Disputed Murder Confession Casts a Spotlight on a Missouri Christian Sect
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They found her, one leg curled under the other, in the back seat of a van at Longview Lake, a white plastic bag over her head, a purple pillow beside her, an empty pill bottle nearby.
Everyone assumed it was a suicide — the note found in the van seemed to indicate as much: “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?” it said, and, “Maybe Jesus will still forgive me.”
But in the weeks since the body of Bethany Deaton, a registered nurse who had ties to a charismatic Christian sect here that practices round-the-clock worship, was found, the circumstances of her death have become far less clear. Three days after Ms. Deaton’s funeral, a 23-year-old man, Micah Moore, walked into the Grandview, Mo., Police Department and confessed to suffocating her.
Now, the authorities are investigating allegations that Ms. Deaton, 27, was drugged, sexually assaulted and killed on the orders of her husband, Tyler Deaton, 26, a man described by witnesses as a Pied Piper-like leader who gathered a band of young people around him and pressured them to engage in sexual practices under the guise of religious devotion. Mr. Moore has been charged with first-degree murder. Mr. Deaton and others are still under investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/us/twists-in-bethany-deaton-murder-case-put-spotlight-on-charismatic-sect.html?hp&_r=0
= new reply since forum marked as read
