00:00:06
[Music] She was just glowing. everything that she ever dreamed of had come true for
00:00:38
her. In my head, my plan was to live the rest of my life with Bethany, and she was going to be my wife, and I was
00:00:45
excited about that. To her, Tyler was someone who seemed to be passionately pursuing God and
00:00:56
pursuing a meaningful life as much as she was. And that's really what drew her to
00:01:06
him. At the wedding, the way she looked at him, it was more than love. It was almost this worship now. It really
00:01:14
scared me. us with the light of day. My gift and something that is also a curse is that I'm charismatic. I am
00:01:30
charismatic. I've owned that from the beginning. I'll own that to the end. I can be electric and magnetic. It can
00:01:37
affect people. God told Tyler that our group was specially chosen to show the rest of the
00:01:44
world what it looked like to live in community, to be really Christian, to be radical. This is the house in which
00:01:54
Bethany and Tyler lived right after they were married. This is when I would say it became a full-blown cult and a very
00:01:59
dangerous cult. They did as they were told. They didn't make decisions on their own.
00:02:07
Some of the things he was saying were were incoherent and borderline insane. But when you're
00:02:13
there, it's perfectly normal. You've been described as a cult leader. Okay. True. I don't think so. No. You
00:02:24
don't think the group that you helped form was a cult? No. And nobody has used that language who's actually qualified
00:02:31
to use it. This is KCTV 5 News. Sheriff's deputies found Bethany Deon's body in a car at
00:02:40
Long View Lake with a plastic bag over her head. This is a newlywed. What newlywed commits suicide by herself in a
00:02:48
lake? Something wasn't quite right. Did Bethany take her life? I don't believe she did. This was murder. She
00:03:01
didn't die of natural causes. So, yes, Bethany and I's relationship was definitely strained, but um just because
00:03:11
it was strained doesn't mean I was murderous. I don't want revenge and I don't want
00:03:18
vengeance. The foundational facts do not point to a murder. I want justice. I want truth.
00:03:30
[Music] I'm Troy Roberts. Tonight on 48 Hours, fall from grace. [Music] [Music] For Carol Lideline, the deep blue eyes
00:04:18
of her daughter Bethany are a constant reminder of a life lost. I want people to know that apart from
00:04:27
her obvious beauty, the lil in her voice and her little laugh and her little mannerisms that just reflected a quiet
00:04:37
but deeply caring, intelligent, very loving person. The Lidelines raised their five children in a devoutly
00:04:45
Christian home in suburban Dallas. They were homeschooled and Bethany, a gifted writer, won a scholarship to
00:04:52
Southwestern University near Austin, Texas. She went to a university that was diverse. We had talked about, you know,
00:05:00
the different types of people that she might run into at Southwestern. And as it turned out, she did.
00:05:08
That's where Bethany met Tyler Deon, her future husband, and fell in with a like-minded group of young Christian
00:05:15
adults. She just started praying with Tyler and two other people and they just got
00:05:22
together. Started out being once a week and it just took off. But if this is just a story of a girl going off to
00:05:29
college and finding the love of her life, it would end now. Because what began so innocently on this campus with
00:05:35
idealistic love and religious devotion ended in a tangle web of secrets, deception, and eventually her mysterious
00:05:43
death. I didn't think that my heart could beat one more beat or that I could even take one more breath. We would go
00:05:50
to sleep crying and wake up [Music] crying. The story began 7 years earlier. I get passionate and excited, but when
00:06:09
another person sees someone else get passionate, excited, and authentic, they're naturally pulled into that.
00:06:14
Tyler's charisma pulled in Bethany and other students as well. He frequently led intense prayer sessions where they
00:06:22
tried to heal the sick and ward off evil spirits. Eric and I were aware that they
00:06:27
were doing that and we were in favor of it. We thought that was wonderful that she had friends that she could share
00:06:32
with in that way, share that faith with. Tyler found an immediate friend in Micah
00:06:38
Moore, an intense undergrad from Houston. We were both musicians and both really loved learning about who God is.
00:06:46
Another student, Bose Harrington, was brought into the group by Bethany and was also captivated by Tyler. I met
00:06:53
Tyler his first week of freshman year in 2005. He seemed really humble, really kind, selfless, giving person, someone
00:07:02
that you could trust. And that trust was shared by others. Very quickly, Tyler became the de facto leader of the group.
