Pod Insights Criminology Suzanne Simpson About this episode Suzanne, a 51-year-old mother of four from Olmos Park, Texas, is currently missing but presumed dead. Despite multiple searches, including a sweep of the landfill in Bexar County, Suzanne still has not been found. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance of Suzanne Simpson. It's a case with circumstances that are all too familiar to those who regularly follow true crime. Suzanne's husband, Brad, was a suspect from the start. And just weeks before this episode aired, he was arrested for Suzanne's murder. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production
Transcript 10,014 words · 3 speakers
0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 335 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.
0:43 Speaker 02 And this is Mike Morford.
0:45 Speaker 01 And Mr. Morford, how you doing, buddy?
0:47 Speaker 02 I'm, I'm doing good. I'm doing some, uh, early Christmas shopping here. I was waiting for you to jump on and decided to start spending some money on, on the holidays. How about you?
0:58 Speaker 01 Well, you know, that can be pretty easy nowadays with, uh, with all the technology that, that we have. No, I'm doing great. We had our first snow yesterday of the season and the puppy, first snow ever for the puppy. And Ivy was out, you know, looking at her footprints, trying to figure out this white stuff and, and what was going on.
1:22 Speaker 02 Yeah, the dogs love the snow. I was watching the football game last night too. It was pretty awesome to, to see that kind of, uh, action in the snow.
1:30 Speaker 01 Yeah, I watched, uh, some of it as well. But, uh, yeah, so first snow, hopefully it's a mild winter like we've had the last couple, but we'll have to wait and see. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. Beth jumped out to our highest level and we had Margaret Gifford. So some great new support. We really appreciate it.
1:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, thank you, Beth and Margaret. Can't thank you enough for that. And for anyone else that would like to help support the show, you can do so by going to patreon.com/criminology.
2:01 Speaker 01 And more if you mentioned shopping for the holiday season, I was just talking to my wife the other day thinking the second half of this year is going so quickly for me. I felt like the summer, which is usually the other way around, but the summer lasted pretty long, seemed like it went long and but the last two or four months, man, they are flying by.
2:25 Speaker 02 It seems like the older you get, the faster the time seems to go.
2:29 Speaker 01 Yeah, you remember hearing that when you were younger and thinking, ah, what are these people talking about? But turns out it is true. All right, it's time to jump into this week's case and we've got a really big one and it's one that's currently still unfolding and making headlines out of the state of Texas. We're talking about Suzanne Simpson, Suzanne, a 51 year old mother of four from Almost Park, Texas, is currently missing but presumed dead. Despite multiple searches, including a sweep of the landfill in Bexar County, Suzanne still hasn't been found. It's a case with circumstances that are all too familiar to those who regularly follow true crime.
3:13 Speaker 02 Suzanne was a realtor in the San Antonio area, working for Nick's Realty, having been a realtor for 13 years. She lived with her husband Brad, who was also in the luxury real estate business. They had been married for 22 years. When Suzanne vanished, their two youngest children, who were 15 and five years old, both lived at home, but their oldest two children, who were 18 and 22, were off at college. Not much has been said about the marriage between Suzanne and Brad or their lives together, but we now know that if it ever was happy, it was unraveling by August 2023, if not earlier. But they stayed together and continued to try to work things out until Brad Simpson reported Suzanne missing
3:56 Speaker 02 on October 7, 2024. Almost immediately, investigators began to suspect that he had something to do with her disappearance. And it wasn't just the husband always did it tunnel vision, or the fact that he was the last person to see her. The more they investigated, the more all signs pointed directly to Brad.
4:15 Speaker 01 On October 6th, the last day Suzanne was seen alive, witnesses placed her and Brad at a party held at a members only dinner club in Alamo Heights called the Argyle. The club offers an upscale environment and a five star dining experience. The Simpsons stood out there that night because they were fighting. It was also awkward because things clearly weren't great between them. They arrived and left separately to a friend's birthday party where they kind of made a scene. Suzanne also had their five-year-old daughter with her, who likely witnessed the whole blow up. Suzanne left the party at approximately 8:30 that night.
4:58 Speaker 01 On her way home, Suzanne stopped at HEB, a local grocery store. At 9:15, when she left, instead of going home, she called a family friend who lived nearby and asked if she could visit. One minute later Suzanne called her mother, Barbara Clark, and told her that Brad had punched her and hurt her arm and back. She then went to the home of her family friend.
5:24 Speaker 02 Just after her phone call to her mom, Suzanne's cellphone service was shut off. According to ksat.com news, the phone service was suspended at the request of the subscriber, which seems to mean that Brad was able to cut off her cellphone service, hoping she would have to come home because it was late at night and there would be no way to contact anyone. Data from Brad's phone would later prove that he accessed their AT&T account from his phone at the same time that Suzanne's service was suspended. We do know that at some point Suzanne did end up back at their house on the 500 block of East Almost Drive. So did Brad.
6:02 Speaker 01 So clearly more, something was going on that night. The two weren't getting along. People saw them fighting at this party. And then you have Suzanne telling her mother that Brad punched her and hurt her arm. And one of the things that, you know, really jumped out at me was Suzanne's cellphone service being shut off.
6:28 Speaker 01 And the authorities kind of putting it together that it was Brad on his cell phone, accessing the AT&T account and shutting down her phone. I mean, who in the world does that?
6:47 Speaker 02 And I think the real troubling thing about it is it was on the heels of her telling her mom that Brad had punched her. So, you know, very troubling to see that shut down right after that.
7:03 Speaker 01 And there was talk about, well, you know, he, he thought that would force her to come home. But to me, it just seems like such a, a risky thing to do, right? We all kind of live by our cell phones these days. But there's also the element of safety in having a cell phone. If something were to happen, and let's not forget, she's with the five year old. So that, that whole thing to me has a very ominous ring to it. Once they were both at home, a commotion caused one of their nearby neighbors who lived across the street to look out the window sometime between 10 and 11 that night.
