Silver was insecure about her boyfriend Jeremy's feelings for Natalie. Erica encouraged Silver to scheme (she did not know just what Silver would be doing). Silver began stalking Natalie, who was still traumatized from her rape. Natalie bought a gun and shot an intruder, who turned out to be Silver dressed up in black (I think). Palmer helped her cover up the killing - I think a condition being she had to get involved with him. When the truth came out, Palmer went to prison for a while.
Silver was a bust, but I don't think there was any reason to kill her off. I wonder if this was another scab writer decision.
@vetsoapfan will remember in more detail but I believe it was said a source of tension between Reinholt and Rauch/Lemay was that in Nixon's version of the story, Steve had no family - they were all dead. When Emma arrived, Steve revealed to Alice that he had lied about his family because he wanted to move away from his poor background.
The only reason I remember anything about Betsy is because back in the day we were confused about whether Carla Dragoni was in an Intervention episode about a former actress with severe alcohol issues.