Tyler, by the way, they don't get the reaction that they're expecting from a newlywed or honestly anyone who's like in love married engaged whatever like there's no shock or huge reaction from him he's kind of calm which I mean listen you never know how you're gonna react to this kind of news we we say it all the time but here's the thing you never know how you're gonna react doesn't mean the reaction is wrong but That also doesn't mean that how you react isn't going to give investigators feelings about you.

Speaker 1 Right. And Tyler is giving Detective Cole bad vibes.
But maybe that's because Tyler isn't too shocked by this news.

Speaker 1 Not saying he's not devastated, but Tyler tells them that about six weeks into their 10-week marriage, Bethany started experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Speaker 1 Tyler states in that 48 hours episode, which was key to gathering this research, that Bethany just quickly became more and more depressed.

Speaker 1 And she would talk about how her soul was ruined and she was gonna go to hell.

Speaker 1 And what's more alarming is that just one week before Bethany's death, she spent time in protective custody in a hospital because she said she was gonna drink windshield wipered fluid.

Speaker 1 And the part of that story that seemed to upset Tyler the most as he's kind of retelling this was that she was only at that hospital or in that custody for two days before they released her, which was only five days before she died.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow. So most signs that they have at this point are pointing in the same direction, that Bethany took her own life.

Speaker 1 But after Tyler is notified, he tries telling her parents, but he can't can't reach them. And her parents eventually hear the news from their friends in Texas.
They learn that their daughter has died.

Speaker 1 And based on her initial autopsy, the Jackson County ME's office has ruled her death a suicide. That's what they learn.

Speaker 1 And they're in complete shock because they say they weren't aware of any problems in her life.

Speaker 2 They didn't know that she was just hospitalized or anything?

Speaker 1 No, no. And that's because Tyler says he never told them because he says Bethany didn't want him to, which I'm sure causes tension between Tyler and her parents.

Speaker 1 Tension that was maybe already there a little bit, but I'll get into that in a second.

Speaker 1 On November 6th, a funeral service is held in Kansas City and Bethany's parents come to Kansas City for that funeral.

Speaker 1 And after, they have her body sent back to her hometown of Arlington, Texas, where they have a second funeral. That's where they plan to ultimately lay her to rest, near her friends and family.

Speaker 1 But that plan is actually interrupted because just as Bethany is about to be buried in the Arlington Cemetery, her mom Carol gets a call from detectives.

Speaker 1 They need Bethany's body back in Kansas City for a second autopsy. And this needs to happen ASAP because someone just confessed to murdering her.

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Speaker 1 Just before that phone call had come in to Carol, a young man was brought to the police station on November 9th by a group of church leaders from the International House of Prayer.

Speaker 1 They told police that this man had something important he needed to tell them. And what came pouring out of his mouth stunned police.
He told them that he killed Bethany.

Speaker 1 He said he drugged her with an antipsychotic medication called Seraquil, but she was still awake, struggling when he held a trash bag over her head to suffocate her.

Speaker 1 And as detectives continue questioning this man, they can't help but notice that he's like speaking slowly and cautiously, like he's worried about slipping up and saying the wrong thing.

Speaker 1 Colonel Kenney, another investigator featured on 48 Hours, feels it's almost like he's like needing confirmation before sharing more, but that doesn't stop this man from laying it all out for them.

Speaker 1 He says he killed Bethany before 10 in the morning, and his reasoning for killing her is that he was afraid she was going to tell her therapist what was happening to her in her own home.

Speaker 1 Apparently, Bethany shared a house not only with her new husband, but also with other male roommates.

Speaker 1 And this guy says that he and some of the other men in the house had supposedly been drugging Bethany with an antipsychotic medication and sexually assaulting her for months. What? Don't believe him?

Speaker 1 He says there's proof. He tells detectives that all of the sexual assaults were recorded on an iPad.

Speaker 1 And if that wasn't sick enough, the men who assaulted her, he says, wrote poems about what they were feeling or thinking about those assaults. And all of those poems are on the iPad too.

Speaker 2 Where is her husband when all this is happening?

Speaker 1 Well, orchestrating it all, allegedly.

Speaker 2 Is he the one coming forward?

Speaker 1 No. So, the person in front of police is this man named Micah.

Speaker 1 He is one of the men who lives in the house or lived in the house with Bethany and Tyler, and someone who, before that day in the police station, would have called himself one of Bethany's closest friends.

Speaker 2 So, they're all these really good friends, all living together, but also her husband's telling them to drug and assault her.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry, what? It's super fed up. Only made more fed up when Micah tells police that Tyler gave him the orders to kill Bethany before she could talk about what was happening.

Speaker 2 Why is all this coming forward now? I mean, this is like a week after Bethany's death.

Speaker 1 Right. So remember,

Speaker 1 he is brought in by members of the church. So apparently he had given them his full confession in like some kind of meeting after, like in the days or in that week after her death.

Speaker 1 And then it had to have been a week because they say that as soon as they got his confession, they immediately brought him in.

Speaker 2 Okay, I have so many questions, but go on.

Speaker 1 And so do police. And as they slowly start unraveling this tangled web, they find that there was so much more to this church group and even a group within this church group than meets the eye.

Speaker 1 You see, they learned that Bethany was part of a religious group that called themselves the community.

Speaker 1 And the more they learn about Tyler and the community, the more convoluted things become because the community was formed at Southwestern University, this small liberal arts college with a Methodist affiliation.