7:46 Speaker 01 As he looked out of his bedroom window, the neighbor spotted two people who he recognized as Brad and Suzanne Simpson outside in his front yard. According to KSAT News and an arrest warrant, Brad was grabbing at Suzanne and was clearly attempting to keep her from running away. Suzanne broke free from Brad's grasp and ran away from him. He chased her and was trying to grab her. At the time, the two were heading west on their street. In the time it took the neighbor to get outside with a flashlight to try any kind of intervention or help, they were gone.
8:27 Speaker 01 The neighbor, though, could still hear them and heard two, possibly three screams coming from a wooded area on the east side of his home. After hearing the screams, he ran back inside his home. The neighbor stayed alert even after going back inside. An hour after hearing the commotion and seeing Suzanne trying to get away from Brad, the neighbor saw Brad once again. This time he was by himself. He got into his truck, a black 2019 GMC Sierra and left. He was gone for one to two hours before returning. And there's no doubt that this is a huge part of this case.
9:08 Speaker 01 You know, first of all, you have a neighbor and this happens in many of the cases that we do. Someone's either looking out the window just by chance, or they look out the window because they hear something, which is what happened in this case. But what this guy saw, what this neighbor saw was pretty alarming. Morph, you know, he recognized the two people. They were neighbors, Brad and Suzanne, but they're obviously in some type of altercation where it appears Suzanne is trying to get away from Brad and he's grabbing her.
9:48 Speaker 01 And when she does get away, he runs after her and then the neighbor hears screaming.
9:54 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think all of that immediately following the stuff we already talked about,
10:02 Speaker 02 you know, her telling her mom she was punched, her phone being shut down by Brad. And now you have this neighbor witnessing all this. It's a dire looking picture.
10:14 Speaker 01 You know, and credit to this, this guy, because he grabbed a flashlight. He went outside. He was going to try to intervene, but unfortunately by the time he got out there, they were already down the, the street somewhere. But obviously this guy stayed pretty alert to realize when Brad came back. You know, it was an hour or two that he was gone in his truck and then came back. So obviously the neighbor was invested at this point. And what was going on trying to figure out, hey, what's happening between these two people? But the one thing that, you know, I didn't see in the research was that this neighbor ever called
10:59 Speaker 01 the police. And this is something that, you know, we kind of touch on in a number of episodes. But a lot of times it's someone hearing something from inside their house. Maybe it's a gunshot, but they don't know for sure. And we, you know, question whether or not they should call the police. This one here to me seems a little more clear cut. Now you could make the argument that, you know, these are neighbors. You don't want to get them in trouble. That thought might go through someone's head, but this seems like a pretty bad scene.
11:37 Speaker 02 Yeah, especially after this neighbor took the time to this, to watch to see what was going on. And obviously felt something was off that he needed to pay attention. So the fact that he didn't call the police while it was unfolding is a little bit perplexing to me. Despite Brad turning off Suzanne's phone service, her phone was still active the next morning. The last ping from her device occurred at 7:15 on the seventh. And the GPS showed that at that time it was not pinging at the Simpson home. It was pinging from the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant called Panchito's less than half a mile away.
12:18 Speaker 02 Brad Simpson apparently claims to have thought everything was normal until three o'clock that afternoon. When he received the call from their daughter's school informing him that Suzanne hadn't shown up for pickup. And their five year old daughter was still there. Suzanne always handled the pickup from school. According to Brad, he didn't panic. He just went to the school and picked up their child. It would be another seven hours before he decided to report his wife missing. He claimed to have seen Suzanne that morning before he left to drop their five year old off at school. He said that at 6:30 that morning, she was asleep when he peeked into a separate room. The next morning on the eighth, Brad didn't show up for a scheduled interview with detectives. Instead, he went to a second property he owned in Bandera County over an hour away.
13:03 Speaker 02 Though he was uncooperative and had nothing to say to investigators. He did call his brother Barton Simpson and apologized for causing so much trouble.
13:12 Speaker 01 So there's a couple of things here more for me that, you know, just seem off. And, and obviously we know they're off, but you have someone who doesn't report their wife missing for quite a long time. Now, I get it. He says that he saw her in the morning, but then she doesn't pick their youngest up from school. Okay. He goes to pick her up. He doesn't panic, he says. But then it's another seven hours before he decides to report his wife missing and then not showing up for a scheduled interview with detectives. I mean, all of that just seems off to me.
13:57 Speaker 01 It seems as though you're not worried about your wife at all.
14:01 Speaker 02 All along, these things are troubling from Brad hitting Suzanne to turning off her phone, then the neighbor sees the scuffle. Now she's missing all of a sudden and he's not in a rush to, to do anything about it. You know, it's, it's leading down a road that just doesn't look good and it looks like something bad has happened here.
14:21 Speaker 01 And it doesn't look good for Brad Simpson. That afternoon, a staff member from their child's school reported some troubling statements made by the Simpson's child. The little girl said she had witnessed her parents fighting, which resulted in a bruise on Suzanne's elbow. The child also noted that Brad took Suzanne's phone from her. Just before 10:00 PM, minutes short of 24 hours since Brad's missing persons report, the neighbor came forward to tell investigators about the fight, the screams and Brad's late night trip. Less than three hours after receiving this information, authorities obtained a warrant for Brad's arrest.
