MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Bethany Deaton from Kansas City
53:02 Share

High crime junkies, it's me bit in on this special thursday episode i'm jumping in because I take you to a place we actually don't go to very often what is very near and dear to my heart, he is a city misery and listen, I love me some swift. I mean, SHE inspired this whole kind of errors to our idea we're doing with these episodes. Take me through the rest of the year.

But i've loved the cancer city cheese long before he joined the rings. I just love them in the city itself even more now. So today i'm bringing you a story that only our van club members have heard up until this point right out of canada. And buckle b because it's a duca high .

crime junkie on your host. Ashly flowers .

and i'm bread.

And the story I have for you today is one that asks serious questions about culture city, because even if at the end of the story you believe this was a case of death by suicide, IT doesn't necessarily mean nothing more. Sensor was at play. This is the story of bEthany deein.

Shortly after nine thirty P M in kansas city, missouri, a call comes into the Jackson and county share of department about a body that's been found out at a park near long view lake detected penny coal, who appears in the forty eight hours episode fall from Grace, is one of the first to arrive on the scene.

According to that episode, as well as court documents for the case, he sees a ten ford windstar, one of those like old classic minivans, and it's parked in a spot facing the tree line of the part from the northwest corner of a lot. And when detective school looks inside, SHE can see a woman dressed in athletes, a war in the very back third row, and she's sitting up, right propped against the window on the passenger side of a car with a White trash back around her head, tied loosely underneath her chin. And IT looks like the trash bag has, I mean, you can kind of seen out like her face, like it's been sucked into the woman's mouth, as if SHE been like gasping for air in her last moments.

And they don't know how long she's been in novia, but when they get inside to take a closer look at her, they can tell that her body is already in rigor. So she's long past saving. So now that lifesaving measures are off the table, there's, I mean, this moment of pause no longer like do, do, do, but instead IT becomes what you see.

You have to kind of slow everything down because you get one shot at processing a crime scene. And this is detective s so he begins to take stock of the van. And in the back, near where this woman was sitting are some thank you note, and IT strange, because IT almost looks like he was literally in the middle of riding them.

And do we know.

thinking for what will they look, at least to the detective, like, thank you notes for maybe like a wedding or bridge shower or something, but they are not fully complete, like they weren't addressed anyone 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 bunch of cds from a nearby church, the international house of prayer, but those cds are actually, they're not in the back with, they are in the front sea.

And there's something else that they find, a full bottle of pain killer slash sleep bed pills, basically like a generic thailand all pm, 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 warmer dated for that day, which is october third, twenty twelve, and among all of that there. So a note here, why don't you read a bit? I ve found a quoted an article on fox 4K。 C.

My name is bEthany deepen. 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? I wish I had chosen differently a long time ago. I knew at all and refuse to listen. Maybe jesus will still save me. So this one is obviously typed up here in this article, but is IT hand written when they find IT?

Yeah IT is. I don't know if it's in the same handwriting as the notes that were in the back or what, but IT is handwritten and a nursing ID from the nearby minora medical center is on the floor board of the van and it's more proof that the woman in the back is bEthany deemed so when she's identify, they're able to find her next of kin.

A husband who actives find out he is just married a little over two months ago when they speak to him, his, his name, tayler. By the way, they don't get the react that they're expecting from a newlywed or honest 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 am. Listen, you.

you never know how you're gonna react to this kind of news .

we say all the time. But here's the thing you you never know. Hire gona react doesn't mean the reaction is wrong. That also doesn't mean that how you react isn't going to give investigators feelings about you. And Tyler is giving detective call bad vives.

But maybe that's because Taylor isn't too shocked by this news, not saying he's not devastated, but Taylor tells them that about six weeks into their ten week marriage, bEthany started experiencing super thoughts. Tyler states in the forty eight hours episode, which was key to gathering this research, that bEthany just quickly became more and more depressed and he would talk about how her soul was ruined and he was gonna to hell. And what's more is that just one week before bath and he's death, SHE spent time in protective custody in a hospital because he said he was gna drink when SHE wiped fluid.

And the part of that story that seemed to upset Taylor the most, as he's kind of retelling this, was that he was only at that hospital in that custody for two days before they released her, which was only five days before he died. Or most signs that they have at this point are pointing in the same direction that bEthany took her own life. But after Taylor is notified, he tries telling her parents, but he get reached them, and her parents eventually hear the news from their friends in taxi.

