At a suburban Kansas City police station, Micah Moore told police he killed a woman at the request of her husband, just three month after he had participated in their wedding as a groomsman. He said he met the two when they all were attending the same college in Texas. The husband, Tyler Deaton, is a charismatic prayer group leader.
At first, police thought that Bethany Deaton had died from a suicide after they found pain medication bottles empty beside her and a note with her body in a minivan on October 30 hear nearby a lake.
Only when Moore appeared on the scene and made a confession nearly two weeks later, did the police announce that Deaton had been killed. Moore was due in court on Wednesday for his first hearing on charges of first-degree murder.
Allegations were listed in detail in the criminal complaint police filed to support their charge of first-degree murder.
Moore lives with Tyler Deaton and his wife in a communal house that they shared with other men who were members of the prayer group that Tyler Deaton was the leader of. Moore said many of the men in the group had sexually assaulted Bethany Deaton and became worried she might tell someone. At that time, Moore said Tyler Deaton ordered him to kill Bethany.
Police have yet to charge Tyler Deaton with any crime. Prosecutors however, said there was an ongoing investigation and declined to comment any further.
Deaton’s prayer group had two houses – one occupied by men and one by women. Bethany Deaton, after getting married in August to Tyler, moved into the home where the men lived.
Moore said almost at once the men started drugging and sexually abusing the woman and then became worried, when she started seeing a therapist, that she would report the abuse.
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