| “ | You pushed her! FREAK! | ” |
— Bethany to Charles (about Marion Cavanaugh)
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Bethany Young was a 17-year-old Radley Sanitarium patient that was murdered the night of Alison's disappearance. A year later, her body was discovered and incorrectly identified as Alison DiLaurentis. She was hit on the head by Mona Vanderwaal, thinking she was Alison, and was later buried by Melissa Hastings, who also thought she was Alison and that she was protecting her sister.
Biography
Bethany Young was originally from Bryn Mawr, a town only ten miles outside of Rosewood. She was a troubled teen that often suffered from numerous behavioral episodes that may have been violent and/or aggressive. This led to her being admitted to Radley Sanitarium.
At Radley, Bethany made friends with Charles DiLaurentis and was supportive of Charles dressing as a girl. One night whilst hanging out with Charles on the roof of Radley, Marion Cavanaugh walked onto the roof. Charles asked Bethany to help him as Mrs. Cavanaugh could not see him dressed as a girl. Bethany spoke to Marion before pushing her off the roof, presumably to keep Charles' secret safe. However, when a shocked Charles asked Bethany what she'd done, Bethany told him that he had pushed her and called him a freak. This led to Charles being diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder, although Bethany was actually the one who had it.
While Bethany was a patient at Radley, she was introduced to Jessica DiLaurentis who, at the time, was on the board of the sanitarium. Jessica often took her out on day trips. And on one occasion, took her to stables in Harrisburg. This is where Jessica purchased Bethany's horse named Custard. Jessica insisted that Bethany call her Aunt Jessie. Bethany was angered by Jessica's comment, and she proceeded to throw a bucket at her.
Following this incident, she somehow found out that Jessica was having an affair with her father. Bethany was outraged and she took out her anger by sketching pictures of Mrs. DiLaurentis with devil horns, the word "liar" written across her face, and usually with some sort of a demon chasing or attacking her.
On September 1st 2009, Bethany stole Charlotte DiLaurentis' clothes (which matched the clothes Alison DiLaurentis was wearing that night) and left Radley under Charlotte's identity, as Charlotte had out-privileges to attend classes at UPenn. She headed for Rosewood and wanted to hurt Jessica because of the affair. She ended up in the DiLaurentis back yard and was hit with a shovel by Mona Vanderwaal, who believed that she was Alison DiLaurentis, due to their matching clothes and blonde hair. Mona fled the scene and Bethany's unconscious body was found by Melissa Hastings. Melissa also believed that she was Alison and that her sister, Spencer Hastings, had hit her with the shovel as she had seen them fighting with it earlier that night. Melissa wanted to protect her sister and so pushed Bethany's body into the shallow grave where Alison had been earlier and buried her, unaware that she was not Alison, nor was she dead.
Bethany's unconscious body
Bethany's body was found a year later when Maya St. Germain's family moved to the DiLaurentis house. The body was discovered by builders who were knocking down the gazebo that had been constructed on the site where Bethany's body had been buried. She was identified as Alison DiLaurentis by the police because somebody switched Alison and Bethany's dental records.
When the police discovered that Alison was in fact alive, the Rosewood PD exhumed Alison's grave to identify the Jane Doe that had been misidentified and buried in her place. They then announced that it was Bethany in the grave via a televised press conference.
Series
At the end of the episode, Bethany's body is found when workers are tearing down the gazebo which was built over the spot she was buried. Her body is mistakenly identified as that of Alison DiLaurentis' and her funeral occurs at the end of the episode, with everyone paying their respects to Alison, unaware that it is really Bethany in the coffin.
In this episode it is revealed that Bethany suffered a blunt force head trauma, but her cause of death was suffocation.
Spencer and Aria break into the morgue at Rosewood Community Hospital and read the autopsy report carried out on "Alison's" body. Bethany had been hit from behind or was running away when she had been hit on the head. The wound had come from a curved, blunt object (which Spencer believes to be her old field hockey stick). However, the impact had not killed her immediately. The autopsy found her lungs to be filled with dirt, implying that she had been inhaling dirt in the last moments before her death. This basically means her assailant had struck her, either knocking her unconscious or otherwise paralyzing her defenses, and proceeded to bury her alive.
We come to learn that the "curved, blunt object" "Alison" was hit with was a shovel and she was also buried alive with it.