15:05 Speaker 01 53-year-old Brad Simpson was found at 1:30 AM on October 9th, 2024, driving east on Interstate 10, about 30 miles north of San Antonio, when officers from the Kendall County Sheriff's Office made the arrest and booked. him into custody. He was charged with family violence, specifically assault, causing bodily injury and unlawful restraint. Since these acts had witnesses, he was granted a bond, but it was steep. $1 million per charge he was facing. The next day, he was transferred from the Kendall County Jail to the Bexar County Jail.
15:46 Speaker 02 Despite the fact that Suzanne was still missing, things were moving quickly in the investigation. On October 11th, a federal hold was placed on Brad Simpson. For seven hours on the same day, authorities searched an area about a mile away from the 542 East mile marker where he was arrested on Interstate 10. The next day, authorities from the Texas Department of Public Safety obtained a warrant authorizing a search of a landfill in southeast Bexar County. The warrant was filed under seal, so exactly what they expected to find or why they thought it would be found in the landfill is unknown.
16:21 Speaker 01 Investigators released a photo of Suzanne from the Argyle Dinner Club showing what she was last known to be wearing, which was a black knee-length dress and black high heels. While they were almost certain she was not just a missing person and was likely a homicide victim, Olmos Park Police Chief Fidel Viegas told KSAT News that the investigators didn't want to miss an opportunity to say, hey, this is what she looks like in case someone out there knows where she is, or she's hiding away or something. It's been established that the couple was not happy with each other at the Argyle, and we know that she was in distress.
17:04 Speaker 01 So this is one of those cases where a person's state of mind may have caused them to take off.
17:11 Speaker 02 It seems that there was a possibility, at least, that Suzanne could have been angry and needed time to calm down before going home and figured she would leave Brad with the kids and the responsibilities. She also could have been terrified and waiting for Brad to calm down before she returned. Either way, investigators remained open to the possibility that Suzanne was still alive. Chief Viegas told the San Antonio Report, "We're holding out hope that maybe she's trying to be away from the home to get away from that situation."
17:41 Speaker 01 And I don't know what you think morph, but I mean, I think the, the police have to be open at this point in time because they don't have evidence that definitively says, you know, Suzanne is dead. Now they might believe that she was a homicide victim, but the possibility still exists that, you know, she could have just wanted to get away from Brad, either for him to cool off or to let her cool off. So they're at least entertaining that possibility. However, unlikely they might think it is. You know, when you talk
18:23 Speaker 01 about tunnel vision, whether their words ring true or not, it seems like they're, they're open to a number of different possibilities at this point.
18:34 Speaker 02 And I think they had to be open to that possibility because if she was alive, she could be in danger or, you know, it might be a situation where time was of the essence to find her. So I think they had to keep that as a possibility.
18:49 Speaker 01 The San Antonio Police Department joined the search on October 15th at the request of the Almost Park Police Department. As the investigation unfolded, the public learned that the federal hold placed on Simpson was due to a federal charge he was facing. During searches of the Simpson home, authorities discovered a short barreled rifle, which he didn't legally own. This charge alone meant that he could be sentenced up to 10 years in a federal prison in addition to a maximum fine of $250,000. This federal hold meant that if he managed to post the high bail, which could be easier than usual
19:32 Speaker 01 for people in professions like real estate, he would have been placed into the custody of the US Marshal Service instead of being released to his home. So no matter how you looked at it, Brad was in a lot of hot water. And a lot of times in movies, you know, you see people sawing off the barrels of a rifle or shotgun with a hacksaw. I don't know what act it was, but some act many years ago.
20:02 Speaker 01 Made owning those types of weapons illegal. And this actually happened to me in a way. When my grandfather passed away a number of years ago, a short-barreled rifle was found that he owned. I don't know legally, illegally, I'm not sure. But it was handed down to me. And as soon as I got it, I thought, I don't think this is legal. So I actually called my local police and had them come out, told them the story, and they took it for me and said that they would just hold it. Kind of a strange situation, but I didn't get in trouble or anything.
20:44 Speaker 01 I was honest about it and explained how it happened.
20:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I think maybe that's the difference between you and Brad here. You know, you came forward and said, hey, I've got this gun. What do I do with it? And Brad, on the other hand, wasn't honest about that gun and decided to hold on to it.
21:04 Speaker 01 Well, and you wonder why Brad had it. You know, whether he cut the barrel off himself or, you know, we don't know how it happened. And we don't know what that weapon might have been used for. You know, there's probably a goal weight in your head and getting there on your own is the hard part. Weight Loss by Hers offers access to a range of FDA-approved GLP-1 medications, including the Wegovy pill and the Wegovy pen, plus support along the way. With Wegovy, you can lose up to 20% of your body weight. People lost an average of 14% body weight in 64 weeks in a clinical trial of Wegovy alongside diet and exercise. To get started with Wegovy, just go to forhers.com
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22:34 Speaker 02 Sometimes in missing persons cases, one of spouses accused of murdering their missing partner, their immediate family will rally around them and support them, showing how much they believe in their innocence. This was not the case for Brad. Instead, his family was fully on the side of Suzanne and her family. It's not clear what made them abandon Brad and instead support Suzanne's family. They were also concerned for Brad and Suzanne's kids. Just one day after Brad's arrest, his mother spoke to KSAT News and talked about the total disbelief she was experiencing. But it was clear that her focus was not on helping her son, saying, "We are devastated family and we do need privacy.
23:15 Speaker 02 And that's all we're asking for because our only concern right now are these children and these grandchildren."
23:21 Speaker 01 And I just wonder more if, you know, his family not being on his side had to do with all of the information that was coming out. I mean, we said it, right? It, none of it made him look good. And I think in a lot of the cases that we've done where the family does rally around someone, the information that would make them turn away from their loved one doesn't come out until much later. Maybe that's just a little different in this case.