Speaker 1 And it was in Georgetown, Texas. Reporting for the Kansas City Star claims that Tyler was this charismatic, charming, outspoken guy.

Speaker 1 And he started recruiting people to join him in his pursuit of a deeper relationship with God. And in doing that, he kind of quickly becomes the leader of the community.

Speaker 1 And it's said that he even led the group in trying to perform miracles, like full-on Jesus miracles, Brett. This dude was like fully delusional.

Speaker 1 Like one time Tyler tried to make a blind woman see and then another time he tried to get someone with paraplegia to stand out of their wheelchair.

Speaker 2 So I'm getting some weird feelings about this, Ashley.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we know this brand of evangelicalism, if you will.

Speaker 2 Yeah, pretty well. A lot of people ask us about how we grew up because we reference it here and there.

Speaker 1 Kind of like this. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So according to that 48 hours episode, he apparently told his group that God told him they were the chosen ones to show the rest of the world what it looked like to be radically Christian.

Speaker 2 So Tyler's a wannabe cult leader.

Speaker 1 Well, that's how I define it. But things only become more intense after Tyler went to a national convention in Kansas City put on by the International House of Prayer.
And that was in 2007.

Speaker 1 So the International House of Prayer, which goes by IHOP, I am not kidding, is a pretty big organization in Kansas City at the time.

Speaker 1 And they bring a bunch of students for their ministry school, IHOPU, like thousands of people together. And they all come to worship in what they have this like 24-hour prayer center.

Speaker 1 And as you'd expect with these kinds of institutions, Tyler's not the only one who's been having conversations with God.

Speaker 1 According to reporting from Jeff Tees for Rolling Stone, IHOP was dreamed up in 1983 when the founder Mike Bickel was instructed by God to, quote, establish 24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David, end quote.

Speaker 1 So their website actually offers kind of a timeline showing how IHOP moved from worshiping in old trailers to running operations out of a strip mall in Kansas City as a place for people to experience, quote, euphoric worship and song.

Speaker 1 So basically, Mike's goal was to make sure that everyone had access to passionate intimacy with the Lord.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be completely honest here. I know people who have gone to IHOP.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Trips to like visit and gone to the ministry schools or ministry schools like it. Yeah.
And it's a really intense environment, incredibly intense, incredibly insular, I think is a good way to say it.

Speaker 1 You can get lost in it. Like I, I mean, again, growing up in it, I remember thinking that

Speaker 1 we were, it was like, we were the majority, right?

Speaker 2 It was the way.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was like the only way. And you're like, and the few people who didn't see the same, I mean, it's just wild.

Speaker 1 And you and I actually had a moment this like past weekend where every once in a while I have these moments where I'm like, oh my God, when people talk about church or Christianity or whatever, I forget that even like the brand of Christianity we grew up in was very specific and again, intense and insular.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And I mean, again, I don't want to get too sidetracked.

Speaker 1 in that, but this is the world that we kind of grew up in. And it's a very all-consuming, I think is the word.

Speaker 1 So, and we were kind of going into this just so you kind of set the tone for Bethany and this, like this group, when you are in it, you don't see life outside of it.

Speaker 1 Like your whole world becomes this. And even if you were to leave, you don't, you don't leave.
You know what I mean? Like there is no other world outside of the church.

Speaker 2 I wouldn't say if you leave, you have nothing because it is everything.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So anyways, to go back to IHOP.
So Mike starts this church. He thinks that God needs constant worship.
And I hop like doing that at IHOP was going to invoke the second coming.

Speaker 1 He puts it this way, like IHOP is basically creating, quote, God's end times army out of young people who are like especially attuned to the will of the Lord.

Speaker 2 So, okay, so this is like what's happening at IHOP, but the community is within IHOP or like

Speaker 1 almost like a cult within a cult. Yeah, that's how I see it.

Speaker 1 And thanks to a very detailed article by Jeff Teets for Rolling Stone, which I've already mentioned, we're able to really kind of dissect the elements of these two groups that make them fall into the cult category.

Speaker 1 So anyway, so Tyler goes off to to this convention. So they're like the community is not within IHOP yet.
Tyler's got the community at his college. Tyler goes to this convention at IHOP.

Speaker 1 He comes back kind of like fully indoctrinated into IHOP's mission. And he gets everyone else in the community believing that the end times were near, like the signs are everywhere.

Speaker 1 Again, when you talk about how he grew up, like, I didn't think I'd make it to 30. Like Jesus was coming back and like, don't bother putting anything in your savings account.

Speaker 1 So Tyler's like, listen, people are having visions. Angels were telling the group that fire was going to rain down on the campus and take off masks of the unbelievers.
Like she was wild.

Speaker 1 And Tyler, again, the like the leader of all of this, he was telling people he was even having marriage prophecies.

Speaker 1 So he would start matching people up to date, but not based on who liked who or who's compatible. It was like completely.
random.

Speaker 2 I was going to say, truth be told, I used the God card growing up, but this seems more intense than that.

Speaker 1 Way more intense than that. Like to use the God card for yourself.
Like you're not telling other people that they have to be together. A thousand percent.

Speaker 1 And again, Tyler's not just suggesting these things. They're looking to him as their religious leader.

Speaker 1 And so he's even like forbidding people to be near each other if he didn't approve of their relationship or see them together in his prophecies.