Bethany's body is stolen from Alison's grave by two members of The A-Team, one in a black hoodie and a blonde girl in a red coat.
Bethany's body is found in the ice cooler at the Halloween Ghost Train Party, after Toby and Noel fight, Toby knocking Noel into knocking the Cooler down, showing a black body bag.
Mrs. DiLaurentis reveals that when identifying the body found in their backyard all she needed to see was the yellow blouse to confirm it was Alison.
It was revealed that Alison was pulled out of the ground where she had been buried alive the night she went missing by Mrs. Grunwald, meaning she did not die that night. The identity of the body that was found remains unknown. This leads Emily to ask "If Alison's been alive this whole time, then whose funeral did we go to?"
While visiting Alison's grave Hanna says that she has a theory: whoever was buried in Ali’s place still died, and she had to have been placed under the gazebo before it was filled with cement. This means that a girl must have gone missing around the same time that Ali did, and if they find out who, they can connect her to someone they know and solve the case. The girls realize that the body was identified as Ali because it was important that everyone believed that she was dead. Later on, Hanna searches for other girls who went missing the same time as Alison and finds Sara Harvey from Courtland. She went missing Labor Day Weekend and Hanna sets up a meeting with her friends, Tina and Claire. It is revealed that Sara was very similar to Alison, both in appearance and personality.
However,Sara went missing the day after Alison meaning that she cannot be in Alison's grave as she was seen after the cement was poured over the gazebo. The Liars later on pay their respects to whomever is in Alison's grave.
While speaking to Detective Holbrook, Hanna realizes that dental records would have been used to identify the body found in Alison's backyard. Following a clue from a book she is reading, she believes A must have swapped the dental records of Alison and the Jane Doe in the grave in order for the body to be passed off as Alison's. She goes to the dentist to try and discover who could have swapped the records by looking at patients who visited the dentist following the discovery of the body in the DiLaurentis backyard as she believes this could lead her to 'A'. However, she is attacked by 'A' who steals the sheets and shreds them.
Following Paige's tip that Alison is alive to the Rosewood PD, Holbrook visits Jessica and tells her that they are exhuming the body in Alison's grave to check if they are actually hers, as evidence has suggested it is not. The Liars discuss who could possibly be in Alison's grave and mention the fact that CeCe was wearing the same top as Alison the night she went missing. Spencer later on asks Jason if he is sure the girl he saw with Melissa in the yellow top was CeCe.
The Rosewood Police Chief hold a televised press conference, stating that they've just received confirmation that the name of the victim, that was buried alive on the DiLaurentis property was Bethany Young. She was a 17 year old patient at the Radley Institution, and was believed to have run away from the hospital on the night that Alison DiLaurentis was allegedly kidnapped.
At Radley Sanitarium, Eddie Lamb tells Spencer that he heard about Mrs DiLaurentis, and when Spencer says she doesn't really think it was a coincidence that Bethany Young was buried in the DiLaurentis backyard, Eddie says her he doesn't either. Spencer asks if Eddie knew Bethany well, and looking over his shoulder, Eddie tells her that if he did, he can't talk about it.
Ripping open the envelope that was left for him, Ezra finds a drawing and wonders what it is. Walking over to him, Aria says that she thinks it Mrs DiLaurentis, and when Ezra asks how she can tell, Aria explains, "that's her house, she was obsessed with her roses, and she definitely wore scarves like that". Flipping the page over, Ezra reads the signature, "Bethany", and when Aria questions how many Bethany's he knows, he tells her just one, "and she was buried in Mrs. DiLaurentis' backyard".
Rewinding and going through the footage in slow motion, they spot who left the envelope, and when Aria asks Ezra if he knows who the person is, Ezra tells her that it is Eddie Lamb, "he works at Radley, and he's one of the people I interviewed for the book". Recognizing the name, Aria mentions that Eddie Lamb was the one who Spencer talked to earlier, and that "he wouldn't tell her a thing. That it was against Radley policy", and Ezra says that he must have had a change of heart.
Aria speaks to Bethany's old Radley room mate Big Rhonda and learns that Jessica DiLaurentis took Bethany to the circus and bought her a horse named Custard, although Rhonda does not know why Mrs. DiLaurentis was giving Bethany presents.