23:53 Speaker 02 Yeah, we also don't know what went on behind the scenes in, in the years leading up to Suzanne going missing. Maybe the fam, his family was aware that he had some issues or maybe Suzanne was afraid of him, or maybe they saw that he treated Suzanne badly. And maybe that's why they were so quick to be. On her side and her family's side.
24:17 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's true. We don't know a lot about the family dynamics. Maybe, maybe more will come out in the future. On October 16th, 10 days after Suzanne had last been seen alive, Brad's brother Barton issued a written public statement. According to KSAT News, it read, "Until Brad chooses to cooperate, we will continue to cooperate for him. As we have from the very beginning of this heartbreaking ordeal, this is not how he was raised. And this is not who we are. Our parents instilled in us the values of honoring and protecting others, and they are truly remarkable people. The devastation this has caused to our family
25:02 Speaker 01 is overwhelming. Brad's refusal to cooperate is unacceptable. My sister and brother-in-law have stepped up to take care of the children, but the impact on our parents has been shattering. Our lives have been irreparably changed. We will not rest until we find Suzanne." And it was signed Barton T. Simpson. So I think, you know, there was a real emphasis there that they were going to cooperate with the police in Brad's place because he wasn't doing it.
25:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, it was pretty clear that the family was all in on finding Suzanne and getting him to do the right thing and start talking.
25:49 Speaker 01 And it wasn't just Brad's siblings that chose not to stand by him. He and Suzanne's children immediately stood with their mother. Her 20-year-old daughter posted a series of stories on her Instagram page urging other women in the Alamo Heights area to speak out about domestic violence. In one of these stories, she made note her belief that her father was guilty, writing, "He took my mother's life in a state of rage and control."
26:20 Speaker 02 The search of the landfill stopped on October 17th after five days. Authorities didn't find any traces of Suzanne or anything to further their investigation. Almost Park Mayor Aaron Harrison told KSAT News, the search would now focus on the wooded areas in and around Almost Park. By October 19th, the assistance of Texas Search and Rescue, a nonprofit first responder organization headquartered in Austin, had been requested by the Almost Park Police Department.
26:50 Speaker 01 And Morf, one of the things that I did like hearing about is that the Almost Park Police Department was not shy about requesting assistance from other agencies. You know, a lot of times you hear about these police departments, they want to try to keep everyone else away. They don't want other agencies coming in and helping them. And you and I have talked about it a number of times. Why wouldn't you want some of these bigger agencies or help from other entities? So that's kind of refreshing. You don't always hear that.
27:29 Speaker 02 Yeah, it seems like an all hands on deck situation where you would want as many resources as you can have. You know, trying to help you solve a case and find this person.
27:40 Speaker 01 James Cotter, a longtime business partner of Brad's, was arrested on October 21st and charged with two counts, tampering with evidence with the intent to impair an investigation and possession of prohibited weapons. According to investigators, he went over to the Simpson home and retrieved an AK-47 that Brad had failed to properly register and had also illegally modified, turning it into a machine gun. It's interesting, authorities admit that this information came from a tip. Publicly, the person is anonymous, but they had previously provided information in this investigation that turned out to be true.
28:23 Speaker 01 So when they were notified that Cotter had been asked to help Simpson hide a fully automatic AK-47 rifle, they quickly moved on the information. This person also provided some kind of video evidence proving that there was an AK-47 in a vault inside the home before authorities searched it. This gun was not found during searches of the home.
28:48 Speaker 02 This wasn't just a case of Cotter holding on to this gun for his friend. He also lied about it. He said it was a 22 caliber rifle. It was the tipster who told investigators it was actually a fully automatic AK-47. Cotter also went to great lengths to hide it for Brad Simpson. The tipster told authorities the firearm could be found behind a wall in the bedroom. When detectives searched Cotter's home, they did find a gun behind the wall mounted TV in his bedroom. There was a string tied to the AK-47 so that it could be easily retrieved later. Bond was set for James Cotter at $1 million, which according to KSAT News, his attorney, Robert Mauer, called ridiculous. Mauer felt that his client was being used to get the Simpson.
29:33 Speaker 02 The attorney said, obviously, they want to keep him in jail because they want to coerce him into cooperating.
29:39 Speaker 01 So no doubt what this guy did was wrong, but a million dollar bond? That does seem very large. And it seems like it had something to do with Brad Simpson. I would have to agree with that. I don't know how many people are getting a million dollar bond for, you know, a gun charge on their own.
30:02 Speaker 02 I do know full, fully automatic AK-47 is a pretty serious thing on its own. I don't know what time, you know, amount of time that carries if you're found guilty of it or what the bond would be. But it seems like a really serious charge, let alone the fact you've got Suzanne missing and, and maybe there's some connection there.
30:24 Speaker 01 Yeah, I don't, I don't want to downplay the charge, but it does seem as though the bond amount at least may have had something to do with Brad and Suzanne being missing. James Cotter gave authorities permission to look through his cell phone and electronic communications. They found a text message from Brad Simpson at 4:35 PM on October 8th, the day after he reported Suzanne missing, asking for Cotter's help. According to KSAT News, the text read, You're in Bandera, can you haul ass and meet me at your house? I don't have much time. Cotter replied that he would be there in just 40 minutes.
31:08 Speaker 01 Brad also told James Cotter to make sure to leave all that shit in the pump house, especially that gun, indicating that Cotter may have grabbed more than just the firearm. According to the arrest warrant, at 8:31 PM, James Cotter texted Brad Simpson, "Get over here. I won't tell anyone," and then texted him saying, "You're my brother."