They learned that their daughter has died. And based on her initial autopsy, Jackson county ams office has ruled her death a suicide. That's what they learn. And they're in complete shock because they say they weren't aware of any problems in her life.

They didn't know that he was just hospitalized or anything.

No, no. And not 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. Tension that was maybe already there a little bit, but i'll get into that in a second. On november, six of funeral service is held in kansas city.

And beth, these parents come to kansas city for that funeral, and after they have her body sent back to her hometown of our lington taxes, where they have a second funeral, that's where they plan to ultimately lay her to rest near her friends and family. But that plane is actually erupted because just as bEthany is about to be buried in the arlington cemetery, her mom, Carol gets a call from detectives. They need bEthany SE body back in kansas city for a second autopsy.

And this needs to happen. A S A P, because someone just confessed to murdering her. Just before that phone call had come in to Carol, a Young man was brought to the police station on november night by a group of church leaders from the international house of prayer.

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. He said he drug her with an anti psychotic medication called seroquel, but he was still awake, struggling when he held the crash bag over her head to suffering her.

And as detectives continue questioning this man and they can't help but notice that he's like speaking slowly and cautious ously like he's worried about slipping up and saying the wrong thing, coronal Kenny, another investigator feature on forty eight 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. He says he killed bEthany before ten in the morning. And his reasoning for killing her is that he was afraid he was gone to tell her therapies what was happening to her in her own home, apparently bet. And he shared a house not only with her new husband, but also with other male roommates. And this guy says that he and some of the other men in the house had supposedly been drugging bathroom with any anti psychotic medication A N sexually assaulting her for months why don't believe him? He says there's proof, he told detective that all of the sexual assaults were recorded on an ipad and if that wasn't sick enough, the men who assaulted her, he says, rope homes about what they were feeling, were thinking about those assault and all of those poems are on the ipad two.

Where is her husband when all .

this is happening? Well, orchestrating IT all allegedly.

Is he the one coming forward?

no. So the person in front of police is this man named mika. He is one of the men who lived in the house or lived in the house with bathie Tyler, and someone who, before that day in the police station, would have called himself one of bEthany is closest friends.

So there are all these really good friends all living together, but also her husband's telling them to drug and assault her. I'm very White.

It's super. Dup only made more dup when michels police that Tyler gave him the orders to kill bath any before he could talk about what was happening.

Why is all this coming forward? now? I mean, this is like a week afterbirth .

thin's death right so remember um 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 IT in a days or in that week after her death. And then I had a ba week because they say that as soon as they got his confession, they immediately brought him in.

Okay, I have so many questions by go on.

And so do police. And as they slowly start unraveling tangled web, they find that there was so much more to this church group, and even a group within this church group then meets the eye. You see, they learn that bEthany was part of a religious group that called themselves the community.

And the more they learn about Tyler and the community, the more convoluted things become. Because the community was formed at southwestern university, the small liberal arts college, with a method affiliation, and I was in Georgetown, texas. Reporting for the kansas city star claims that Tyler was this charismatic, charming, outspoken guy, and he started recruiting people to join him in his pursuit of a deeper relationship with god.

And in doing that, he kind of quick becomes the leader of the community. And IT said that haven LED the group in trying to perform miracles, like, full on jesus miracles bread. This dude was like, fully delusional. Like one time kyl's tried to make a blind woman see. And then another time, he tried to get someone with per poesia to stand out of their wheelchair.

So I am getting some weird feelings about this. Actually.

we know this brand of events. M, if you will.

Yeah, pretty well. A lot of people ask us about how we grew up because we reference IT .

here and there kind like this. yeah. So accordingly, that forty eight 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 radical.

Christ, so tired of want to be a called later.

Well, that's how I define IT. But things only become more intense after Taylor went to a national convention in kansas city, put on by the international house of prayer that was in two thousand seven, to the international house prayer, which goes by, I hop, I am not kidding, is a pretty big organization in kenza city at the time. And they bring a bunch of students for their ministry school. I hope you like thousands of people together, and they all come to worship in what they have, this, like twenty four hour prayer center. And as you'd expect with these kinds of institutions, Tylers not the only one who's been having conversations with god. According to reporting from jeff tees for rolling stone, I hope was dreamed up in one nine hundred and eighty three when the founder, mike bo, was instructed by god to quote, established twenty four hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle, David, and quote, so their website, I actually offers kind of a time mine showing how I hot move from worshipping in old trailers to running Operations out of a strict molko the city as a place for people to experience, quote, euphoric worship and song. So basically, mix goal was to make sure that everyone had .

access to passionate intimacy with ord. No people who have gone to to like visit and going 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 that get lost in IT like i'm growing up and I remember thinking that and IT was like we were the majority. I was the way yeah .