00:07:11
Tyler felt that revival was going to come to Southwestern because we were praying. What does that mean? That the
00:07:16
more we pray, miracles would happen and people would flock to our group. Did Tyler think he was a prophet? He thought
00:07:24
he was an apostle. What did you think? At the time, it seemed reasonable. He was able to explain it in a way that
00:07:29
made sense to us. I want to give all that's inside of my heart. And Tyler definitely made sense to
00:07:40
Bethany who believed she had found the man she had always dreamed of. She confided in her lifelong friend Taran
00:07:47
O'Brien. She told me that she had met a really amazing, brilliant man who loved God and loved others and who wanted to
00:07:55
be involved in missions and prayer and just all of the things that she was so passionate about and kind of over the
00:08:03
moon. Yeah. I mean, she was very much over the moon for him. But at the same time, Tyler was going
00:08:14
through a personal struggle. He believed he was gay and for a long time he tried
00:08:20
to repress and even tried to change his sexuality. In the very conservative Christian circles that we were raised
00:08:26
in, there was the belief that homosexuality is a choice and that it can be changed and it can be healed. And
00:08:33
she wanted to help heal him. To me, being gay meant uh you were this like messed up even like villainous person.
00:08:45
you couldn't love God. It was it was so I didn't identify as gay. In 2007, Tyler's religious life took a
00:08:57
major turn. He decided to focus on mission work and he went to Kansas City to attend a national convention put on
00:09:04
by a church called the International House of Prayer, known by the acronym IHOP. in this urgent time, bring forth a
00:09:13
generation who will lift up your name, Jesus. I wanted to go to IHOP. I loved the the 24/7 prayer and worship. I loved
00:09:21
that and so I wanted to go there. After graduation, they did. Tyler, Bethany, and more than 20 members of the group
00:09:29
packed up and moved from Southwestern University to Kansas City to study and pray at
00:09:36
IHOK. Eventually settling in these two houses, separated by gender, they called themselves the community. They lived
00:09:44
together and ate together. They had odd jobs and pulled their money. Bethany went back to school and became a nurse.
00:09:52
And so what was the routine? Who established the rules? Tyler did. And that wasn't all. Bose says Tyler told
00:09:59
members what to wear, when to eat, and even controlled the romantic relationships among their group. If you
00:10:06
didn't abide by the rules, there was trouble. What kind of punishment would you receive if you broke these rules? It
00:10:13
varied depending on the person. Can you give an example? There was a girl who was shutting herself off and being
00:10:18
antisocial, so they took her bedroom door away. And Bose says when he questioned Tyler's authority, he was
00:10:26
shunned. They didn't speak to you at all. No. Sometimes they leave notes under the door, maybe once, twice a
00:10:32
month. So, how long did this go on for? 8 months. 8 months. Why did you stay? I really thought that we had some kind of
00:10:40
purpose together. They were my friends. In 2010, after the community moved to Kansas City, Tyler had a change of heart
00:10:53
about his sexuality and he started to have feelings for Bethany. She called me up one night and she told me, "Me and
00:11:01
Tyler had this conversation and he sees how much I love him. He had some kind of
00:11:06
epiphany, some kind of moment where he at least thought that he was truly healed and felt some kind of attraction
00:11:14
for her." Were you in love with Bethany? Um, that is a a great question. Um, I love Bethany. But were you in
00:11:26
love? I really genuinely thought that I was in love with her. After a brief engagement, Bethany and
00:11:34
Tyler tied the knot in August 2012. On our wedding day, there was this like camaraderie, fun, playful, happy tone.
00:11:44
Like my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. But on Bethy's special day, her friends and family felt left out. We
00:11:52
weren't even participants. We were observers to this whole uh almost, you know, messianic type union taking place.
00:12:02
I remember thinking, "She's still beautiful, but it's almost this faded, wilted kind of beauty. It's like this
00:12:08
isn't Bethany anymore." Taran said she had a premonition that it would be the last time she would see her
00:12:15
good friend alive. It was almost like I felt like I had completely lost her and that now that
00:12:22
she was married to Tyler, she was completely gone. [Music] It's a wedding photo to melt a mother's
00:12:46
heart. The newlywed Bethany Deon about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. She was radiantly happy.