31:32 Speaker 02 The day after James Cotter's arrest, Brad Simpson was charged with tampering with evidence with the intent to impair an investigation and possession of prohibited weapons, bringing his total charge count to six, including the federal charge. It turns out that this was not the first time that the two real estate partners were facing legal problems. They were both named as co-defendants in 2012, when James Cotter's company, Cotter & Sons Incorporated, was sued by a janitorial company called BJ Corporation. At the time, Brad Simpson was working as the manager of Cotter's company. The next year, Cotter & Sons sued Brad Simpson for using the company to hire Premier Facility Solutions of San Antonio, or PFS,
32:15 Speaker 02 a company that he started in 2009 at above-market rates. He was basically paying himself twice for the same job. There was a lot more to it, and they were back and forth until 2015, when the case went to trial.
32:29 Speaker 01 BJ Corporation won a judgment of $930,000 from Cotter & Sons, but the jury specified that the damages would not come from James Cotter or Brad Simpson. According to KSAT News, Henry Gonzalez, Brad Simpson's attorney in the matter, said Simpson won at the trial court, and the case was ultimately resolved 100% in his favor. But this wouldn't be the last time that Simpson was in civil court over finances. He's been sued by American Express twice for not paying credit card bills. In 2019, he and one of his companies, Live Oak Investments, owed nearly $15,000.
33:14 Speaker 01 The next year, he was sued again, this time for racking up over $11,000 in unpaid charges on his business gold rewards card.
33:24 Speaker 02 It's clear that Brad Simpson and James Cotter were thick as thieves and had a troubling track record together. What's unclear is what lengths James Cotter would go to for Brad Simpson. Some might argue that he was trying to help out a friend who he believed was innocent, and that him hiding the gun was basically eliminating a reason for authorities to look at Brad for something that wasn't connected to Suzanne's case. From what's been released so far, there's no clear indication that Brad Simpson directly asked James Cotter to help cover up a murder, or admit that the firearm was used in any crime. His text suggests a friend down on his luck, afraid that the judgment of people who had never even met him would seal his fate.
34:07 Speaker 01 Another text from Brad to James read, "Sorry for the urgency, but you're all I got, especially now. Social media is destroying me." So maybe James really was just trying to help his friend out. On the other hand, how many people would have a hole in their wall, ready to hide something for their friend at the drop of a hat, knowing that their spouse was missing, and that as a result, they were going to be under scrutiny from law enforcement? To many, someone willing to do things like this for a friend might be in the habit of hiding things and evading authorities. And I thought, you know, the whole time I was going through this
34:48 Speaker 01 research more, that this relationship between James Cotter and Brad Simpson was kind of a strange one. I mean, clearly, they were friends. They were business partners in different ventures, but only a friend would do something such as James Cotter did for Brad. But then you go back in time, and it seems like they were suing each other, you know, in years past. So I got a strange vibe from the relationship.
35:27 Speaker 02 And I just gotta say, Mike, I like you, but if you ever show up at my house asking me to hide a gun in my wall, I'm probably gonna ask some questions of you.
35:35 Speaker 01 Well, that's the thing, right? You know, you hear sayings like, well, you know, he's the type of person that would do anything for a friend. Well, what does anything mean? There's a line for everyone. You know, as close as people are, as friends are, you know, your car breaks down, you call me, I'll come help you out. I'll do anything like that. I'm not covering up a murder. I'm not helping you bury a body. There are lines that I will not cross. And I'm sure that goes for a lot of people, most people.
36:17 Speaker 02 And even if, even if it was not even a murder, just that AK-47, hiding a fully AK-47 that you know is illegal and is a federal offense, to do that shows that he's, you know, pretty tight with, with Brad.
36:36 Speaker 01 Yeah, because he's taking a huge chance, right? Just by taking possession of that firearm and hiding it. He's taking a chance that he's going to get caught up in this and catch a charge himself. And that's what ultimately happened.
36:55 Speaker 02 Robert Maurer, the attorney for James Cotter, asked for his bail to be reduced, and noted that he'd been stuck in a holding cell since his arrest. According to KSAT News, Maurer called it perhaps the most unconstitutional egregious action he had witnessed in his 30 years of law practice. However, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office noted that Cotter had not made any complaints nor grievances about his conditions, and also refuted the holding cell claim, clarifying that Cotter has been housed in a cell in a living unit at the Bexar County Jail.
37:29 Speaker 01 As far as Brad Simpson, even while he was being held in jail, he had to appear for hearings in Bexar County Children's Court, he was able to attend a Child Protective Services hearing via Zoom on October 29th. He claimed to have no clue where Suzanne was since he hadn't seen her since about 10:30 PM on October 6th. He said he figured she was with her sorority sisters in Austin, which he called "her happy place." On October 7, 2024, Brad Simpson was officially charged with the murder of his wife Suzanne, though her body has still not been found.
38:11 Speaker 01 According to KENS5 News, his brother Barton called the new charge heartbreaking, but said that "it brings the family some peace to know the authorities have gathered sufficient evidence to feel confident in moving forward with charges." And we've already talked about it, but I think, you know, this latest quote from Barton just shows it that much more clearly, you know, how all in they were, kind of against Brad, and on the side of Suzanne and her family.
38:49 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that they were in favor of doing what's right, rather than just blindly supporting somebody just because they were family. They wanted to have Suzanne found and wanted justice. It's unclear what exactly gave law enforcement the confidence to charge Brad with Suzanne's murder. It's purely speculation, but it's certainly possible that James Cotter agreed to reveal what he knew to police. On November 8th, James Cotter was able to post bail after it was reduced from an initial $1 million down to just $50,000 for each charge he was facing for a total of 100,000.
39:30 Speaker 02 He's required to wear a GPS ankle monitor. He had to surrender his passport and is prohibited from having any contact with Brad Simpson. He also cannot be in possession of any firearms while out on bond.
