6. The Suspicious Suicide Of Bethany Deaton
The International House of Prayer (IHOP) is a religious organization based out of Kansas City, Missouri. One of their worship groups, consisting of over 20 people, is run by Tyler Deaton, who found himself at the center of controversy after the death of his 27-year-old wife, Bethany.
On October 30, 2012, Bethany Denton was found dead in the back seat of a van near Longview Lake. She had been suffocated by a plastic bag over her head, and an empty pill bottle and handwritten suicide note were found at the scene. Initially, authorities did not find anything suspicious about Bethany’s death, but nine days later, a fellow IHOP member named Micah Moore walked into the police station and confessed to murdering her. He claimed to be acting under the orders of Tyler Deaton.
Tyler came under fire for running his worship group like a cult. All of his followers lived together in two houses, separated by sex, and he controlled every aspect of their lives. Tyler had been married to Bethany for 10 weeks but carried on affairs with other men, believing his marriage would cure his homosexuality.
According to Micah, Tyler ordered him to murder Bethany because she had been sexually assaulted by other men in the group and Tyler wanted to prevent her from talking about it. Micah was subsequently charged with first-degree murder. While Micah claimed that he’d forged Bethany’s suicide note, his DNA was not found on the bag over her head, and a handwriting analysis concluded that she likely wrote the note herself. Micah later recanted his confession, and with no other evidence to implicate him, prosecutors dropped the murder charge in November 2014.
Officially, Bethany Deaton’s death is still considered a suicide, but many suspicions remain about her death.
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5. The Murder Of John Gilbride
During the 1970s, a liberation group called MOVE was formed in Philadelphia, led by Vincent Lopez Leaphart, who changed his name to “John Africa.” MOVE became known as an urban religious cult with a strong anti-government stance, and they had numerous brushes the law.
On May 13, 1985, MOVE became engaged in an armed standoff with the police at their barricaded hideout on Osage Avenue. A shoot-out ensued, and an explosive charge was dropped on MOVE’s hideout. The charge ignited a gasoline container. The subsequent fire took out the entire city block, claiming the lives of 11 MOVE members, including John Africa. This would not be the last time MOVE found itself at the center of controversy.
Years after Africa’s death, his widow married John Gilbride, a white man 20 years younger than her and fascinated by MOVE. They had a son together, but Gilbride eventually became perturbed by MOVE’s radical cult practices and filed for divorce. The couple found themselves engaged in a heated custody battle over their son.
In September 2002, Gilbride testified at a custody hearing that members of MOVE had threatened to kill him. On September 27, Gilbride was just hours away from having his first court-ordered visitation with his son when he wasshot to death inside his car outside an apartment complex in Maple Shade, New Jersey.
Suspicion immediately turned toward MOVE, who responded with the claim that the government murdered Gilbride to frame them. They even implied that he might have faked his own death. Thus far, there has never been any evidence to definitely tie MOVE to John Gilbride’s murder, which remains unsolved.
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