00:12:57
That was her waving goodbye to everybody. [Music] Bethany and her new husband, Tyler Deon,
00:13:07
were heading off on a two-eek honeymoon in August of 2012. And despite all of her mixed emotions about Tyler, Carol
00:13:14
Lidine was still hopeful for her daughter's new union. I was happy for her. Even if I didn't maybe see
00:13:22
it, I still thought she's a smart girl. She never made a bad decision ever in her life. So, we trusted that she knew
00:13:30
what the right thing was. And the right thing for Bethany was starting a family with Tyler right away.
00:13:38
But when the couple landed, she was in for a rude surprise. She went on a honeymoon, right? You went to Costa
00:13:45
Rica. Yeah. And you did not consummate your marriage. Bethy and I never had sex. Though the couple believed Tyler
00:13:54
was cured of his homosexual feelings by prayer, the reality was much different. And yet I I know you're looking at me
00:14:03
and it's you're warranted. You're war the way I'm not trying to discredit the fact that you're looking at me like like
00:14:08
are you crazy? Yeah. It's part of what I was The delusion was so strong. The the
00:14:14
avoidance was so strong. Um and the rationalization was so strong. Group member Bose Harrington saw signs
00:14:24
that something peculiar was going on between Tyler and other male group members even before the wedding. He told
00:14:31
us that he had been practicing for his honeymoon with another guy, but not in a sexual just a physical way. And when he
00:14:42
explained that in some of the house meetings, it seemed very normal. In fact, Tyler continued to be
00:14:48
physically intimate with several of the male group members, including Micah Moore, after the wedding. Was he your
00:14:54
lover? No. No, that would not be it would not be accurate. You didn't have a sexual relationship? Oh, no. Yeah. Yes.
00:15:04
Yes. That happened. And you had a relationship with with him while you were married to Bethany? Yes. Yeah. Was
00:15:13
Bethany aware of this? Not to my knowledge. While Bethany may have been in the dark about Tyler's adulterous
00:15:20
behavior, their troubled marriage just weeks into it began to take a toll on her.
00:15:27
How did the lack of intimacy affect her self-esteem? Very negatively. Did she threaten divorce? No. No, she didn't.
00:15:36
What she did was way worse. What do you mean way worse? Bethy's personality blames herself. That's the way she
00:15:42
works. She internalizes things and she internalized it and I was too freaking stupid and ignorant to recognize what
00:15:52
was going on. At the same time, Bethany was speaking less and less with her family and friends, something that was
00:16:00
common in the community. We were often encouraged not to talk to family members who were holding us back
00:16:09
from our full pursuit of the faith. It started to become very obvious that we were being cut off. Taran O'Brien
00:16:19
recalls how Bethany spoke cryptically about problems with Tyler and the group. And she said something like, "Taran, if
00:16:27
something doesn't change, I don't know what's going to happen, you know." And it was never about Tyler or the group.
00:16:32
It was always about her. And she just had this deep almost kind of um selfhatred at that point.
00:16:40
About 6 weeks into the marriage, Tyler says Bethany appeared suicidal. She got more and more depressed and
00:16:49
upset. She started saying things like, "My soul is ruined. I'm just going to go to hell now. I'm just going to go to
00:16:55
hell." And and I remember the very first time she said this stuff, I was like, "What are you talking about?"