I .

was like the only way and you're like in the few few people who didn't see the same. I mean, it's just wild and you and I actually had a moment like past weekend where every once in know why I have these moments my oh my god, when people talk about church or Christianity or whatever, I forget that even like the brand of Christians we grew .

up in IT was very specific and again, intense.

And yeah and I mean, again, I don't want to get two sidetrack 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 so and we were kind of going into this just so you can set the tone for bEthany and this like this group, when you are in IT, you don't see life outside of IT like your whole world becomes this. And even if you were to leave, don't leave, you know. I mean, like there is no other world outside of the church.

I would say if you leave, you have nothing.

because IT is everything. So anyways, to go back to, I hope so, might start this church. He thinks that god needs constant. And I hop like, doing that at I hop was gonna invoke the second coming. He puts IT this way. Like I hop is basically creating, quote, gods and times army out of Young people who are like, especially a tune to the will of the lord. So, okay.

so this is like, what's happening, I hope. But the community is within I hop. Or like.

yes.

I almost like a cold, a cult.

yeah. That's how I see yet. IT means to a very detailed article by jeff teeth for rolling stone body mention, we're able to really kind of dissect the elements of these two groups that make them fall into the cold category.

So, so Tyler goes off to this convention. So they're like, the community is not within, I hope, yet. Taylor got the community at his college. Tyler goes to this convention at eyehole. He comes back kind of like fully inductor ated in the ihop mission.

And he gets everyone else in the community believing that the n times were near like the signs are everywhere you talk about how we grew up. Like I didn't think i'd make IT to thirty. Like jesus is coming back.

And like, don't bother putting anything in your savings account. So tilers like less that people are having visions. Angels were telling the group that fire was going to rain down on the campus and take off mass of the unbeliever s like, shoes, wild and Tyler again.

Then they like the leader of all of this. He was telling people he was even having marriage proved acy. So he would start matching people up today, but not based on who like to or who is compatible. IT was a completely randomly.

I just be told I use the god card growing up. But this seems more intense than that.

a way more intense than that. Like to use the god card for yourself. You're not telling other people that they have to be together thousand percent. And again, I just suggesting these things.

They are looking to him as their religious leader 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 prophets. And like, I don't know with worth knowing, but obviously all of these matches were had resection ual like tighter old school, cristian believes. And that's because, according to the kansas city star, Tyler in his group subscribed to the brain of Christian entity that believes being gay is a sin and needs to be fixed.

However, Taylor stringent rules were a bit confusing because Tyler encouraged extended affection, ate touching between men in platonic relationships. He said, of course, but nothing in the source material says this was encouraged between the women. So I actually don't know that was just the men or why, according to the rolling stone article, Tyler told, demanding his group, that they should quote, hug, cuddle and give each other massages. And if they didn't want to, or we're uncomfortable with IT IT was because they had a hard and heart. And if they had a hard and heart, that means they weren't fully embracing all of god's love.

And I mean, all that unaccountable control is another tel tele sign that you're being .

manipulated. No one person should have like this kind of control over like unless you are here, you like minor and IT is your parent looking out for you? Nobody should be deciding what you do and went and with who.

And like, as an adult, a religious leader should be guiding you in your practices and not dictating every decision and aspect of your life. Yeah, now tilers controlling ways only become worse after graduating in two thousand nine, because that's when he decided to move to kansas city for an internship at ihop. So it's not just him.

Tyler and bEthany, along with other members of the group, all his recruits, yet that they had all graduated, all his recruits. They move from texas to missouri. To study and to pray together.

So how many people are we talking here?

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

Is this like as part of the church? Or is this still separate from.

I hope this is still separate me. They're going to, I have. But the living situation is not like church sanctioned OK.

They basically just again, they're still kind of Operating as their 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. And again, i'm not kidding when I say Taylor was making all the decisions. One former member of the group came forward in at forty hours dog that I mention and said Taylor was telling people what to wear, when to eat, and if you didn't follow his rules, there was punishment.

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. And maybe the doorway doesn't sound too serious, but seriously strange for grown adults to be doing stuff like that. Again, talking about a kid in their parent, tom, and they're not listening and that's a former punishment but tightly like again, you 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 agree with things.