39:42 Speaker 01 So we talked about it earlier, you know, how this $1 million bond seemed to be pretty high, right? For James Cotter and his defense attorney made the insinuation that he was being held for questioning. And that's the reason why the bond was so high. He might have been correct about that. And it could be possible that James Cotter gave up vital information in exchange for, you know, lowering his bond. Like you said, more of it's it's purely speculation at this point. I'm sure more on that will come out in the future.
40:26 Speaker 01 This is a case that, like you said, early on, is still unfolding. So we'll have to wait and see on that. The arrest warrant for Brad Simpson was unsealed on November 12th, and it contained some important details. It revealed that at around 12:33 on October 7th, during the time he was gone, after the neighbor saw Brad chase Suzanne, his truck was captured by the security cameras at the local HEB. And it's important to note that the bed was empty, aside from a large ice chest. Later on, the morning of October 7th, Simpson took their five-year-old daughter to school in his GMC Sierra. She was dropped off at 7:53
41:11 Speaker 01 a.m. He also went to a Whataburger that morning, where his truck was captured by their surveillance cameras. He used his debit card to purchase food there. That morning, Simpson had a large heavy-duty trash can and three white trash bags in the bed of the truck, along with an ice chest and a large bulky item wrapped in a blue tarp that seemed to be weighed down with a metal firewood rack.
41:41 Speaker 02 Just before 10 a.m., about half an hour after he went to Whataburger, Brad Simpson went to Home Depot. His purchases there paint a very clear and disturbing picture. He bought a 30-ounce bottle of Clorox disinfectant spray, insect repellent, a box of heavy-duty contractors' trash bags, two bags of semen, and a construction bucket with a lid. He used cash for his transaction. A man in the parking lot of Home Depot recalls Simpson asking him for directions to the nearest dump site. According to KSAT News, data shows that Brad then placed his phone into lockdown mode before heading to a waste site in Bourne where his truck was spotted leaving. After this, he went to the gas station, while still in Bourne,
42:27 Speaker 02 almost a half hour northwest of Olmsted Park. At 11:15, he bought two 1-gallon jugs of water. He paid for these items using cash. It's interesting that the only thing Brad used a debit card for that morning was food, but he used cash for all the supplies that he bought. And a lot of people would think he was trying not to leave a record or a paper trail buying these items. So I think it just goes to show that you might have a plan and it might be well thought out and you might think, hey, I'm going to not leave this paper trail. But all along the way, Brad has interactions with people. He's caught on store surveillance cameras. There's witnesses. So they're still able to piece things together despite him
43:11 Speaker 02 apparently trying not to leave a trail of what he had done.
43:15 Speaker 01 Well, and it's another case of someone being caught on camera at one of these big box stores, buying what you would have to say more is very incriminating items. Now, there are a lot of people that might buy the exact same thing and there would be nothing to those purchases, but those purchases aren't made, you know, in the wake of your spouse going missing. And that's what kind of... Obviously makes his purchases look very suspicious.
43:57 Speaker 01 And the fact that, you know, he used cash for the purchases goes back to what you said. It does seem as though he was trying very hard not to leave a paper trip. Now, why did he use the debit card to purchase his food at Whataburger? Did he think that that was going to give him an alibi? Or a, a point of reference, but throw off the rest of it? I don't know about that.
44:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, I take it is he thought, okay, later on, when they go through my records and they go through my card statements, my bank statements, they'll say, okay, he ate a meal at a fast food place. So what, but what they, police wouldn't see was that he had purchases at Home Depot. Where they could go back and track those purchases, but it seems like he didn't count on witnesses or surveillance video helping put him there.
44:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think it's another instance of someone thinking that they're smarter than what they are. They think what they're doing is going to fool everyone, but it doesn't. Surveillance from the gas station captured the contents of the bed of the truck. Once again, the blue tarp, trash can and firewood rack were still inside, but the trash bags were gone. During this trip, he was now wearing cowboy boots while earlier footage showed he was wearing sandals. At 1:41 PM, the bed of his truck was seen on surveillance again. This time, thanks to a license plate reader in Kendall County, the blue tarp was gone
45:42 Speaker 01 and the firewood rack had been moved. In between the gas station and the license plate surveillance, Brad was in the Medina area. For 13 minutes, Medina is about 40 miles west of Born. During this time, it appears that Simpson turned off his cell phone, but his vehicle infotainment system was still recording GPS data. He then went right back to Kendall County where Born is located.
46:13 Speaker 02 After this activity, Brad likely waited for the call from the school, knowing that the alarm would be sound when Suzanne didn't pick up their daughter. After that, Brad Simpson picked up their five-year-old daughter from school around 3:30 PM. Surveillance cameras at the school recorded the truck yet again, showing that the firewood rack was now missing. The trash can and ice chest were still there, but by 4:10 PM, when the truck was recorded by a security system at a car wash, the trash can was gone too. According to KSAT News, on this footage from the car wash, dried cement splashes could be seen near the rear passenger side in the bed. When authorities searched the Simpson home, the box of trash bags he purchased at Home Depot was found with four bags missing.
46:57 Speaker 02 The firewood rack, heavy-duty trash can, and one of the bags of quick-reach cement that he bought at Home Depot were also found. The 30-ounce bottle of Clorox was found in the rear passenger compartment of the GMC. So it seems pretty clear that, from what we've talked about, that Brad was trying to cover his tracks and not leave a paper trail of these items that he bought at Home Depot. But then, many of those items were found inside his home and his truck. So, you know, he thought he was smart on one hand, not leaving a paper trail. On the other hand, he left these same items that looked incriminating in his possession.