00:17:02
We knew absolutely nothing of all this suicidal stuff. We didn't know about this deep dark
00:17:10
depression supposedly that was going on. We had no idea. They also had no idea that Bethany had been briefly admitted
00:17:18
to a hospital psychiatric ward. She had expressed thoughts of suicide and Tyler says she threatened to drink windshield
00:17:25
washer fluid. Did you share that with her family? No. Why not? She didn't want them to know. Um, I that's one of many
00:17:35
things I regret, but she didn't want her parents to know. They should have. They
00:17:40
should have. At the time, even though the marriage was a sham, Tyler admits he didn't believe Bethany was really
00:17:48
suicidal. He thought it was all just an act. Why? It was my my messed up worldview. I thought there was no way
00:17:57
someone could really just start believing this stuff and have like a a snap like that. I I thought
00:18:07
that Bethany was doing what she was doing on purpose. I really did. On October 29th, 2012, Tyler held an
00:18:17
intense prayer session in which she told members that they had to make a choice between the community or their own
00:18:24
personal selfishness. Bethany appeared to be shaken by the sermon. And Bethany was
00:18:31
sitting with her back up against the wall, curled up into a ball with this like mortified facial expression,
00:18:38
literally like like that. Tyler was fed up with Bethy's behavior. And so there was a part of me that was
00:18:47
like, I I just I don't have anything else to do. I don't have anything else to say. What am I going to do? Because
00:18:52
normally, you know, maybe you would have gone and tried to talk to her. If I was
00:18:55
a good husband, that's what I would have done. The next day, Bethany went off to her
00:19:00
job as a nurse. About 12 hours later, Detective Penny Cole of the Jackson County
00:19:06
Sheriff's Department was called out to Long View Lake. There was a female body in a van. So when you arrived, where
00:19:15
where was the van? The van was actually parked right here. It was pulled in and facing towards the treeine there. What
00:19:21
did you see when you approached the van? She was sitting in the back of the van on the right hand side, kind of leaned
00:19:28
up against the window. It was Bethany Deon. Her head was covered by a loose plastic bag and there
00:19:36
was an empty bottle of over-the-counter sleeping medication near her body. Also in the car was a goodbye note. It
00:19:44
appeared to be a suicide, but something was off. When I spoke with Tyler, I did not see the reaction that I expected
00:19:52
from a newlywed at all. And it kind of made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I felt like I was going to
00:20:00
fall apart. I was trying to stabilize myself as much as possible. Tyler tried to tell Bethy's
00:20:06
parents but couldn't reach them. Down in Dallas, friends sat down with Carol and
00:20:12
Eric Lideline to break the news. And they said, um, Bethy's no longer with us. The next thing we said was, how? And
00:20:24
they said, well, she took her own life. And we were just crushed. just crushed. The medical examiner ruled
00:20:34
Bethy's death a suicide, but Carol was unconvinced. And I said, I think y'all need to go back and look at this. You
00:20:44
know, I don't think y'all are done. Bethy's body was transported to Dallas for a funeral. And as hundreds of people
00:20:51
packed the family church to mourn her loss, Carol received a shocking phone call from investigators.
00:20:58
They called us to say that they needed her body back and they didn't want us to bury her
00:21:06
that day. That's because Micah Moore, one of Tyler's sexual partners and Bethy's close friend, had just walked
00:21:14
into this police station and said Bethy's death wasn't a suicide. He had killed her. What do you
00:21:22
want to say to her family? When we found out about Micah's [Music] confession, it felt like her dying all
00:21:39
over again. As if it couldn't have hurt more. Still grieving from the sudden loss of
00:21:47
her daughter, Carol Lline was shocked to hear that Bethy's good friend Micah Moore had voluntarily confessed to her
00:21:55
murder. When Micah came in and told his story, that was the missing piece. His confession confirmed Detective Penny
00:22:03
Cole and Ben Kenny's suspicions that this was murder, not suicide. What were you struck by with the interrogation?
00:22:10
When talking to Micah, he was very reluctant to speak. It was like he was trying to think of what to say or
00:22:16
getting approval to say from someone. He told me that he had killed Bethany. He told us that he had put the bag over her
00:22:24
head and held it there until her body shook. That matched up with the crime scene. The plastic bag over Bethy's head
00:22:32
had been inhaled into her mouth and she was found with her eyes open, which they
00:22:37
thought was unusual for someone who had apparently overdosed. She wasn't asleep and most people when they overdose with
00:22:44
some type of sleeping medication they just their body just starts to slow down and shuts down. But when I heard what
00:22:51
she took Tylenol PM immediately I said no she was a nurse. She had worked 2 days before she died and so why an
00:23:00
over-the-counter drug? There's so many things that don't add up. Also surprising Bethany was found with thank
00:23:06
you notes from her wedding. They weren't completed. They weren't in envelopes addressed to people. They were in the
00:23:13
process of being written. It was like she was sitting in the van writing them, but hadn't finished them. The other note
00:23:19
in the van, allegedly written by Bethany, said, "I chose this evil thing. I did it because I wouldn't be a real
00:23:26
person, and what is the point of living if it is too late for that?" The suicide note sounded nothing like
00:23:33
her. Of course, if she had been as broken as she seems to have been at that point, it would make sense that it
00:23:39
didn't sound like her if she had written it. But there's no way normal her would
00:23:45
have written that. Micah's confession offered an explanation to some of the questions raised by the scene. But what
00:23:52
had led him to come forward? Following Bethy's death, church leaders from the International House of Prayer were
00:23:59
outraged with what they learned about Tyler's ministry and brought the rest of the group together.