Me and my parents are currently both adults. But one thing I can get past is this is their peer. This be like you taking the door off of my bedroom. Actually, like there all peers.

they're all peers. And also, my mom is not taking my door off my house that I pay for, you know, even now, right? And certainly not my peers. But that's the thing that Tyler .

was not calling himself appear.

He was a starting complete control. Another example of former member gave was, I guess, when he questioned tiger control in author one time. Obviously, he's seeing that like maybe he's feeling like maybe something isn't right.

This is what they'll do, like if somebody is in this position of power and it's an unhealthy one. You show people to ask questions. People doing the right thing will .

accept the question.

Nothing to answer the question, but instead he basically shut this person for eight months, because that was his way of not only puni shing that person, but showing other people. Again, this is all consuming. If you you have no life beyond this, you can even find them getting kicked out. So don't ask questions.

If you want to keep your friends, your family, your life, you either in or you're or gust, there is block White.

nothing else. Yeah, this one member to the one that he kicked out for eight months, they even renne ed him. They would call him bobbi, which was not his forgan name, and the outlaw his clothing.

Tyler assigned a discipline team that essentially escorted this guy everywhere, making sure that no one talked in, that he isn't allowed to talk to anyone else. They made him eat on the floor. So I think he was like, he was making an example of this person.

Now they also had accountability meetings for the men and the women separately in their own houses. And Tyler basically wanted to make sure that no one we're showing feelings for or desire anyone else, though this mostly pertained to the men. And we, of course, can go into the dynamics of this cold like behavior without talking about their infatuation with the end times.

So Taylor 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 anti Christ arrived. And then there was the supposed over the top worshipping going on with entailed group. And at I hop, according to the rolling stone article, the former member says that the holy spirit was responsible for causing head conversions and making people scream and roll around, quote riving like demons.

A phrase that i've heard before at probably I too Young of an age.

I know. I mean, this episode is hard to get through because, like I sometimes I hear myself, I literally, I M going, I hear myself saying oud and I like all my god. This is probably sounding so wild to some people and .

this is and the fact that it's not as wild to us as is probably could or should be yeah ah is kind of a lot to take in right now.

I know I know how we grow up was was not the norm, but you can is easy to forget sometimes it's and forget on the right world like push IT down in black IT out is I think Better the epson .

like pretty trigger ing but or have had moved on and passed IT and through IT and like to just have to revisit IT in this way is 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 fate. Again, red freak flag.

the outside, scary. Anybody who's not in is against us, all of them.

and and isolating people from their support system. 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. And this is why I want to jump back into bEthany y and tilers relationships.

So bEthany had moved to kansas city with Tyler for that internship into thousand and nine. And in february on valentine day, actually of twenty twelve, Tyler ebt oni announced their engagement, and then not long after just an August, they were married. But their marriage seemed doomed from the start. According to Taylor, the lack of intimacy took a toll on bathroom, but Taylor wasn't the only one to notice the change in her.

Her roommates at the women's house started noticing IT, too, and they tell detectives that after her honeymoon, SHE just seemed off, because once they got back from coast to riga, bEthany moved into the man's house to live with Tyler in his bedroom that he had in the basement of the man's house. But according to the women in the group, after about like two weeks of living in the men's house death, he actually started coming back, and he would spend a few nights week at the women's house because he told them he needed space and he felt too controlled over there. But he never were sharing any specific details with them.

And this is allegedly when the sexual associate started.

right, right. And the women in the group that that he seemed depressed. And Tyler solution to this, he told everyone in the group to ignore bathrooms, I and her solum mood.

He told the community that he done everything he could help her see that god. And at this point he basically said he wasn't going to change. So what's the point?

Sure, that eyes out was not helpful. What so ever 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 proposed to love you and take care of you because they are like.

be happy or nothing yeah yeah and because if you are fine and that mean that I could go on and like yeah in the tragic or up like mental health was an even I think it's just like whether you obviously not Christian enough, you're not praying enough, you're not loving god enough because others SE you would be happy and that's not how mental health works.

Now the tie line on all of this is a bit markey, but IT seems like after finding all of these things out about the community and eyehole police finally bring in Taylor for questioning. But apparently I don't. He's aware of how much they know, like he has no clue about Michael's confession.