Speaker 1 And like, I don't even know if it's worth noting, but obviously all of these matches were heterosexual. Like Tyler was was, you know, old school Christian beliefs.

Speaker 1 And that's because according to the Kansas City Star, Tyler and his group subscribe to the brand of Christianity that believes being gay is a sin and needs to be quote unquote fixed.

Speaker 1 However, Tyler's stringent rules were a bit confusing because Tyler encouraged extended, affectionate touching between men

Speaker 1 in platonic relationships, he said, of course.

Speaker 1 But nothing in the source material says this was encouraged between the women. So I actually don't know if it was was just the men or what.

Speaker 1 According to the Rolling Stone article, Tyler told the men in his group that they should, quote, hug, cuddle, and give each other massages.

Speaker 1 And if they didn't want to or were uncomfortable with it, it was because they had a hardened heart. And if they had a hardened heart, that means they weren't fully embracing all of God's love.

Speaker 2 And I mean, all that unaccountable control is another telltale sign that you're being manipulated.

Speaker 1 No one person should have like this kind of control control over life. Unless you are a like minor and it is your parent looking out for you.

Speaker 1 Nobody should be deciding what you do and when and with who.

Speaker 1 And like as an adult, a religious leader should be guiding you in your spiritual practices and not dictating every decision and aspect of your life. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, Tyler's controlling ways only become worse after graduating in 2009 because that's when he decides to move to Kansas City for an internship at IHOP.

Speaker 1 So it's not just him. Tyler and Bethany, along with other members of the group.
All his recruits. Yeah, they had all graduated, all his recruits.

Speaker 1 They moved from Texas to Missouri to study and to pray together.

Speaker 2 So how many people are we talking here?

Speaker 1 I mean, there's around 20 people that are all in the community. They're all going together.
And once everyone had arrived, they formed basically this men's only house and a women's only house.

Speaker 2 Is this like as part of the church or is this still separate from IHOP?

Speaker 1 This is still separate.

Speaker 1 I mean, they're all going to i hop but but the living situation is not like church sanctioned okay they basically just again they're still kind of operating as they're like community within a community and they rented two houses i assume near the church but they didn't just live together the community did everything together they had almost all of their meals together they put their money together to pay for things i don't know what they're paying for but i mean whatever tyler wants to pay for obviously probably

Speaker 1 and again i'm not kidding when i say tyler was making all the decisions.

Speaker 1 One former member of the group came forward in that 48 hours doc that I mentioned and said, Tyler was telling people what to wear, when to eat.

Speaker 1 And if you didn't follow his rules, there was punishment.

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Speaker 1 One example of Tyler's punishment was he took the door off the room of a young woman who started closing herself off from the group.

Speaker 1 And maybe the door thing doesn't sound too serious, but seriously strange for grown adults to be doing stuff like that.

Speaker 1 Again, if we're talking about a kid in their parents' home and they're not listening and that's a form of punishment, sure.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 like, again, you're, you're like, you're a grown adult making your own money that you're giving to this man. And because you want to start separating, because maybe you don't agree with things.

Speaker 2 Well, and like me and my parents are currently both adults, but one thing I can't get past is this is their peer.

Speaker 1 This would be like you taking the door off of my bedroom, Ashley.

Speaker 2 Like they're all peers.

Speaker 1 They're all peers. And also my mom's not taking my door off my house that I pay for, you know, even now.
Right. And certainly not my peer.
But that's the thing.

Speaker 1 They didn't, Tyler was not calling himself a peer.

Speaker 2 He was the leader, right?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 He was asserting complete control.

Speaker 1 Another example a former member gave was, I guess, when he questioned Tyler's control and authority one time, because, you know, obviously he's seeing that like maybe he's feeling like maybe something isn't right.

Speaker 1 And this is what they'll do.

Speaker 1 Like if somebody is in this position of power and it's an unhealthy one you should be able to ask questions people doing the right thing will accept the question have nothing to hide and answer the question but instead he basically shunned this person for eight months because that was his way of not only punishing that person but showing other people Again, this is all consuming.

Speaker 1 If you, you have no life beyond this, you can't even fathom getting kicked out. So don't ask questions if you want to keep your friends, your family, your life.

Speaker 2 You're either in or you're out. You're for or against.
There is black and white, nothing else. Yeah.

Speaker 1 This one member too, the one that he kicked out for eight months, they even renamed him. They would call him Bobby, which was not his freaking name.
And they outlawed his clothing.

Speaker 1 Tyler assigned a discipline team that essentially escorted this guy everywhere, making sure that no one talked to him, that he wasn't allowed to talk to anyone else. They made him eat on the floor.

Speaker 1 So, I mean, he was like, he was making an example of this person.

Speaker 1 Now, they also had accountability meetings for the men and the women separately in their own houses.

Speaker 1 And Tyler basically wanted to make sure that no one was showing feelings for or desiring anyone else, though this mostly pertained to the men.

Speaker 1 And we, of course, can't go into the dynamics of this cult-like behavior without talking about their infatuation with the end times.

Speaker 1 So Tyler had this group collecting months' worth of food, and they enlisted the help of an alleged expert in invasions who helped train them to be able to fight against whatever happened after the Antichrist arrived.

Speaker 1 And then there was the supposed over-the-top worshiping going on within Tyler's group and at IHOP.