00:24:06
My understanding is that IHOP told Tyler's group, "You have two choices. You can either follow Tyler or you can
00:24:14
stay part of IHOP." But Tyler's not part of IHOP. And from there, Micah's confession came out in that meeting.
00:24:21
IHOP leaders say Micah asked them to take him to the police station where he confessed, putting the pieces together
00:24:27
for investigators. There were things that Micah was able to tell us about in his confession that had not been
00:24:33
released. Information that someone would not have had unless they had been here to see it. With what he had confessed to
00:24:40
fell back into place with the bag, the condition of Bethy's eyes, the grasping for air, either restricted or strangled
00:24:49
around her throat. And Micah had another stunning admission. The reason he killed
00:24:55
Bethany, her husband, Tyler Deon, had told him to. And the police came and took me in for
00:25:01
questioning. My thought was there must be a law in Missouri that says that you can be
00:25:09
responsible for someone's suicide. And then they were bringing Micah through and he was in
00:25:15
handcuffs. Handcuffs. and and they said, "These two aren't to be in communication
00:25:20
with each other." And I'm going, "Why in the world is Micah in handcuffs? I had no idea." Tyler was
00:25:30
unaware that Micah had confessed. My response was, "No, that does not make sense."
00:25:37
But the confession provided investigators with a motive. Micah told police that for months he and other male
00:25:44
roommates had been drugging Bethany with the antiscychotic Sakquell and sexually
00:25:50
assaulting her. And there was a fear that she was going to tell a therapist. Micah said that
00:25:57
before Bethany could report the abuse, Tyler told him to kill her because he knew he had it in him to do it. Tyler
00:26:05
says that members of this community could exercise free will. We didn't see a lot of that in the people that we
00:26:12
spoke with. Yes, there was there was influence that was excessive in control, but the image that the media makes of
00:26:19
this like grossly sociopathic, narcissistic, control freak, cult leader personality
00:26:27
is is just it's just like it's dumb and and I it drives me crazy. It's like could we talk about what actually
00:26:36
happened? So, what does Tyler think actually happened? He says Micah has mental health issues and the confession
00:26:43
was one in a series of psychotic episodes spurred on by pressure from church leaders.
00:26:50
There's some pretty fundamental controlling things at IHOP that are just really unhealthy. I I think they
00:27:00
sold Micah to the police practically for their own reputation in my opinion. IHOP
00:27:06
refused to talk to us about the case, but they severed all connections with Tyler. And in a statement, they publicly
00:27:13
denounced his quote alleged secretive, perverse cultic practices. Everybody left me in a day
00:27:20
except for one friend. Everybody left me in a day. If I'm a cult leader, I'm a really bad cult
00:27:26
leader. In the course of 10 days, I lost Bethany. And then I lost all my friends. I lost the church that I was a
00:27:42
part of. They were gone. But he did still have his freedom. Despite the allegations against
00:27:50
Tyler, only Micah was arrested. Micah, what do you have to say? Because he had confessed. Tell us what you think of
00:27:57
Tyler. Jackson County prosecutors charged Micah with firstdegree murder for the death of his
00:28:03
friend Bethany Deon. We felt we had a good case. Any good investigation confession is 99% of it. And uh up to
00:28:11
that point we thought that uh we got that brass ring on the merrygoround, so to speak. Why did you come forward? But
00:28:18
the case would take another unexpected turn. What you want to say to her family? Micah Moore, the man who put
00:28:23
everything together for police, was about to tear it all apart. [Music] What do you think about the fact that
00:28:40
Tyler hasn't been arrested? With Michael Moore's confession in hand, why did you
00:28:44
come forward? Investigators were confident a crime had been committed, but needed details of why and how. Micah
00:28:52
is very intelligent, but just didn't seem to have the drive to want to take someone's life, who might have been with
00:29:00
Micah at the time. With all eyes on him as an alleged accomplice, Tyler categorically denies
00:29:08
any involvement. I have to ask you the question directly. Did you order Micah to kill your wife?