Spencer and Emily later go to the stables where Jessica had let Bethany adopt a horse. They speak to Declan, a worker at the stables, who tells them that Bethany and Jessica came up a few times, although they stopped coming after "the bucket incident". He tells them that Jessica had asked Bethany to call her Aunt Jessie and Bethany had freaked out and thrown a bucket at her. He says that they weren't related and there was something else going on between them.
No One Here Can Love or Understand Me
Melissa reveals in a video to Spencer that she saw Spencer carrying a shovel that night and later found Bethany's body. She thought it was Alison's, since she was wearing the same yellow top and did not look at her face. She buried her in the same spot Alison had been buried in in an effort to protect Spencer, who she thought had killed her. She later learned that she was, in fact, the one who killed her as the body wasn't Alison's and that Bethany was still alive when Melissa buried her. Melissa realised that she had killed an innocent girl.
Spencer and Mona break into Radley to look at Bethany's hospital records, as something in there connects her to Alison. Spencer finds a tape from August 8th in which Bethany talks about Mrs. DiLaurentis. They discover that she was having an affair with Bethany's father. She then questions if she can trust anyone in the DiLaurentis family. She asks "is it like mother, like daughter?". Spencer is shocked that Alison possibly knew Bethany. Spencer herself is then arrested for Bethany's murder.
Mona discovers more from her records later on, finding out that Alison lured Bethany to Rosewood because she was jealous and wanted her dead. Mona is supposedly murdered by 'A' minutes after this, implying that Mona was getting too close to the truth, although it is later revealed that Mona was kidnapped by A and held captive in A's Dollhouse.
While Hanna is snooping around in Alison's attic, she discovers a letter from Bethany to Alison. In the letter, Bethany writes about how excited she is to go and see Alison that Labor Day Weekend(the same weekend Alison went missing). She also thanks Alison for sending her clothes, stating that yellow is her favourite colour. It is implied that Alison sent Bethany the yellow top. However, the letter is later revealed to be fake and to have been put there by A to make the Liars think that Alison was guilty.
Hanna discovers another one of Bethany's tapes, hidden in Mona's room. In the tape she calls somebody (presumably Alison) an evil bitch who can persuade anyone to do anything for them. She also states that the person is not the only person who can make plans and it is "me or her".
Spencer and Hanna discover that Lesli Stone was a patient at Radley for a long time and that she shared a room with Bethany during her time there. Spencer theorizes that Lesli is A because she is avenging Bethany's death as she probably believes Alison hit her with the shovel and the girls helped her bury the body, not knowing that it was in fact Melissa who buried Bethany alive.
Mona tells the Liars that Lesli in fact hated Bethany, meaning that she has no motive for being A. Mona also tells them that Charles DiLaurentis snuck out of Radley with Bethany the night she was murdered, suggesting that Charles may be avenging Bethany's death as A.
In a flashback, Bethany is talking to Charles about leaving Radley when Marion Cavanaugh walks up to the roof. While Charles hides, she is talking to her until she pushes the woman off the roof. Charles asks her why she was doing this, but Bethany blames it on him. She states that nobody would believe a boy in a dress.
Charlotte confesses that Bethany found out about her escaping Radley and tried to expose her. Bethany was on her way to the DiLaurentis house and Charlotte followed her there. Charlotte intended to hit Bethany, but instead accidentaly hurt Alison. Mona then reveals that she must have been the one who hit Bethany, as she mistook her for Alison.Notes
- In September 2013, Marlene tweeted "There's a B in the box. #PLLclue"
- Bethanys' name starts with a "B" and as we now know, Bethany Young was the one buried in Alisons' grave.
- Melissa Hastings is technically an accessory to Bethanys' death as she buried her alive and wouldn't tell anyone. However, this was an accident, as Melissa thought Bethany was Alison and hated Alison all the same as Mona. Melissa buried her thinking she was already dead.
- Mona Vanderwaal is Bethanys' killer. Mona hit Bethany on the head with a shovel, thinking she was Alison, whilst thinking about all of the bullying Alison did to her.
- Spencer Hastings was charged with Bethany Young's murder but these charges were later dropped.
- King revealed that we're going to find out who hit Bethany with the shovel and why in Season 6. Source
- In July 2015, Marlene confirmed via Twitter that we will see Bethany's face in Season 6A.