So when they asked him about his role in bEthany SE murder, I mean, he denies everything. He reiterates that he was depressed leading up to her dead, even that on october twenty nine, which would have been the day before her death, he had had this prayer session where he told people that they had to choose between the community or their own selfishness. And Taylor says that during that prayer session, bathroom I looked just shook. He said he was curled up against the backward with just this modified look on her face.

He's not meaning to anything that Michael had that happened.

No, but again, he doesn't even know about the confession. So out again, his stories is not lining up, but I don't think he's asked directly, like point by point.

Okay, but why does he think he's at the police station? I mean, he knows he's being invested for a .

murder right in forty eight hours episode. He thought that there were some kind of lawn missouri at the time that allowed you to be responsible for someone. So I think that's what he was was like thinking when they are initially talking to him but he was shocked when he, while he's there at the station, watched Michael walk by in hand cuffs.

All this should be pretty easy to us out though, right? Regardless of what Tyler saying, everything is on this .

ipad true um and the the pastor I hope at the time was Shelly honey. She's the one that actually Michael had confessed to. Shelley tells detectives that michel's ipad is at his apartment.

I know if he's like living somewhere else the time, or if this apartment is the one the community member share, I don't know but either way, he said, I should be in a blue backpack. Like to the ipad. That's all the evidence.

So after these detectives go and search the place, they look through the apartment, hoping to find evidence that backs up Michael's claims. They collect computers, presumably his ipad, but spoiled or ert. There was never any evidence of any sexual assaults on micros, ipad, no videos, no poems, nothing.

So that stories is all made up.

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 bother detective coal. So there's enough to like, keep her asking questions, guys. I guess when they had removed the bag from bathie had her eyes were wide and her mouth was gaping and deductive coal didn't think that what he should have look like if I was a death by suicide, I assumed, like from past experiences.

And again, like the they're hearing about Taylor and the community seems so while that IT feels like microstrip be true, so they still try to keep talking to other members to see if there is any more truth to make a story. And they hear about some pretty messed up things happening like more IT than just your standard cold light behavior. 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 tell them that he was all about having a religious experience.

I'm sorry, you said this was like different cullid experience. All cults become sex cuts.

That's like a common knowledge thing. Why is that but becoming a sex code? And detectives learn that Tyler seemed to have been struggling with his sexuality for a while. And I actually want to use toiler's own words here to describe his experience.

Quote to me being get meant you couldn't love god, and quote to, because of this, those closest to him in bEthany seem to observe that together they thought they could change his sexuality if they tried I E parade hard enough. So that's allegedly why he married bEthany. They were trying to convince themselves that he was straight and and that he was in love with her.

But of course, that didn't work because being gays on a choice. So even though bEthany and Tyler were married, they never contact their marry. According to Tyler, they never had sex the entire .

time they were married.

Depends on who you ask to Taylor. 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. 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, but according to the Austin american statesmen, Taylor used sexual activity to control and manipulate members of the community, and these sexual relations deeply impacted his relationship with mEthane to the detriment of her mental health. But the men shared more with detectives, more than just the sexual relations details. They said that Taylor seemed angry in the week's leading up to bathin.

He's death. And one person says that Tyler told them about a dream he had three days after bath, his body was discovered. He said that in his dream, he killed bEthany by sufficing.

Her sounds like a guilty.

sure maybe, but he didn't seem to torn up about his wife's death because others came forward and said that shortly after bethune's death, Tyler told everyone to quote, stay upbeat and press into the lord, because this community is bigger than one person.

I'm sorry, wife just died. A member of your community just died. Like if it's that important to you.

I know so so you kind of understand why they're hearing all of this. You understand maybe why without physical proof of the assaults Michael talked about, the jacks and county prosecutors still want to move forward with charges against mica four first degree murder. And at this point, Taylor is also under investigation. And after Michael charges are public, I hope releases a statement on november twelve, according to fox for casey, they basically say that they were shocked when the shafts office told them Michael was charged with murder.

How are they shocked? They brought him in after he confess to them.

Their shocked and they condemned ill's group, calling IT a, quote, independent closin t religious group that Operated under the wheels of secrecy and quote, then they go on to say that the community has always been independent and they're working with local authorities to ensure the groups secrecy and disturbing religious practices are exposed and may end by labelling the crime horrific, saying that they're CoOperating and they're willing to help with the ongoing investigation into athene's death.

