Poverty killed the cat, er, Skip. Since the Broke family is broke, they had pretty much no money to buy even the basic of necessities. Repo-men were knocking at their door and they were starving. Starving! So they began selling what little furniture they had to stay alive. Soon they decided to sell the ladder in order to get money to buy some food. Unfortunately for Skip, he was in the pool when the ladder got sold, and by the time everyone else realized what had happened, the money had been spent on groceries and Skip was unfortunately doomed to shrivel up like a prune in the water.

...although I guess you could've blamed Dustin, since his expensive pinball machine was nowhere to be found when the family had to pick and choose which piece of furniture they should sell. Dammit Dustin, if he would sell his pinball machine, none of this would've happened.

As someone who played the original Sims game before playing TS2, I can put myself in a younger state of mind and remember how much "fun" it was to dispose of Sims I didn't like in pools without ladders (either by removing the ladder or the move objects cheat), using the rocket launcher inside the house in a very small room, electrocuting them, or even starvation. Otherwise, adult and child Sims lived without aging for an indefinite period of time.

Further, since Sims 1 didn't distinguish between family members and people who just lived together, it was possible for a couple to have children, one dies (either through player intervention or gameplay), the remaining adult moves into another house with one or more adults bringing their children with them, then switching to a different lot where the parent moves in or marries a Sim there, and the children are living happily and obliviously ever after with adults who aren't even their parents!

Now, fast-forward to playing TS2, where aging, family, wants, fears, etc., are brand-new elements that haven't been in the game before (outside of mods and hacks). I think what they were trying to show is simply killing off Sims in the then-new game would have a greater effect than it did previously. So, instead of focusing on who killed Skip, the idea is for the player to try out a single-family household in one of the worst situations possible.

Well my story is the pool ladder was stolen by Gordon K while Skip was swimming. I don't think he did it on purpose, as someone here said it was dark.

Dustin is a good kid but he becomes super mad so now he seeks revenge.
He starts Criminal career and becomes "friends" with Gordon only to double-cross him. Ooooh, his plan is HUGE.

He meets his girlfriend Jessica E and makes friends with her (btw Angela was 'sacrificed' because he couldn't explain the way he acts to her so she was brokenhearted and all).

When he grows up to YA he goes to college and joins the Secret Society. He gains access to the Cowplant and that when it all happens. He makes Jessica cheat on Gordon (they were engaged by that time) and then he feeds Gordon to the Cowplant. Tadaa! No one suspects a thing o.O

I honestly think he commited suicide. He loved Barbara, but wasn't ready to become a father and had no idea how he was going to get the economy going.

He killed himself for insurance money to raise kids. Then police discovered that and Brandy got nothing.

The Brokes are poor, and sometimes Skip would have to steal to support the family. Nook's Asset Protection got sick of him stealing from the Pleasantview Nookway and a corrupt N-A-P agent took him out back and shot him, and then they took him and dumped him in the pool where he lives. The Sheriff won't do anything about it because Tom Nook's Shops Inc. is untouchable by them, so they turn and look the other way, but the N-A-P who did it indeed was fired by the company.

Not my actual storyline, but I thought it to be a catchy idea.

He was, of course, abducted by aliens, but the space ship broke. So he fell to his death. Of course, they came back and took Bella later

Everyone is ignoring the evidence. The trailer is poorly furnished - they eat at a card table and sit on garden chairs. Yet Brandi's bedroom is sumptuously furnished, with a two-thousand simoleon bed, expensive carpet and picture. Dustin sleeps on the hardest, cheapest bed, but he has an expensive pinball machine. I can think of only two reasons for the disparity:
1) Brandi is a shopaholic, and gave Dustin the pinball machine to stop him complaining.
2) Brandi is a professional seller of love, and needs posh furnishings to keep the customers coming. The pinball machine is a bribe to keep Dustin quiet.
Either way, Skip and Brandi quarrelled, and Skip took the easy way out. Well, it was actually difficult, drowning in a 1 x 1 pool; but he managed it.

I always kind of suspected Brandi's mother, Betty Newbie, to be behind it in some way. Betty has a rather snobbish attitude, and if you've played TS3, you'd know that she has been manipulated by her parents into trying to achieve perfection. So when her own daughter married a good-for-nothing Sim, she got angry as it reminded her of all her own dreams that she couldn't fully fulfill because of her marriage to Bob Jr.