Speaker 1 According to the Rolling Stone article, the former member says that the Holy Spirit was responsible for causing head convulsions and making people scream and roll around, quote, writhing like demons.

Speaker 2 A phrase that I've heard before at probably

Speaker 2 too young of an age.

Speaker 1 I know, know, Britt, this, I mean, this episode is, it's hard to get through because I feel like sometimes I hear myself, I literally, as I'm going, I'm, I'm like, I hear myself saying this stuff out loud and I'm like, oh my God, this is probably sounding so wild to some people.

Speaker 2 And this is. And the fact that it's not as wild to us as it probably could or should be

Speaker 2 is kind of a lot to take in right now.

Speaker 1 I know, I know. I am.
I know how we grew up was, was not the norm, but you can, it's easy to forget sometimes. It's, well, and forget's not the right word, like push it down and black it out

Speaker 1 is, I think, better.

Speaker 2 This episode's like pretty triggering, but or have moved on and past it and through it, and like to just have to revisit it in this way is

Speaker 1 interesting. Interesting, yeah.
So, anyways, during this time, it was alleged that members shouldn't talk to family members who were holding them back from fully pursuing their faith.

Speaker 1 Again, red freaking flag.

Speaker 2 Making the outside scary, Anybody who's not in is against us.

Speaker 1 All of it. Yep.
And truly isolating people from their support system.

Speaker 1 So because of this, Bethany started talking to the people in her life, her parents, her sibling, her friends, those outside of the community, less and less and less.

Speaker 1 And this is where I want to jump back into Bethany and Tyler's relationship. So Bethany had moved to Kansas City with Tyler for that internship in 2009.

Speaker 1 And in February, on Valentine's Day, actually of 2012, Tyler and Bethany announced their engagement. And then not long after, just in August, they were married.

Speaker 1 But their marriage seemed doomed from the start. According to Tyler, the lack of intimacy took a toll on Bethany.
But Tyler wasn't the only one to notice the change in her.

Speaker 1 Her roommates at the women's house started noticing it too. And they tell detectives that after her honeymoon, she just seemed off.

Speaker 1 Because once they got back from Costa Rica, Bethany moved into the men's house to live live with Tyler in his bedroom that he had in the basement of the men's house.

Speaker 1 But according to the women in the group, after about like two weeks of living in the men's house, Bethany actually started coming back and she would spend a few nights a week at the women's house because she told them she needed space and she felt too controlled over there, but she never was sharing any specific details with them.

Speaker 2 And this is allegedly when the sexual assault started, right?

Speaker 1 Right. And the women in the group said that she seemed depressed.
And Tyler's solution to this, he told everyone in the group to ignore Bethany and her solemn mood.

Speaker 1 He told the community that he'd done everything he could to help her see that God loved her. And at this point, he basically said she wasn't going to change.
So what's the point?

Speaker 2 And I'm sure that ice out was not helpful whatsoever.

Speaker 2 For Bethany, I mean, you're already isolating yourself from your friends and family, people who love you outside of the community, and now the community that's supposed to love you and take care of you.

Speaker 1 Well, because they're like be happy or nothing yeah yeah and because it's your fault and that's i mean again i could go on and on like yeah in in the church we grew up like mental health wasn't even a thing it's just like well then you're obviously not christian enough you're not praying enough you're not loving god enough because otherwise you would be happy and that's that's not how mental health works Now, the timeline on all of this is a bit murky, but it seems like after finding all of these things out about the community and IHOP, police finally bring in Tyler for questioning.

Speaker 1 But apparently, I don't think he's aware of how much much they know. Like he has no clue about Micah's confession.

Speaker 1 So when they ask him about his role in Bethany's murder, I mean, he denies everything.

Speaker 1 He reiterates that she was depressed leading up to her death, even tells them that on October 29th, which would have been the day before her death, he had led this prayer session where he told people that they had to choose between the community or their own selfishness.

Speaker 1 And Tyler says that during that prayer session, Bethany looked just shook. He said she was curled up against the back wall with just this mortified look on her face.

Speaker 2 So he's not admitting to anything that Micah had said happened.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 But again, he doesn't even know about the confession. So again, his story's not lining up, but I don't think he's asked directly, like point by point.

Speaker 2 Okay, but why does he think he's at the police station? I mean, he knows he's being investigated for murder, right?

Speaker 1 Well, in that 48 hours episode, he thought that there was some kind of law in Missouri at the time that allowed you to be responsible for someone's suicide.

Speaker 1 So I think that's what he was like thinking when they're initially talking to him, but he was shocked when he, while he's there at the station, watched Micah walk by in handcuffs.

Speaker 2 All this should be pretty easy to suss out, though, right? Like regardless of what Tyler's saying, everything is on this iPad.

Speaker 1 True. And the pastor at IHOP at the time was Shelly Hunley.
She's the one that actually Micah had confessed to. Shelly tells detectives that Micah's iPad is at his apartment.

Speaker 1 I don't know if he's like living somewhere else at the time, or if this apartment is the one that the community members share.

Speaker 1 I don't know, but either way, she's like, yep, it should be in a blue backpack. Like, go get the iPad.
That's where all the evidence is. So, after this, detectives go and search the place.

Speaker 1 They look through the apartment, hoping to find evidence that backs up Micah's claims. They collect computers, presumably his iPad.

Speaker 1 But spoiler alert: there was never any evidence of any sexual assault on Micah's iPad. No videos, no poems, nothing.