00:29:15
No. No, of course not. I mean, I've read the media, so I know the image. Micah is
00:29:21
easily manipulatable. What's the implication Tyler manipulated him? I'm asking you if he's I mean, if if he
00:29:28
wanted to please you. Is the reason you're asking me if you wanted to please me because you think his desire to
00:29:34
please me somehow led to foul play? My sense listening and definitely the way I think anybody watching would
00:29:41
interpret is did Micah want to please you? If the answer is yes, then he could have done
00:29:48
this thing that the media's painted him as doing. And I don't think that's fair to Micah or to myself. But investigators
00:29:55
are piecing together Tyler's powerful hold over the group. And some of it appear to be sexual. The way it's been
00:30:02
explained to us, Tyler was very close with the men in the community. Our understanding is is that Micah, as well
00:30:08
as the other men in the community, spent a considerable amount of time alone with
00:30:14
Tyler, more than just guys out going and playing football. At least four other members came forward to investigators in
00:30:21
the days after Bethy's death with accounts of how Tyler used his authority to initiate secret sexual relationships
00:30:28
with the men and referred to that activity as a religious experience. You manipulated several men into having
00:30:37
sex with you. Is that right? No, that's not correct. Well, correct me. I've never had sex with anybody. Okay, let me
00:30:44
just be clear. You did not manipulate men into having sex with you. No. No, that would not be accurate. Like, there
00:30:51
was never sexual intercourse. There was I don't know what I'm allowed to say on television. There
00:30:56
was hands in places. And there was being there was being horizontal, so like being on a bed at the same time. And
00:31:05
there was um oral sex happened twice. Twice. So, that that's it. Police may have had their suspicions
00:31:14
about Tyler's influence over the group, especially with Micah, but their case wasn't coming together the way they
00:31:20
hoped. The forensic evidence simply wasn't matching his confession. Micah indicated that prior to her death that
00:31:29
she had been given a drug in a water bottle, and then when she became incapacitated, she had been sexually
00:31:37
assaulted by a number of the men that were in the household. But blood tests showed no cerakquil in Bethy's system
00:31:44
and police don't have a lot of evidence from the scene. There was nothing as far
00:31:49
as fingerprints or DNA inside the vehicle. We just weren't able to focus anything beyond his confession. Is it
00:31:55
possible that this was not a homicide? If we find further evidence that would lead us that direction, but right now
00:32:04
it's in the balance. This was on a weighing scale. It's still teetering to that homicide. We've got a confession.
00:32:10
What do you want to say to her family? He chose upon himself to come in and confess to a murder. We take that for
00:32:17
what it's worth. The question I would throw back is, how dare you accuse someone of being involved in a murder
00:32:26
without that forensic evidence? How dare you? But prosecutors pushed ahead, charging Micah with Bethy's murder.
00:32:34
Then, just when it seemed like there couldn't be another possible twist or turn in the case, Micah's attorney,
00:32:39
Melanie Morgan, held a press conference on the courthouse steps to say flat out her client did not do it. Driven to the
00:32:47
police station by representatives of his church community. Micah told a fictional
00:32:51
account that was bizarre, nonsensical, and most importantly, untrue. She said Micah is recanting his entire
00:32:59
confession. The confession, she said, was the result of an exorcism performed by the leaders of the International
00:33:06
House of Prayer. There was very intense yelling, scream praying, talking in tongues, telling these kids that they
00:33:14
were to blame for Bethy's death. All of that, Tyler says, points towards something other than murder. I'm pretty
00:33:23
sure that the the the stuff Micah said was stemming from a psychotic episode. And you maintain that this was a tragic
00:33:30
suicide and not a murder conspiracy. I think that makes a whole lot more sense. In a statement, IHOP says it was not in
00:33:39
the slightest way for the purpose of exercising demons out of people. IHOP continued to refuse to answer our
00:33:46
questions about the incident. For Tyler, he is now ready to admit that he did play a role in Bethy's death. I
00:33:54
genuinely having spent tons of time trying to come to grips with what happened. Do
00:34:00
you think you drove her to suicide? I think that's probably a little too strong just cuz I think a lot of things
00:34:08
come together to produce that. But do I feel like I have really real responsibility for what happened? Yeah.
00:34:15
Yeah, I do. Bethany deserved a straight husband and she she she got a gay one and she shouldn't have
00:34:23
ever had to experience that. And now the prosecutor has a hard decision to make.
00:34:30
Is there enough evidence to take this case to trial? Or should the young man who confessed to murder walk free?