So I mean, the churches is in like falling on damage control mode right now, and detectives are still in full investigative mode. So on november fourteen, they ask for more witnesses to come forward with any information about athletes death. 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 away behind the scenes of their investigation actually isn't matching up with my gos confession more than just not having the ipad like all the forensic evidence that they offer, testing isn't aligning with his story.

Like he told detectives that bEthany was drugged with seroquel when he killed her, but tech shows that there wasn't any seroquel in her system. They also had fingerprints and DNA samples collected from athene's ban. And nothing useful comes from that either.

Tea actually does a great job of laying out all the contradictions in the rolling stone article like mika said that he killed in the front seat of the van. We know that she's found in the third roll in the back. He says he killed her before ten, but surveilLance .

footage says that hold up surveilLance footage. How is this the first time I here about?

Okay, I wish I had the answer for you, but those details aren't any the reporting I read. I don't know where the camera is. I don't know exactly what IT captured aside from from showing wind bath and he may be pulled into the park after ten A M and they know that Michael was in class at the time, like there's attendance records to prove that.

So I don't know like he also said that there were multiple people at the scene. The investigation just proves that mika said he killed bEthany so that he wouldn't. Her is about the sexual assaults that have been happening again.

Sexual salts, they can prove, happened. And then when they go to talk to the councillor, that councillor says that they didn't observe any type of behavior that even indicated bathin had been assaulted. And I had aside of like assault, detectives found bEthany SE journal and emails, and they indicate that he was a .

virgin when he died. The autopsy.

well, I don't know the result 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, the story hadn't even happened yet. So there's some back and forth where the prosecution asked to delay the trial because they want more time, which the judge grants. And the Michael defense attorneys released a statement saying there is no cause to believe Michael was involved in bathin ney's death, and there is no evidence that they're aware of that indicated a crime had even occurred. They say that bEthany died by suicide and might have had nothing to do with IT reporting for fox four cases, says the defendant oris claim mix quote fictional account was bizarre, nonsensical o and most importantly, unshriven defence tourneys also say that Michael statements were only given because he was under, quote, extreme psychological pressures and they end by proclaiming his innocence.

I appreciate all those facts, but what saying is he completely recent a statement?

Yeah, I mean, or his attorneys do on his behalf. And they're saying, basically he only confess because the leaders of eye hot performed wait for a bread and exercise on him OK.

So I guys that .

earlier mika gave his original confession in front of eyehole leader Shelly huntly and some others. But this wasn't just annual Normal meeting now. This was a forced meeting set up by eyehole leaders to break up Tyler's dominic prayer group. So according to that, rolling down.

So according to that rolling stone article, the leaders told Michael that Tyler was using demons to control him, and they basically said that IT was the communities fault, that bEthany died by suicide, and this meeting that they had with him last at a long time. And apparently mike said that people were praying in tongues and crying while they collapsed on the floor. And he says that he was riding around in a chair while three men shouted for demons to leave his body in the name of jesus.

And IT was doing this, that Michael had a complete breakdown, which is where Michael confessed that, among many things, he used witchcraft to induce bath in his death. And IT only is worse from there. Michael was then asked again by an eyehole leader if he was responsible for bath in his dad, and he said that he killed her and that's when they took him into the station.

But according to mega, even when he was at the station, and I hop leader, who he didn't name, kept pushing him on baath, his death, and Michael said that he, quote, might not be Michael more, but Tyler d. 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 literally making no sense.

How the hell did detectives take any of his statement seriously? I mean.

I mean, well, again, like take the statement, but it's kind of shocking that I got this far. No, I mean, because clearly he's a the man of the like suffering from some kind of mental health break or coersion or like this isn't IT is not lining up. And what detectives didn't find out until later.

So the piece that they didn't have initially was that mica had a history of psychotic c breaks, especially related to demon ic possession. And one of them actually happened when he was back at college at southwestern university. And this wasn't an isolated event. Michael found solace in Taylors group p because he felt like he was often attacked by demons, and members of the community would pray for him to, like, help defend him. Michael was described by some of his past friends as college as patient and thoughtful, but he was also easily influenced.

which is exactly how these cults, lower and followers. But does, I hope, have anything to say about this?

Of course, do they they immediately release a statement rejecting the accusation of performing exercises during the meetings that might be referring to. That's IT no for the details. They're just denied that an exercise occurred and basically denying like the claim that Michael defensive turns have put out. But just because I have been denied this exercise doesn't mean that people in the community, the community but like kansas city community, he doesn't an that they're not starting to question like what's actually going on within this church.