47:38 Speaker 01 I think it's an instance of, you know, people thinking that they can outsmart the police. But I think it's easier said than done to, you know, clean everything up, get rid of everything. It's, it's just not that easy. Thankfully so, because that's what keeps a lot of people from getting away with some of these heinous crimes. Also, go back to, you know, some of this security footage, video footage. Very telling, Morph, when, you know, the bed of your truck is seen with these items
48:16 Speaker 01 at a certain time, and then later on, video shows that some of those items are gone. Okay. Where did they go? What did you do with them? One detail that emerged is that it seems Brad was not going to report Suzanne missing that night, but had to change his plans and whatever story he was concocting, because one of Suzanne's friends called him that night to ask what was going on. According to the friend, Brad seemed unconcerned and hadn't contacted any authorities. So the friend told Brad she was going to call the authorities if he didn't.
48:57 Speaker 01 The friend did call police at 9:57 PM on October 6th to report Suzanne's disappearance. Brad didn't call until 10:11 PM. He left a voicemail for the chief of police about the situation and claimed that he had last seen Suzanne the previous night around 11:00 PM. It wasn't until later that his story changed and he said she was at home the next morning as he left to take their child to school.
49:27 Speaker 02 So I wonder if it's possible that Brad was getting confused by his own stories or having to lie repeatedly and maybe stumbled on his lies because he's telling the police chief on a voicemail that he last saw his wife at 11:00 PM, but later is changing the story to say she was at home the next morning when he took their daughter to school. So, you know, it's little things like that, that police pick up on when you stumble over important details like that.
50:00 Speaker 01 Well, and it certainly doesn't make him look good. Neither does the fact that it doesn't appear as though he was even going to report his wife missing at all. And he only did it because he knew he was going to look bad when one of Suzanne's friends was going to call. So he figured, well, I better hurry up and make the call because if not, I'm gonna, I'm gonna look bad.
50:28 Speaker 02 The affidavit also reveals that on October 9th, investigators searched a home in Banderas County, where they discovered a burn site with an active fire still going. A laptop and multiple cell phones, all apparently belonging to Brad Simpson, had been burned and left in the pile of ashes. Investigators were able to recover data from these devices. According to Court TV, the phones revealed two notes titled, "This Next Life" and "Last Will and Testament", which apologized for physically assaulting Suzanne in August 2023, and again on October 6, 2024. This note was created on October 8th, the day before his arrest.
51:08 Speaker 01 And here we have something else that doesn't make Brad look good at all. A person who's not guilty of anything doesn't need to burn their laptop, their, you know, all their cell phones. They don't need to do that type of stuff. And it's what investigators were able to recover that is kind of perplexing. You know, these, these notes, one titled "This Next Life", and then obviously the, the "Last Will and Testament", you can take those a couple of different ways. You know, was Brad possibly thinking about ending his life? Or was he about to go on the run?
51:52 Speaker 02 I think either scenario further paints a picture of him as somebody that was up to no good and trying to cover his tracks and, and probably strengthened his family's support for Suzanne after hearing these details.
52:11 Speaker 01 Well, the last thing I would ever want to do is tell someone how to get away with a crime. What I would say is, it seems to me that everything this guy did just pointed to him as being guilty. Now, I'm sure he thought nobody was ever going to find this stuff. Nobody was going to know that he bought all these things at Home Depot. He didn't count on video surveillance capturing the bed of his truck at different points in time, but he wasn't a mastermind criminal, obviously.
52:52 Speaker 01 In August 2023, Suzanne had disclosed at least one domestic violence incident to her personal banker. According to KENS5 News, Suzanne told the banker that if she went missing, to look for her in a lake. According to the arrest warrant in September 2023, Brad Simpson texted someone about another incident, writing, "I still feel bad about tonight. I never should have grabbed her phone and drove off, but she was so protective of it. My dumb ass didn't know her passcode, so I got locked out and had to bring it back. I really have no interest in looking through her phone or anybody else's."
53:37 Speaker 01 He added, "These devices are the devil." And this revelation, you know, has a tone of jealousy to it. It almost seems as though Brad thought Suzanne had something on her phone that she didn't want him to see. And he wanted to get a look at it, but he couldn't because he didn't know her passcode. Again, it's speculation, but it kind of seems that way.
54:07 Speaker 02 Well, based on everything else we've heard, you know, the, the way he had hit her, some of the things that had happened that we've gone over, it wouldn't surprise me if he was jealous or suspicious of her and was trying to control her and maybe wanted to see what things she had on her phone. And this was him, you know, look reflecting on that.
54:30 Speaker 01 Yeah, I'm with you on that.
54:32 Speaker 02 When Brad Simpson was arrested, investigators noticed he had multiple bruises and cuts on his hands and arms, and according to KSAT News, did not appear surprised to hear that he's being taken into custody, and he showed little emotion, considering that his wife was missing. His vehicle was seized and searched on October 20th, but stains inside turned out to be Brad's blood, not Suzanne's. Suzanne's cellphone has not been found. Brad claims that she lost it during that shopping trip to HEB, just before she was last seen alive, but data proves that is a lie.
55:07 Speaker 01 And I'm always shocked when someone shows so little emotion in a situation like this, right? A person's not surprised to hear that they're being taken into custody, a husband shows little emotion about the fact that his wife is missing. I mean, none of that adds up. I mean, you just think about any loved one in your life, whether it's a spouse, a sibling, a parent, if you thought for a second that they were missing or potentially in danger,
55:48 Speaker 01 there would be all kinds of emotions coursing through you. And that's aside from the fact that the police are looking at you and actually taking you into custody. So, none of that makes sense to me.
56:03 Speaker 02 Yeah, and we talk about in different episodes how some people react to different situations differently, but if your wife's missing and you're being arrested for it, you think that combination is going to elicit some kind of response and emotions, and that wasn't the case for Brad.