00:34:37
[Music] For 2 years, detectives Penny Cole and Ben Kenny have been trying to crack this
00:35:06
case. It's become personal. We have one of the photographs of Bethany taken obviously at a happier time in her life
00:35:13
and uh I keep uh that just to remind myself that uh this was somebody's daughter. Her picture there reminds me
00:35:20
that Bethy's still waiting. Despite all of their efforts, the investigators were not able to
00:35:27
substantiate Michael Moore's confession. Just two weeks before his trial was to begin, prosecutors quietly issued a
00:35:35
statement. They were dropping the murder charges against Micah Moore. They told us that they did not have
00:35:45
enough evidence to ensure a conviction and they chose to drop the charges because if they had tried it and
00:35:55
lost it, then of course they would not have tried it again. So what was your reaction to the charges being dropped?
00:36:03
Sorrow. Deep sorrow. For Tyler, the news was overwhelming. There was a whole bunch of different
00:36:12
reactions. Like I would have thought it would have just been this like like it's this like pure relief,
00:36:20
but I cried myself to sleep that night and the next night, but I was also angry that it was so clear and that it had
00:36:27
gone on so long. Micah Moore declined to speak with 48 Hours, but has posted online that he
00:36:34
blames the International House of Prayer, stating they are not prophets, they are manipulators. He also expresses
00:36:42
regret for blindly following Tyler Deon. What are you most angry about or with whom?
00:36:50
I would have to say Tyler. The betrayal and the fraud that he demonstrated towards
00:36:59
Bethany is very hurtful. For the last 2 years, Tyler's been in therapy to work on what he
00:37:06
refers to as control issues. Several counselors he asked us to talk to say he's made progress and can now see the
00:37:14
repercussions of his behavior. I really think my failure to deal with being gay effectively, the ignorance, the the
00:37:23
fear, the shame, the self-hatred, the denial, all of it, um, plays a real part in why people were
00:37:32
even able to have a reason to think that that Micah could have done something. If
00:37:37
I had really been able to to to get through that somehow, then I I think Bethany would be alive.
00:37:44
Tyler is trying to rebuild his life, but he's already lost a teaching job when students Googled him and learned about
00:37:51
his past. You've asked us not to mention uh your current job or or where you live. Why is
00:37:58
that? Um this this thing chases my family and I. Um it's been really difficult. But do you fear for your
00:38:09
safety? Yeah. My favorite thing honestly would be if y'all didn't do this show um
00:38:14
and you just let us go on and live our [Music] lives. For Bethy's friend Taran O'Brien,
00:38:26
there is one nagging question about the whole tragic situation that keeps coming
00:38:31
back to her. Why didn't we all make the connections until after it happened? Why couldn't we see, you know, the
00:38:42
unhealthiness of the situation before, you know, before she died? What would you say to other parents who
00:38:54
are concerned that their child may be involved in a dangerous? I would say, don't let anybody get between you and
00:39:00
your child. Don't let anybody cut your child off from their family. And the things that I started to
00:39:12
see in her were identity changes. And I think that that's what Tyler did. He took her
00:39:22
identity. He took all of their identities and said, "No, this is who you really are.
00:39:28
This is what you're supposed to be, not what you think you're supposed to be. For two years, it was Carol
00:39:37
Lidine who spoke for the family. Bethy's father, Eric, attended all of our interviews, but never said a word until
00:39:45
now. And what he had to say was one final bombshell in this story. I I think we share some thoughts, but I
00:39:55
think the conclusion is is different. In my particular understanding of the facts, as we've come to know them at
00:40:03
this point, I believe Bethany was severely depressed to the point of being suicidal. And I believe that she wasn't
00:40:13
properly cared for or protected in a very fragile state. And I think she took her own life.
00:40:22
That's a conclusion the police don't accept. For the best on this whenever they get our case is still open. Yes.
00:40:29
And we will continue to investigate it. Why is this still an active investigation? Homicides are there's no
00:40:35
statute of limitations. We're just going to keep uh keep looking at it, keep talking to people that we can find that
00:40:41
we haven't already had an opportunity to speak with yet. So, is it possible there
00:40:46
may be arrests in the future? We would hope so. We're working toward that. Is Tyler a suspect?
00:40:57
At this point in time, we have nothing to indicate that Tyler was directly involved in the death of his wife.
00:41:05
What about indirectly? I would rather save that for another time. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.
00:41:43
[Music]