Speaker 2 So that story is all made up?

Speaker 1 I don't think they know what to believe at that point, because there's no evidence of a murder, but there was always stuff that bothered Detective Cole.

Speaker 1 So there's enough to like keep her asking questions. Because I guess when they had removed the bag from Bethany's head, her eyes were wide and her mouth was gaping.

Speaker 1 And Detective Cole didn't think that's what she should have looked like if it was a death by suicide. I assume like from past experiences.

Speaker 1 And again, like the sh they're hearing about Tyler and the community seems so wild that it feels like Micah's story could be true.

Speaker 1 So they still try to keep talking to other members to see if there is any more truth to Micah's story.

Speaker 1 And they hear about some pretty messed up things happening, like more than just your standard cult-like behavior.

Speaker 1 Members come forward, mostly men, and say that Tyler would use his power as the leader to initiate sexual relations with the men in the group and that he would would tell them that it was all about having a religious experience.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry, you said this was like a different cult-like experience. All cults become sex cults.
That's like a common knowledge thing.

Speaker 1 Why is that? But, but yeah, basically, this is like becoming a sex cult. And detectives learned that Tyler seemed to have been struggling with his sexuality for a while.

Speaker 1 And I actually want to use Tyler's own words here to describe his experience: quote, to me, being gay meant you couldn't love God.

Speaker 1 End quote. So because of this, those closest to him in Bethany seemed to observe that together, they thought they could change his sexuality if they tried, i.e.
prayed hard enough.

Speaker 1 So that's allegedly why he married Bethany. They were trying to convince themselves that he was straight and that he was in love with her.

Speaker 1 But of course, that didn't work because being gay is not a choice. So even though Bethany and Tyler were married, they never consummated their marriage.

Speaker 1 According to to Tyler, they never had sex the entire time they were married.

Speaker 2 Was he having sex with the men in the house then?

Speaker 1 Depends on who you ask. To Tyler, he said he never had sex with the men in the house, but other men did come forward claiming that there had been sexual relationships.

Speaker 1 And honestly, this isn't even something we'd normally get into. Like, I don't want to talk about the nuts and bolts and details of someone's sex life.

Speaker 1 But according to the Austin American Statesman, Tyler used sexual activity to control and manipulate members of the community.

Speaker 1 And these sexual relations deeply impacted his relationship with Bethany to the detriment of her mental health. But the men shared more with detectives, more than just the sexual relations details.

Speaker 1 They said that Tyler seemed angry in the weeks leading up to Bethany's death. And one person says that Tyler told them about a dream he had three days after Bethany's body was discovered.

Speaker 1 He said that in his dream, he killed Bethany by suffocating her.

Speaker 2 Hmm, sounds like a guilty conscience. Sure, maybe.

Speaker 1 But he didn't seem too torn up about his wife's death.

Speaker 1 Because others came forward and said that shortly after Bethany's death, Tyler told everyone to, quote, stay upbeat and press into the Lord because this community is bigger than one person.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry, sir, your wife just died.

Speaker 2 A member of your community just died. Like, if it's that important to you.

Speaker 1 I know. So

Speaker 1 you kind of understand why. They're hearing all of this.

Speaker 1 You understand maybe why without physical proof of the assaults Micah talked about, the Jackson County prosecutors still want to move forward with charges against Micah for first-degree murder.

Speaker 1 And at this point, Tyler is also under investigation. And after Micah's charges are public, IHOP releases a statement on November 12th.

Speaker 1 According to Fox 4 Casey, they basically say that they were shocked when the sheriff's office told them Micah was charged with murder.

Speaker 2 How are they shocked they brought him in after he confessed to them?

Speaker 1 They're shocked, and they condemn Tyler's group, calling it a, quote, independent, close-knit religious group that operated under the veil of secrecy, end quote.

Speaker 1 Then they go on to say that the community has always been independent and they're working with local authorities to ensure the group's secrecy and disturbing religious practices are exposed.

Speaker 1 And they end by labeling the crime horrific, saying that they're cooperating and they're willing to help with the ongoing investigation into Bethany's death.

Speaker 1 So, I mean, the church is in like full-on damage control mode right now

Speaker 1 and detectives are still in full investigative mode. So on November 14th, they asked for more witnesses to come forward with any information about Bethany's death.

Speaker 1 I think they're putting this plea out to the public to see if they can get literally anything else because what they're working with behind the scenes of their investigation actually isn't matching up with Micah's confession, more than just not having the iPad.

Speaker 1 Like all the forensic evidence that they sent off for testing isn't aligning with his story.

Speaker 1 Like he told detectives that Bethany was drugged with Seroquil when he killed her, but tests show that there wasn't any Seroquil in her system.

Speaker 1 They also had fingerprints and DNA samples collected from Bethany's van, and nothing useful comes from that either.

Speaker 1 Teeth actually does a great job of laying out all the contradictions in the Rolling Stone article. Like, Micah said that he killed Bethany in the front seat of the van.

Speaker 1 We know that she's found in the third row in the back. He says he killed her before 10 a.m., but surveillance footage says that- Hold up.

Speaker 2 Surveillance footage? How is this the first time I'm hearing about this?

Speaker 1 Okay, so I wish I had an answer for you, but those details aren't in any of the reporting I read. I don't know where the camera is.
I don't know exactly what it captured.