According to an article in the new york times, discussions were happening around the church is hyper focus on the power of propac's and miracles and in times and IT seems like eyehole itself has created this breeding ground for internal codes like Tylers group to form within the church. However, the I hot past and founder my gaby pretty convincing sermon when they were under all the scrutinies ning, his church about the dangers and science are falling into a cold. The former church members push back, saying that I have itself had called light .

characteristics on there are done that I ve heard that sermon before. And if IT just reiterates that you're in the right called to you like yeah OK by .

all this public scrutiny members of tilers group, the community still think mica did IT. They don't accept his retraction. And IT was specifically microwaving in his confession.

He said that Taylor told him to kill bathin because, he, quote, knew he had IT in him to do IT. And that statement, right there, was very familiar to the community members. One form, remember, he said that's what Taylor would say to people in the group when he wanted them to do something major for him.

And what some form remembers are mad at, my god, it's the fact that Tyler hasn't been charged with anything that really kind of shocks. And right, if they believe my could did IT, then they believe Taylor told him to. So they come forward and say that after hearing about bEthany SE death and that IT might have been murdered, they immediately assumed Tyler did IT.

And they say it's because he only thought how he could control people. So somehow still, a grand jury ends up in dating Michael on first degree murder charges, and Jordan after mika pleaded not guilty. 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 my, the story can be true .

as if there was even any question at this point. Now.

like all the forensic evidence that was sent off, FBI analysis that shows Michael DNA cannot be included as the contributor to any of the items found. And that good by note from the car, they verify that IT was in bathie handwriting. They even find, I told you there was that walmart received, they find video footage of her buying the sleep bye herself.

So now that all of the forensic evidence and the result all back, IT doesn't seem like like a murdered bEthany or that anyone murdered her, IT seems to both the prosecution in the defense that Michael was an impressive Young man who was lord into a false confession, which is what Michael's defense tells the court. And weeks before his trial is set to begin, Michael's defense files emotion to have his confession excluded from his trial. They say that he was conversed by this exercise done by the international house of prayer leaders.

And they're like, listen, all you're moving forward with, like in is trial is his confession. And we have proved that none of the physical evidence back set up. And because of corporate director, you can move forward.

And can you outline corporate deleted?

I was little to say you're not familiar with IT. It's this idea that even if you have a confession, you cannot secure conviction just based on that. You have to also somehow in any other way prove that that's actually what happened corporis delete .

ized like CoOperating evidence.

Yeah so they're saying, listen, force all. He's not even like he retracted his confession, ed, but even if he were in by IT, even if he was saying I did IT, you can approve IT. And by the law, that means, 对， should not move forward. 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, so if the prosecution was looking for more back up, this potentially furthers the idea that maybe he was murdered. It's not homicide, but it's at least opens the door more than the first one which ruled .

her death is suicide.

right? But change of ruling or not, IT doesn't really change the courtship opinion, because without migas confession and without the body of proof to back up a previous confession, the prosecution has nothing. So eventually the murder charges against mica are dropped.

Now, that was ten years ago, and according to the forty eight hours doc, IT appears that mica blames eyehole for his false confession. He posted online that he regrets following Tyler and says that the ihop leaders were not profits. They were manipulators.

And I don't think he's too far off because in october twenty twenty three, the founder of I hot my came under some serious fire when he got accused of sexually abusing a fourteen old girl in the early eighties when he was twenty five. And then another woman came forward saying that he abused her when he was nineteen and he was in his forties. And that happened in the middle of nineties. And in december twenty twenty three, he makes opposed admitting that he, quote, engaged an inappropriate behavior notbe .

stopping short of admitting he sexually assaulted a minor and right.

But the damage was done, and I hope, decided to formally separate from him. But just because they kicked him out doesn't mean their share of controversy was over, because they've long been accused of being cold fish like we talked about earlier. And actually, just in April of this year, IT was announce that I hope you and be I hope in kenza city are planning to officially close.

officially close as an eventually rebrand and keep doing exactly what they have been doing for decades.

I mean, it's about making money, like people will find ways to take their stuff somewhere else. A, and I, I sey like that. A lot of people fear. But if we go back to Taylor, he denies that he ever LED a cult. He said Michael had mental health issues, and his confession was spurred on by .

eyehole leaders.

which IT was right. But in what happened to bEthany, he has responsibility to. Taylor actually agreed to be interviewed in the forty eight hours episode that air nearly nine years ago. And I find that kind of fascinating.

