The disappearance of Bella Goth

{{Simbio-start
 * name             = Bella Goth
 * image            = Bella Goth (TheSims2 PleasantView).jpg
 * caption          = Undated photo taken before disappearance
 * sex              = Female
 * parents          = {{Relative|Simis Bachelor, Jocasta Bachelor|Both Deceased}}
 * siblings         = {{Relative|Michael Bachelor|Older brother}}Deceased.jpg
 * spouse           = {{Spouse|Mortimer Goth|Married}}, possibly Don Lothario Lovers.jpg
 * child            = {{Relative|Cassandra Goth|Daughter}}, {{Relative|Alexander Goth|Son}}
 * family           = Goth family/Bachelor family
 * hair             = Black
 * eye              = Brown
 * skin             = Medium
 * sign             = Cancer

The disappearance of Bella Goth is the infamous disappearance of Bella Goth. It recieved massive news coverage because of the influencial standing of the Goth family in society. The sudden and seemingly random disappearance shocked the town of Pleasantview and caused a large amount of theories, many involving aliens, to arise.

Leading up to the disappearance
Not much is known about Bella's childhood. She was born Bella Bachelor, her parents being Jocasta and Simis Bachelor. Her brother Michael Bachelor was probably a child at her birth. There are conflicting accounts on when she met Mortimer. According to TS2, she met Mortimer sometime when she was a teen and began dating him around that time. In TS3, she is best friends with him as a child. In TS2, it is generally thought that she married Mortimer for his money, since she was a Romance aspiration, an aspiration which tends not to like to settle down unless there is something in there for them. TS3, however, contradicts this theory since Bella is shown to be best friends with Mortimer when she was more innocent child and also have the Good trait. They married sometime in adulthood and gave birth to Cassandra. Cassandra was a teen when Alexander was born.

The only proof of an affair with Don Lothario is a memory of Don's in which it states that he attempted in vain to Make Out with Bella. Since that is the only romantic memory involving Bella, it implies that unless Don randomly forgot a successful encounter with Bella, it is extremely unlikely that they ever actually had an affair. It is unkown exactly when Bella's actual disappearance occured, but according to her family's memories, she hasn't been gone for too long, but long enough that it was before she and Mortimer became elders.

The disappearance
The timeline of events around Bella's disappearance is foggy at best, and so there are many differing theories. On the night of the disappearance, eyewitness accounts, the actual eyewitnesses unknown, have placed Bella "scaling Don Lothario's deck". Other rumors have said that the Caliente sisters, Nina and Dina, were also there. The unsucessful attempt at seducing Bella is shown to happen shortly before Bella's disappearance. According to some pictures in the photo album, Bella was looking through Don's telescope late at night. Strangely enough, according to the picture the telescope was the cheapest one, which does not cause alien abductions. The next memory is of her being abducted.

Aftermath
Since then, Bella hasn't been heard from in Pleasantview. The disappearance caused a massive stir in the community and to this day, her picture is still on the milk carton. This is understandable since she was the first and so far the only person to ever disappear in the Sims games. In Strangetown, there have been numerous sightings of a woman looking like Bella. The few people who have gotten to know this supposed "Bella" have stated that she has so memory of anything that has happened to Bella Goth, although this is usually state to have been caused by alien experiments. Since there is no DNA testing in Sims games, there is no possible way to tell if this could be the real Bella. The Bella in Strangetown is slightly different than the Pleasantview Bella and Strangetown Bella is shown to be a business executive. In family trees, her panel is not grayed out, implying that she is not considered dead. This is contradicted, however, since Mortimer is no longer considered married to her and that only happens when people are dead or considered dead.

If brought back by use of Tombstone of l&D or SimPE, is it shown that Mortimer doesn't have a very good relationship with her. Some people speculate that it is because Mortimer had a role in her disappearance. According to character files, neither the Love or Crush boxes are checked, implying that their marriage was, or had become, loeveless.

Relationship flags such as Crush, Love, and Married are normally unset when a Sim dies, and reset when that Sim is resurrected. It may simply be that the methods needed to bring Bella back do not reset these flags, or that they were not set when Maxis created Bella and Mortimer for The Sims 2.

Some players prefer to play the Bella Goth in Strangetown and consider her to be the real Bella because she has no connection to Pleasantview and is not tied with the Goth/Bachelor family tree, which lends credence to the theory that the alien experiments left her mind wiped. A further area worth looking into is when Alexander Goth goes off to University. If Mortimer is already deceased, the scene that the player sees before they enter the university features a regular Bella as Alexander's mother and she is sobbing about the loss of her son as he is grown up, but after that clip she still remains missing!

Reuniting the Goths
A few people around the Internet have suggested many ways in order to get the Pleasantview Bella back. One way is to use the boolProp testingcheatsenabled and spawn the Tombstone of Life and Death to add Bella to the Goth family. Another is to use the inSimenator to summon Bella, improve her relationship to Mortimer, and set her as his spouse and resurrect her.

Befriending the Bella Goth in Strangetown and moving her into a lot and then making her find her own place is a way to play Bella Goth, but only in Strangetown. Moving the lot to the Lots and Houses bin and then moving her into Pleasantview will cause problems in the game.

Related articles

 * Mysteries

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