Speaker 1 Aside from showing when Bethany may be pulled into the park after 10 a.m., and they know that Micah was in class at the time. Like there's attendance records to prove it.
So I don't know.

Speaker 1 Like he also said that there were multiple people at the scene. The investigation disproves that.

Speaker 1 Micah said he killed Bethany so that she wouldn't tell her therapist about the sexual assaults that had been happening. Again, sexual assaults they can't prove happened.

Speaker 1 And then when they go to talk to the counselor, that counselor says that they didn't observe any type of behavior that even indicated Bethany had been assaulted.

Speaker 1 And iPad aside of like assaults, detectives found Bethany's journal and emails, and they indicate that she was a virgin when she died.

Speaker 2 What did the autopsy show?

Speaker 1 Well, I don't know the results of the first one. And it's not like there's an exam to determine if she ever had sex, but the second one at this point in the story hadn't even happened yet.

Speaker 1 So There's some back and forth where the prosecution asks to delay the trial because they want more time, which the judge grants.

Speaker 1 And then Micah's defense attorneys release a statement saying there's no cause to believe Micah was involved in Bethany's death and there's no evidence that they're aware of that indicated a crime had even occurred.

Speaker 1 They say that Bethany died by suicide and Micah had nothing to do with it.

Speaker 1 Reporting for a Fox 4KC says the defense attorneys claim Micah's, quote, fictional account was bizarre, nonsensical, and most importantly, untrue.

Speaker 1 His defense attorneys also say that Micah's statements were only given because he was under, quote, extreme psychological pressures. And they end by proclaiming his innocence.

Speaker 2 I appreciate all those facts, but what you're saying is he completely recants his statement.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, or his attorneys do on his behalf.
Right. And they're saying basically he only confessed because the leaders of IHOP performed, wait for it, Brett, an exorcism on him.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So like I said earlier, Micah gave his original confession in front of IHOP leader Shelly Hundley and some others. But this wasn't just any old normal meeting.

Speaker 1 No, this was a forced meeting set up by IHOP leaders to break up Tyler's demonic prayer group.

Speaker 1 So according to that Rolling Stone, I know according to that Rolling Stone article, the leaders told Micah that Tyler was using demons to control him.

Speaker 1 And they basically said that it was the community's fault that Bethany died by suicide. And this meeting that they had with him lasted a long time.

Speaker 1 And apparently Micah said that people were praying in tongues and crying while they collapsed on the floor.

Speaker 1 And he says that he was writhing around in a chair while three men shouted for demons to leave his body in the name of Jesus. And it was during this that Micah had a complete breakdown.

Speaker 1 Which is where Micah confessed that among many things, he used witchcraft to induce Bethany's death. And it only gets worse from there.

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Speaker 1 Micah was then asked again by an IHOP leader if he was responsible for Bethany's death. And he said that he killed her.
And that's when they took him into the station.

Speaker 1 But according to Micah, even when he was at the station, an IHOP leader, who he didn't name, kept pushing him on Bethany's death.

Speaker 1 And Micah said that he, quote, might not be Micah Moore, but Tyler Deaton.

Speaker 1 And then he also told the leader that he was a serial killer and that one of his victims was someone who they knew was still alive. Like he's, he's literally making no sense.

Speaker 2 How the hell did detectives take any of his statement seriously?

Speaker 1 I mean, I mean, well, again, like take the statement, but it's kind of shocking that it got this far. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Because clearly he's a man, the man in front of you is like suffering from some kind of mental health break or coercion or like this isn't, it's not lining up.

Speaker 1 And what detectives didn't find out until later, so the piece that they didn't have initially was that Micah had a history of psychotic breaks, especially related to demonic possession.

Speaker 1 And one of them actually happened when he was back at college at Southwestern University. And this wasn't an isolated event.

Speaker 1 Micah found solace in Tyler's group because he felt like he was often attacked by demons. And members of the community would pray for him to like help defend him.

Speaker 1 Micah was described by some of his past friends at college as patient and thoughtful, but he was also easily influenced.

Speaker 2 Which is exactly how these cults lure in followers.

Speaker 2 Does IHOP have anything to say about this?

Speaker 1 Of course they do. They immediately release a statement rejecting the accusation of performing exorcisms during the meetings that Micah's referring to.
That's it. No further details.

Speaker 1 They're just denying that an exorcism occurred and basically denying like the claim that Micah's defense attorneys have put out.

Speaker 1 But just because IHOP's denying this exorcism doesn't mean that people in the community, not the the community, but like Kansas City community, doesn't mean that they're not starting to question like, what's actually going on within this church?

Speaker 1 According to an article in the New York Times, discussions were happening around the church's hyper focus on the power of prophecy and miracles and the end times.

Speaker 1 And it seems like IHOP itself has created this breeding ground for internal cults like Tyler's group to form within the church.

Speaker 1 However, the IHOP pastor and founder Mike gave a pretty convincing sermon when they were under all this scrutiny, warning his church about the dangers and signs of falling into a cult.

Speaker 1 But the former church members pushed back saying that IHOP itself had cult-like characteristics.

Speaker 2 I was gonna say, honestly, been there, done that. Like, I've heard that sermon before, and it just reiterates that you're in the right cult to you.

Speaker 1 Like, that's. Oh, yeah.
Okay. Now, despite all this public scrutiny, members of Tyler's group, the community, still think Micah did it.