And when they ask him if he thinks is responsible for bathin, he'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. IT seems now that Tyler has been through therapy for his control issues, and he has finally to terms with his sexuality in the dark. He says, quote, if I had really been able to to to get through that, somehow I think battoni would be alive.

And quote, despite all of this information, bEthany's family is torn, or was torn at least as a twenty fifteen when they were last interviewed for forty eight hours. At that time, her dad, eric, believe bethune 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.

SHE believed her daughter been murdered. And I think it's mostly because you just had so many questions still and police still have those questions back then too. Back in two thousand fifteen, detective coal and ben kenney said that they were still actively investigating the circumstances surrounding pathy is death, and as far as we know, her manner of death is still listed as undetermined unless.

And I know colts are a bit of a nuances topic, but we wouldn't do any justice for bathrooms or her story if we didn't talk about how colts could gather recruits and control lives. And they can target vulnerable people. People like mika, who I didn't touch on this much, but he had a history of substance use.

As IT stated in one of the academic journalists I found, cold leaders can also target people that come from low to economic conditions, or those with familiar problems, 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. I mean, IT is completely rosy at the beginning, and the top of all of cold leaders typically take control, which is exactly what Taylor did with his marriage properties and his stringent rules for the community. And IT can be hard even realized that you're in the middle of something so controlling and manipulative because IT happens slowly.

It's like boiling a frag, like it's one thing at a time you don't like sign waiver and then all the sudden like they take everything from you, it's this. And then if you trust me, you would do this. And if you want to prove your loyalty to this.

well, don't want to contribute to the community, give us your money pool or money. Why don't you just let us take care of this in this? And then all the sudden you're being told what to wear, you're being told what to eat when you can sleep, who you can sleep with. It's it's so slippery and slow, but kennie you say what to wear? And I think like again.

the picture that you mean come to comes to my minds, like everyone to these like White robes.

And that's not IT. We couldn't were tank tops growing up. No.

we like measure all of our shorts. We had to let. You couldn't show this because, like god.

for a bid, you tempt to the boy shirts over swim.

And it's so wide. I want to tell you about one more moment I had recently that, like, again, I constantly throughout my adult life, he having these oh my gosh moments, what I thought was Norman isn't Normal. And I was doing a 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.

And IT seems like such a far of thing, like, oh, there are part of these communities i've i've never experienced there from another country and what they were trying to advertise. No, this is happening here. And I was like, oh, my gosh, like i've never seen anything like that up close.

And one of the examples they gave as they were like, you know, in a community like a forced marriage, also, when you get pregnant as a child like a teenager, less than that you get pregnant and you're basically forced into marriage because you're supposed be married to have a baby and I was like, I had this moment of like, oh my god, if I would have gotten pregnant as a teenager, as a kid, like I would have been expected to get married absolutely in one thousand percent. And so it's these little things of just kind of reframing. It's not far off. And these codes, like can they also can exist in the community with in the community they exist within something that is OK and good and fine. But like you have to look for these red flats where your your own will your own.

you're losing your autonomy.

yes. And when that is being taken away, IT should be every red flag to you to ask questions. And one of the things, if you find yourself already in IT, IT can feel impossible to leave, but you can always leave.

So while the evidence reportedly doesn't point to bEthany being murdered, we do have to reflect on how he got to wear SHE was. And I believe certain people within the community played some part in her depression, like symptoms that bathroom was experiencing, or the environment in which he felt like he couldn't get the appropriate help for IT. 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? We're going to leave some resources in our blog post if you feel that you might be involved in restrictive religious organization.

As tragic and convoluted as bEthany story is, suicide remains at the four of a herma serious dad. Unfortunately, one study found that intimate partner problems, which also seemed to be a reacclimatise bEthany I tired relationship, those were the reason for twenty percent of deaths, suicide between two thousand three and twenty. And according to the cdc, suicide was one of the leading causes of death in the us. In twenty twenty one. 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 nine eight eight, or by calling the national suicide prevention life fine at one eight hundred two hundred three talk.

great. I don't know about you, but that one was hard to get threal. I wanna see.

I can not wait to go to therapy after this.

I yeah, that was. You can find the source material on our website, crime drinking podcast dot com.

You can follow us on instagram at crime turkey podcast.

We will be back next week with a very new episode.

Crime junky is an audio check production. So what do you think, chuck, do you prove?