Tyler Deaton, the “ex-gay” leader of a Christian prayer group in Kansas City, is accused of ordering his wife's murder.

Bethany Deaton's body was found in a van next to a lake on October 30. By all appearances, the 27-year-old newlywed had taken her own life.

But ten days later, Micah Moore, 23, told investigators that he killed Bethany and that Tyler, 26, ordered him to do it.

Tyler and Bethany met at Southwestern University, a small liberal arts school in Georgetown, Texas affiliated with the Methodist Church. After graduation in 2009, the couple moved to Kansas City, along with Moore and several other students involved in a prayer group Tyler started at the university.

In Kansas City, they joined the International House of Prayer (IHOP), part of C. Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), which believes the “end times” are near.

According to KCTV 5 News, friends said that Tyler bragged about being very involved with IHOP, saying that he was “training IHOP members for overseas missionary work.”

However, IHOP leaders have distanced themselves from Tyler and his group, saying they “deeply regret our failure to discern the nature of Deaton's alleged secretive, perverse, cultic practices. We further regret his admission to IHOPU [IHOP University] four years ago and all connection he had with our organization.”

Moore told investigators that the group used sex as a means of spirituality and that the group repeatedly drugged and sexually abused Bethany. He said Tyler was worried his wife would tell a therapist about the assaults.

Members of the group told the Kansas City Star that Tyler had “struggled with being gay.”

“He struggled with it, but he overcame it,” a member said. (A video report is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)