Tyler Deaton on 48 Hours
Did you catch 48 Hours this weekend? It’s a mystery as to what actually happened to Bethany Deaton. Did she commit suicide or was she murdered?
Bethany was found in her van with a bag over her head. She had inhaled the bag into her mouth, according to reports, and died with her eyes open, which according to investigators, was unusual.
Bethany was married to Tyler Deaton, and their relationship involved a lot of twists and turns with stories of Tyler running a cult to ultimately identifying himself as gay. He claims to have never consummated his marriage to Bethany, and yet with these weird circumstances calls himself “charismatic” oddly.
One thing is clear: Tyler was able to get people to follow him through the guise of religion and he got people to do what he wanted. I am not sure “charismatic” is the term for that, but it seems to be Tyler’s word.
Tyler demonstrates in his interview with 48 Hours that he is very comfortable bending the truth when it suits him.
“You manipulated several men into having sex with you. Is that right?” Troy Roberts, on 48 Hours, asked Deaton.
“[Laughs] No. That’s not correct,” Tyler replied.
“Well, correct me,” said Troy Roberts.
“I’ve never had sex with anybody,” said Tyler.
And yet Boze Herrington, one of his cult followers, said, “He told us that he had been … practicing for his honeymoon with another guy but not in a sexual, just a physical way.”
You can clearly see the manipulation here.
He later admitted to having oral sex with a guy, but not “sex”. Yeah, right.
So what happened to Bethany?
I do not believe that Bethany committed suicide.
And I can say this: I do not trust Tyler one iota. His reactions to what happened to Bethany make absolutely no sense, if he is uninvolved as he wants us to believe. What level of involvement he has, I would need to see more interviews.
I am happy to hear the police are continuing to investigate this case.
I had to shake my head many times through that episode – the arrogance and narcissism just came off him in waves.
Came here today in hope you posted about this case, Eyes.
I agree, Cecilia, “in waves.” Couldn’t stand the guy. That said, I am not sure what to think about the case.
Some things did make me think suicide was possible. The wedding invitations, for example. Though that was cited by someone ( her mother maybe?) as an indication against suicide, it struck me as plausible that a sweet, conscientious young woman like Brittany might very well have used her last bit of emotional strength to do the proper thing and finish thank you notes, before succumbing to despair. And at the end, when her father said he believed she did take her life, it did affect my perspective.
Tyler is obviously a snake, and utterly without sincerity, but I am not convinced he murdered Bethany. In fact, I wonder if his “physical” and emotional manipulation of other group members led to someone murdering her, not necessarily on order from Tyler, but because they did not want to share Tyler’s romantic attentions.
That detail about her body shaking rung true to me.
Fascinating episode. Tragic that all too often, young women in love with the wrong men become cut off from family and community support. It happens almost undetectably at first, and then suddenly, it is too late.
Tyler seems to be more concerned about what he lost than the fact that his wife is dead, and the boys that he manipulated have been hurt and humiliated. They will live with all of this for the rest of their lives. Tyler doesn’t express regret over them, at all.
I am so glad to see your opinion on this case. Oh gosh, Tyler is insufferable. Whether or not he murdered her, I feel that had Bethany never met the guy, she would be alive today. Question: Is committing suicide by placing a plastic bag over ones head common, does anyone know? I’m thinking, “No”.
I watched this again, and I caught a lot more of it than when I watched it before. I think I missed parts of it, more than I realized. This whole show just blows my mind. Tyler is so deceptive and manipulative, and he shows a lot of misdirected anger. He is mad at the church, who told Micah to turn himself in, as Micah should have done. He show anger and repulsion for Bethany, because she started getting emotionally undone. When I read about the men in the house drugging and molesting her and being rejected by her husband, I can see that she was in quite a state.
I thought the timing of Tyler’s message on getting over your personal wishes and doing what is best for the group was a little too convenient. He mimicked how Bethany sat with her arms wrapped around her legs. He seems to think that she should be able to take anything that he threw at her.
I do think Micah did this, and I have my suspicions that Tyler was behind it. I think he was about to be exposed, because Bethany couldn’t live the way he wanted her to live.
Now Tyler is after Bethany’s Life Insurance. He says that he will repay her parents for the wedding. Not a bad exchange for him. I hope he doesn’t get by with it, but I am afraid, legally, he can. So much for changing his scheming ways, huh?
O.T. Ryan Ferguson was on the Today Show, and he has a book out, Eyes covered this story, and she thought he was innocent, all along. He was found guilty but had his case reviewed and has been released. At the time of his guilty verdict, it was hard to believe he was found guilty, and we were all so relieved that his case was reviewed.
My memory (though admittedly it may be faulty) is that he was speaking pretty specifically about himself when he used the word “charismatic.” He was talking about it as his “gift” and “curse” – that it gives him the power to influence others.
I believe you might be right in his use of the word charismatic. He may think he is charismatic, because he draws people to himself. From the way this story went, I think he scopes out vulnerable people. The way he seems to do this reminds me of the way child predators do it. He knows, instinctively, who he can manipulate. This makes him very dangerous.
These are his exact words: “My gift and something that is also a curse is that I’m charismatic. I am charismatic. I’ve owned that from the beginning. I’ll own that to the end. I can be electric and magnetic.” Overly charismatic, overly Christian. He is a covert narcissist psychopath, bent on keeping his secrets, so when he was about to be exposed, he turned all words around to make it his story, because Bethany can no longer speak for herself. That’s what these monsters do. I would ask for a lie detector test.
That’s how I understood it also. He specifically referred to himself as “charismatic.”
I just read an article from Rolling Stones January 30th issue on Tyler. Excellent reading.
If it were a group of atheists, they would’ve just celebrated their polyamory and nobody would’ve died.
Murder by suicide, only in this case it is murder manipulated to appear as suicide. He is one smug pathological liar and it looks like he has duped a public servant who cannot pin this on him. It’s not a crime to be a narcissist or lie to the police?