56:24 Speaker 01 Brad Simpson remains in custody at the Bexar County Jail pending a likely trial, which is yet to be scheduled. His bond is currently set at $5 million total. $2 million for the murder charge, in addition to the $3 million for other various charges. According to KSAT News, Suzanne has been described as the kindest, sweetest person, a great friend, and a wonderful mom. Her oldest daughter said she was a phenomenal mother and called her hardworking, driven, loving, and kind. There has been no activity on any of her bank accounts or cards, and everyone who knows
57:04 Speaker 01 her agrees that she would never leave her children or her parents worrying and wondering about her. In their hearts, they know she's gone and that Brad is responsible, but they still would like to have answers and to be able to properly lay Suzanne to rest. And you know, this is something we talk about, something that I think about in many cases, especially on the unsolved side of things. You know, there's a question, and there was the same question in this case, at least the police kept the possibility open. You know, could Suzanne have wanted to distance herself from Brad?
57:48 Speaker 01 But at a certain point, as time goes by, I think that notion went out the window, and I think it does in a lot of cases, because you know, here you have a mother of four children. She's not just going to up and leave them, and you have no activity on her bank accounts. Okay, well, how is she living? How's she buying food? You know, some of that stuff, at a certain point, just starts to make very little sense in the way of someone just up and disappearing, leaving their life. I think for the most part, it's normally not the case.
58:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, and you know, at the end of the episode here.
58:37 Speaker 02 It just seems that Brad, in some regards, it seems like he had a plan. He had ways that he thought he might be able to get away with this. But at the end, I wonder, what's his long-term expectation? Did he just think that nobody would notice his wife was missing? It seems like he didn't think everything through. And again, maybe this is a rush.
59:09 Speaker 02 He didn't have a chance to think things through before whatever happened, happened. And he had to scramble. And maybe his plan could have been better had he had time. But luckily, police were able to find the important things they needed to find to feel strong enough that, you know, there was a case against him, arrest him. And, you know, it seems like a prosecution can be done, even though there's no body.
59:36 Speaker 01 Yeah, we can't sit here and say that Brad Simpson is guilty, obviously, because he hasn't been found guilty. I think, you know, you go through everything that we talked about. I think it's going to be hard for a jury to dismiss a lot of the evidence, even though a lot of it is circumstantial. It's very telling. And I don't know when it will happen. But I have a strong feeling that a jury is going to find Brad Simpson guilty of the murder of his wife.
1:00:13 Speaker 02 I'm hoping that he does the right thing before that time. And maybe for exchange in taking the death penalty off the table, maybe he leads them to her body and cooperates with them fully because it would be the right thing to do. Although he may not have any remorse, he may just be all about self-preservation. And if he is about self-preservation, maybe the taking the death penalty off the table would entice him to cooperate. And just to do it for his kids, you know, if he has any kind of morals or any kind of goodness in him, you know, maybe he can do that to try and make things easier on them.
1:00:57 Speaker 01 Well, this is Texas. So, you know, the death penalty is definitely going to be in play in Texas. And in a lot of instances, that's a huge chip that the authorities have, you know, the ability to offer someone to take that death penalty off the table in exchange for information, a confession, and maybe even more importantly, resolution for Suzanne's family in, you know, retrieving her body, allowing them to give her a proper
1:01:38 Speaker 01 burial and lay her to rest. And that is very important to them, I'm sure.
1:01:44 Speaker 02 Yeah. And time is, you know, maybe working against Brad in some ways to cooperate, because if somebody else finds those remains and the police are able to recover them before he makes a deal, then there would be no point in the prosecution making a deal at that point, because then they would have her body and it would be an even stronger case. So, you know, if he is all about self-preservation, maybe he'll come to the senses and say, I should cooperate and try and make a deal for myself and, and tell them where Suzanne is at.
1:02:21 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's hard to get into the minds of some of these people because you can't make sense of what this guy is accused of doing and is thought to have done. So it's hard to, to make sense of what he might do in the future, but we'll have to wait and see on that.
1:02:42 Speaker 02 Investigators are still asking for help from the public. It's not too late to call in a tip if you know where Suzanne Simpson could be located, or if you believe you saw Brad Simpson or his black 2019 GMC Sierra with Texas Plate MDW 7050 on the night of October 6th into the morning of October 7th. You can call Detective Hector Ruiz at 210-209-2701, Detective Melissa Campbell at 210-219-2702, or the Almost Park Dispatch Desk at 210-822-2000. Authorities believe that Suzanne's remains are likely near the Bandera area.
1:03:24 Speaker 01 And you know, in this episode, we did talk about some acts of domestic violence. If you yourself, or anyone you know, may be the victim of domestic violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. Someone is available to talk with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So more if we kind of already wrapped up the episode and talking about Brad and what's likely to come. Some of it, we're just going to have to wait to see how it unfolds.
1:04:05 Speaker 01 But at least for me, it's pretty hard not to think that the authorities are going to make a pretty compelling case against Brad Simpson. But you know, you never know what a jury will do. It'll be up to them to decide his fate.
1:04:23 Speaker 02 Yeah, this is a case that we're going to have to pay close attention to because things could unfold in the, in the very near future. You know, Suzanne's remains might be found. Brad might take a deal. So we'll have to see if anything develops. And then if it does make it to trial, it'll be interesting to see how that goes and how this case plays out with the jury.
1:04:49 Speaker 01 Yeah, my other thought is, is that there will be more information probably that comes out, especially if he does make a deal. Information that wasn't known at the time that, you know, we're recording this episode. So that will be interesting to see if that happens as well. But that's it for our episode on Suzanne Simpson. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five star rating. You can leave a review, but also keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.
1:05:27 Speaker 02 If you want to find us on social media, we're on X with the handle at CriminologyPod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com/criminologypodcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.
1:05:43 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike
1:05:52 Speaker 02 And Morph.
1:05:53 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
1:05:54 Speaker 02 Take care, everyone.
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