Sims don't seem to die correctly

[SimFeliz]

I'm not a expert with Simpe and never will be. I only use it to do little changes. When a sim is dead I noticed that in their portrait the background turns blue. After installing the cleaned up templates when I kill off a Sims their portrait background stays the normal grey. It didn't bother me as it seemed not to be causing any game issues, but when playing today one of my teens came home I got the pop up that he had brought home a friend and it was one of the teens I had killed off. As soon as he got off the bus a second pop up came up saying that she had died on another lot and will return to that lot. I'm guessing something is screwy.

I will explain how I make my own custom townies as maybe I'm doing something wrong. I use a combination of empty and cleaned up templates from this site. I use the tree to make NPC's. I create townies in CAS and use the shrub to make them into townies.

I also now have duplicates of Skip and darlenn (if that's her name) it doesn't bother me, just wanted to make sure I didn't do something wrong or it will cause problems.

I'm sure this happened before I added any hacks but just in case one of the following may be a culprit this is the list of hacks I have.
ant redundancy
CribSleepNight
daily gardener
ElderSleepNightOFB
flush force
MTS2_278801_jaxad0127_jaxad0127_NoNPCRevert
Nobuskers
Nodormiespawns
Noinstantlove
NoKickTrash
nolamehires
Notownieregen
nowhatsthis
Phone & Taxi Hack: ZOMG PETS! (v8.1c) for TS2OFBp2 - TS2Seasons

It's not so bothersome right now since I'm patiently waiting for SimPe and Bon Voyage cleaned up templates to be released, but I Know it will drive me nuts then as I can not tolerate the maxis townies. It hasn't affected my game any other way, but I assume it will If I continue on.

All help it greatly appreciated.

I have all Expansions & shopping packs up to Bon voyage

[Marhis]

When a sim is dead I noticed that in their portrait the background turns blue. After installing the cleaned up templates when I kill off a Sims their portrait background stays the normal grey.

The blue background should be IIRC about "unlinked" state (default for Maxis' dead sims). There's a hack by Pescado which prevents dead sims unlinkage, maybe you have that hack too.
In any case, though, it should not be a bad thing for your sims.

It didn't bother me as it seemed not to be causing any game issues, but when playing today one of my teens came home I got the pop up that he had brought home a friend and it was one of the teens I had killed off. As soon as he got off the bus a second pop up came up saying that she had died on another lot and will return to that lot. I'm guessing something is screwy.

This is the regular behavior; probably you saved the lot before with that teen already scheduled as a brought-home schoolmate. In those cases the game loads the now-dead sim and process it exactly the way you witnessed.

I also now have duplicates of Skip and darlenn (if that's her name) it doesn't bother me, just wanted to make sure I didn't do something wrong or it will cause problems.

Yet another regular feature of default Pleasantview: the game ships with duplicates of Skip Broke, Darleen Dreamer, and IIRC also other dead sims. It's not your fault .

[ZephyrZodiac]

I also now have duplicates of Skip and darlenn (if that's her name) it doesn't bother me, just wanted to make sure I didn't do something wrong or it will cause problems.
Yet another regular feature of default Pleasantview: the game ships with duplicates of Skip Broke, Darleen Dreamer, and IIRC also other dead sims. It's not your fault .

You can get rid of the duplicate unlinked ghosts fairly easily if you want, but before you do, make sure you copy over any memories, etc., that might be missing from the linked ghosts - sometimes the "real" Darleen seems to have no memories of getting married, etc., and the unlinked one has them instead, although it is the "real" Darleen who gets the new memories of what is happening in Dirk's life.  Then, after you have got rid of the unlinked version's SWAFs and DNA, you should be safe to delete her - I frequently do it, although usually after I've resurrected the "real" one.  The same applies to Skip Broke, and Michael Bachelor.  You also have to check the family memories to make sure the sim they remember is the linked one, frequently it isn't, and has the wrong references, so they would need to be corrected.  It's a fairly long job, but it can be done.

[Invisigoth]

Another note, perhaps you simply prefer to do it this way, but there is no need to make NPCs with the townie tree; they will be created as needed (even with antiredundancy, this hack just limits the number of NPCs it doesn't prevent them). Of course you might prefer to tweak the gender of certain NPCs for storytelling reasons so maybe that's why you used the tree. There is no harm in doing it by this method, as far as I know. It's just an extra step.

[SimFeliz]

Thank you.

Makes sense now! It was Dustin Broke's girlfriend I killed off and it was the first time playing the Broke family. From memory I think he always brings her home from school the first time.

I thought I had identified all my hacks. Might be time to do a check again.

Yes I use the tree for NPC's as I like certain ones to be a particular sex.

Least I know now it haven't broken my neighbourhood.

Thank you everyone for your help.