Speaker 1 They don't accept his retraction, and it was specifically Micah's wording in his confession. He said that Tyler told him to kill Bethany because he, quote, knew he had it in him to do it.

Speaker 1 And that statement right there was very familiar to the community members.

Speaker 1 Because one former member has said that's what Tyler would say to people in the group when he wanted them to do something major for him.

Speaker 1 And while some former members are mad at Micah, it's the fact that Tyler hasn't been charged with anything that really kind of shocks them, right?

Speaker 1 Because if they believe Micah did it, then they believe Tyler told him to.

Speaker 1 So they come forward and say that after hearing about Bethany's death and that it might have been murder, they immediately assumed Tyler did it.

Speaker 1 And they say it's because he only sought how he could control people.

Speaker 1 So somehow still, a grand jury ends up indicting Micah on first degree murder charges. And shortly after, Micah pleads not guilty.

Speaker 1 But in this time, more and more information is found and they do more investigating. and results start coming back that show without a doubt that Micah's story can't be true.

Speaker 2 As if there was even any question at this point. I know.

Speaker 1 Like all the forensic evidence that was sent off for FBI analysis like shows Micah's DNA cannot be included as the contributor to any of the items found.

Speaker 1 And that goodbye note from the car, they verify that it was in Bethany's handwriting.

Speaker 1 They even find, I told you there was that Walmart receipt, they find video footage of her buying the sleep aid herself.

Speaker 1 So now that all of the forensic evidence and the results are all back, it doesn't seem like Micah murdered Bethany or that anyone murdered her.

Speaker 1 It seems to both the prosecution and the defense that Micah was an impressionable young man who was lured into a false confession, which is what Micah's defense tells the court.

Speaker 1 And weeks before his trial is set to begin, Micah's defense files a motion to have his confession excluded from his trial.

Speaker 1 They say that he was coerced by this exorcism done by the International House of Prayer Leaders. And they're like, listen, all you're moving forward with like in this trial is his confession.

Speaker 1 And we have proof that none of the physical evidence backs that up. And because of corpus delecti, you can't move forward.
And

Speaker 2 can you outline corpus delecti for us?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was literally just going to say, if you're not familiar with it, it's this idea that even if you have a confession, you cannot secure a conviction just based on that. You have to also

Speaker 1 somehow, in any other way, prove that that's actually what happened. Corpus Delecti is like corroborating evidence.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So they're saying, listen, first of all, he's not even like, he retracted his confession, but even if he were standing by it, even if he was saying I did it, you can't prove it.

Speaker 1 And by the law, that means this should not move forward.

Speaker 1 So while this is going on, and this is what's kind of strange to me, like in the midst of this legal back and forth, After the second autopsy, the medical examiner changed Bethany's manner of death from suicide to undetermined.

Speaker 1 So, if the prosecution was looking for more backup, this potentially furthers the idea that maybe she was murdered.

Speaker 1 Again, it's not homicide, but it's it at least opens the door more than the first one, which ruled her death as suicide. Right.

Speaker 1 But change of ruling or not, it doesn't really change the court's opinion because without Micah's confession and without the body of proof to back up a previous confession, the prosecution has nothing.

Speaker 1 So, eventually, the murder charges against Micah are dropped. Now that was 10 years ago.
And according to the 48 Hours doc, it appears that Micah blames IHOP for his false confession.

Speaker 1 He posted online that he regrets following Tyler and says that the IHOP leaders were not prophets, they were manipulators. And I don't think he's too far off.

Speaker 1 Because in October 2023, the founder of IHOP, Mike, came under some serious fire when he got accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl in the early 80s when he was 25.

Speaker 1 And then another woman came forward saying that he abused her when she was 19 and he was in his 40s. And that happened in the mid to late 90s.

Speaker 1 And in December 2023, he makes a post admitting that he, quote, engaged in inappropriate behavior.

Speaker 2 Notably, stopping short of admitting he sexually assaulted a minor. Right.

Speaker 1 But the damage was done and IHOP decided to formally separate from him. But just because they kicked him out doesn't mean their share of controversy was over.

Speaker 1 Because they've long been accused of being cultish, like we talked about earlier.

Speaker 1 And actually, just in April of this year, it was announced that IHOPU and the IHOP In Kansas City are planning to officially close.

Speaker 2 Officially close as in... eventually rebrand and keep doing exactly what they've been doing for decades.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's about making money. Like people will find ways to take their stuff somewhere else.
Yeah. And I mean, honestly, I think that's what a lot of people fear.

Speaker 1 But if we go back to Tyler, he denies that he ever led a cult. He said Micah had mental health issues and his confession was spurred on by IHOP leaders.

Speaker 2 Which it was.

Speaker 1 Right. But in what happened to Bethany, he has responsibility too.
Tyler actually agreed to be interviewed in the 48 Hours episode that aired nearly nine years ago.

Speaker 1 And I find that kind of fascinating.

Speaker 1 And when they ask him if he thinks he's responsible for Bethany's death, he says that he thinks he has some responsibility for what happened, but that there were a lot of other factors that contributed to her death as well.

Speaker 1 It seems now that Tyler has been through therapy for his control issues, and he has finally come to terms with his sexuality. In the doc, he says, quote, if I had really been able to

Speaker 1 get through that somehow, I think Bethany would be alive, end quote.

