Micah Moore Indicted for Murder in Deaton Death

Kansas City Star
December 14, 2012

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/14/3966527/micah-moore-indicted-for-murder.html

A grand jury today indicted Micah Moore for first-degree murder in the death of Bethany Ann Deaton, the wife of his spiritual leader.

The indictment supersedes a previous charge of murder filed by the Jackson County prosecutor’s office.

Moore, 23, is currently free on a $250,000 cash bond.

According to court documents, Moore allegedly told a detective 10 days after Deaton’s body was found Oct. 30 inside a van at Longview Lake that he had killed her. The death had up to then been considered a suicide.

Moore allegedly said he feared that Deaton, 27, was going to tell her therapist about sexual assaults that had occurred within their religious group. Moore’s attorney has since said her client’s confession was a fiction born of a fragile mental state.

Moore’s next court date is Jan. 17.

Matt Campbell, mcampbell@kcstar.com