Speaker 1 Despite all of this information, Bethany's family is torn, or was torn, at least as of 2015, when they were last interviewed for 48 hours.

Speaker 1 At that time, her dad, Eric, believed Bethany just didn't get the help she needed and did die by suicide. But her mom, Carol, at the time, was still having a hard time.

Speaker 1 She believed her daughter had been murdered. And I think it's mostly because she just had so many questions still.
And police still had those questions back then too.

Speaker 1 Back in 2015, Detective Cole and Ben Kenney said that they were still actively investigating the circumstances surrounding Bethany's death.

Speaker 1 And as far as we know, her manner of death is still listed as undetermined.

Speaker 1 And listen, I know cults are a bit of a nuanced topic, but we wouldn't do any justice for Bethany or her story if we didn't talk about how cults could gather recruits and control lives.

Speaker 1 And they can target vulnerable people, people like Micah, who I didn't touch on this much, but he had a history of substance use.

Speaker 1 As it's stated in one of the academic journals, I found cult leaders can also target people that come from low socioeconomic conditions or those with familial problems.

Speaker 1 And once they find their targets, they might do everything to get their recruits to stay, which leads to love bombing and making them feel like they finally have this place where they belong.

Speaker 1 I mean, it is completely rosy at the beginning.

Speaker 1 And to top it all off, cult leaders typically take control, which is exactly what Tyler did with his marriage prophecies and his stringent rules for the community.

Speaker 1 And it can be hard to even realize that you're in the middle of something so controlling and manipulative because it happens slowly. It's like boiling a frog.
Like it's one thing at a time.

Speaker 1 You don't like sign a waiver and then all of a sudden like they take everything from you. It's it's this.
And then if you trust me, you would do this.

Speaker 1 And if you want to prove your loyalty, you do this.

Speaker 2 Well, and like, don't you want to contribute to the community? Give us your money, pool our money. Why don't you just let us take care of this and this?

Speaker 2 And then all of a sudden, you're being told what to wear. You're being told when to eat, when you can sleep, who you can sleep with.
It's, it's so slippery and slow, but conniving.

Speaker 1 You say what to wear. And I think like, again, the picture that immediately comes to my mind is like everyone in these like white robes.
And that's not it.

Speaker 2 It's, we couldn't wear tank tops growing up.

Speaker 1 No, we had to like measure all of our shorts. We had to like, you couldn't show this because like, God forbid, you tempt the boys.

Speaker 2 T-shirts over swimsuits.

Speaker 1 Oh my gosh. Yeah.
And it's so wild.

Speaker 1 I want to tell you about one more moment I had recently that like, again, I, I, I constantly throughout my adult life keep having these like, oh, like, oh my gosh, moments.

Speaker 1 What I thought was normal just isn't normal.

Speaker 1 And I was doing a, uh, moderating a panel on forced marriage when I was in New York with this amazing group of people who had been forced into marriages in different ways.

Speaker 1 And it seemed like such a far-off thing. Like, oh, they're part of these communities I've never experienced.
They are from another country.

Speaker 1 And what they were trying to emphasize is, no, this is happening here. And I was like, oh my gosh, like, I've never seen anything like that up close.

Speaker 1 And one of the examples they gave is they were like, you know, in a community, like forced marriage is also when you get pregnant as a child, like a teenager, less than that, like you get pregnant and.

Speaker 1 you're basically forced into marriage because you're supposed to be married to have a baby. And I was like, I had this moment of like, oh my God,

Speaker 1 if I would have gotten pregnant as a teenager, as a kid, like

Speaker 1 I would have been expected to get married.

Speaker 2 Absolutely. 1000%.

Speaker 1 And so it's these little things of just kind of reframing, it's not far off. And these cults like can, they also can exist.

Speaker 1 Again, the community within the community, they can exist within something that is okay and good and fine, but like you have to look for these red flags where your,

Speaker 1 your own will, your own.

Speaker 2 You're losing your autonomy. Yes.

Speaker 1 And when that is being taken away, it should be every red flag to you to ask questions.

Speaker 1 And one of the things, if you find yourself already in it, it can feel impossible to leave, but you can always leave.

Speaker 1 So while the evidence reportedly doesn't point to Bethany being murdered, we do have to reflect on how she got to where she was.

Speaker 1 And I believe certain people within the community played some part in her depression-like symptoms that Bethany was experiencing or the environment in which she felt like she couldn't get the appropriate help for it.

Speaker 1 Using religion to manipulate young minds is sadly not new. And we want to make others aware of the dangers of these organizations.
Again, when they're bad, what can happen?

Speaker 1 We're going to leave some resources in our blog posts if you feel that you might be involved in restrictive religious organization.

Speaker 1 As tragic and convoluted as Bethany's story is, suicide remains at the forefront of her mysterious death.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, one study found that intimate partner problems, which also seem to be a reoccurring theme in Bethany and Tyler's relationship, those were the reason for 20% of deaths by suicide between 2003 and 2020.

Speaker 1 And according to the CDC, suicide was one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. in 2021.

Speaker 1 So it's important for you or anyone you know who is thinking about suicide to be aware that emotional support can be reached by calling or texting the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988 or by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.

Speaker 1 Britt, I don't know about you, but that one was hard to get through.

Speaker 2 I honestly, I cannot wait to go to therapy after this.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 yeah, that was, you can find the source material on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com.

Speaker 2 And you can follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast.

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