Editor’s note: This article contains details that may be considered disturbing.
On the night of Oct. 6, 2024, Suzanne Clark Simpson and her husband, Brad Simpson attended a party at The Argyle, a private club in Alamo Heights where it is reported a verbal altercation took place between the two.
Hours later, a neighbor on East Olmos Drive reported hearing the couple fighting outside of their home. The witness reported seeing a physical struggle before Suzanne broke free and ran away, Brad followed until the neighbor lost sight of them.
The neighbor later told police he later heard screams coming from the wooded area across from his house. An hour later, he heard Brad’s truck start up and leave the area before returning home an hour later.
Suzanne has not been seen since.
The next day, when she failed to pick up her 5-year-old from school, her friends gathered to discuss her disappearance. A friend of Suzanne called Brad with her concerns. When she learned Brad had not called the police about Suzanne, she informed him that she would be filing a missing persons report herself.
At 9:57 p.m. following that phone call, the first missing persons report was filed by Suzanne’s friend.
Fourteen minutes later, at 10:11 p.m., Brad Simpson left a voicemail for the Olmos Park police chief reporting his wife as missing.
Two days later, on Oct. 9, Simpson was arrested in Kendall County on charges of assault–family violence and unlawful restraint.
Today, Brad Simpson remains in Bexar County Jail facing charges of murder, tampering with a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and possession of a prohibited weapon.
The following information comes from public records including the arrest affidavit for Brad Simpson. Unsealed by a judge on Nov. 12, the documents provide details on the disappearance of Suzanne and the case against her husband.
The night of her disappearance
Oct. 6, 2024 was a Sunday night. Suzanne and her 5-year-old daughter left The Argyle at approximately 8:30 p.m. and headed to an H-E-B where they stayed until 8:51 p.m. according to video surveillance footage obtained during the investigation.
Shortly after they returned to the Simpson residence, cellular records reviewed by Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Analysts revealed that at 9:15 p.m. Suzanne called a family friend and headed to their residence in Alamo Heights. At 9:16 p.m. she called her mother to report that she had been assaulted by her husband, causing her pain in her arm, back and neck.
At that same time, Suzanne’s cellular service was suspended at the request of the account subscriber. Records indicated that Brad Simpson accessed the AT&T application at the same time the request to suspend her phone was made.
The affidavit shows that Suzanne arrived at her friend’s home at 9:25 p.m., while details of her return home have not been revealed, shortly after 10 p.m. a neighbor witnessed Brad and Suzanne in a physical struggle. Suzanne would slip away and run westward, with Brad chasing her as they exited their yard.
The witness reported later hearing screams coming from the wooded area across from his home and seeing Brad leave the area in his black GMC Sierra truck.
FBI forensic examiners advised investigators that at 11:09 p.m. through the next day, Simpson began shutting his phone on and off in cycles, which prevented data collection.
This shut off cycle, FBI forensic examiners say, is referred to as “Lock Down” mode and is typically done by a person who wants to avoid detection.
The following days
Brad Simpson would drop their daughter off at school the next day. When Suzanne did not show to pick up her child as she normally did, her friends became concerned and met to discuss her absence. A friend reported her missing to the police.
Brad Simpson told the police chief of the Olmos Police Department in a voicemail that he had not seen his wife since 11 p.m. the night before and that she had lost her cellphone while at H-E-B.
The next morning in a follow up interview, Simpson told police he had last seen his wife the morning of Oct. 7, at 6:30 a.m. as he was leaving to drop off his child at school, contradicting his statement made in the original report.
During the investigation, an officer spoke with a school counselor at Howard Early Childhood Center, who relayed that the child stated that on Sunday evening at home, her dad had pushed her mother against the wall and hit her in the face, hurting her mother’s elbow. She said her father turned her mother’s phone off because they were fighting.
Suzanne Simpson’s 20-year-old daughter would subsequently provide the last known ping on the “Find My” app placing her mother’s phone at the Simpson residence at 10:22 p.m. on Sunday night, over an hour after she left H-E-B.
Following an initial investigation, Simpson would be arrested in a neighboring county on charges of assault-family violence and unlawful restraint on Oct. 9.
Police and investigators are seen on East Countour Drive in Olmos Park near the home of Suzanne Clark Simpson. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report
The investigation unfolds
Over the following week, Texas Rangers obtained and reviewed location data from Brad Simpson’s phone and truck alongside surveillance footage tracing the movement of his truck on the days after Suzanne Simpson’s disappearance.
Video footage from the Olmos Park H-E-B showed Brad Simpson’s truck at 12:33 a.m. Oct. 7 with a large ice chest in his cargo bed.
That same day video footage from Howard Early Childhood Center showed the truck dropping off his daughter at 7:53 a.m., with at least two white trash bags with red string and what appeared to be a large ice chest in the cargo bed.
At 9:12 a.m. footage from a Whataburger drive-thru camera in Kendall County showed his truck with three white trash backs, a large, heavy-duty trash can, an ice chest and “a large bulky item wrapped and secured in a blue tarp covered with a metal firewood rack on top in a manner to conceal and weigh the tarp down”.
The Texas Rangers used geolocation data on Simpson’s cellphone to place him at or near a Home Depot in Kendall County. Surveillance footage in the store’s parking lot showed Simpson speaking to another man. That man told a ranger in a subsequent interview that Simpson had approached him and asked for directions to the nearest dump in Boerne. The man used his phone to provide him directions to the Kendall County Solid Waste site.
Inside the store, footage captured him purchasing two bags of Quikrete cement, an orange construction bucket with a lid, a box of 32-count heavy duty trash bags, one 30-ounce Clorox disinfectant spray and insect repellent with cash.
After leaving the Home Depot, investigators say Simpson once again entered a “Lock Down” mode cycle of powering on and off his cellular device. Vehicle location data later placed his truck near the solid waste site. Surveillance footage from a nearby business captured his truck driving away from the waste site.
At 11:15 a.m., footage from a gas station in Boerne captured Simpson purchasing gas and two 1-gallon jugs of water, analysis of the footage showed that the three white trash bags were no longer in the cargo bed of his truck but all other objects remained. Simpson had also changed his shoes from sandals to “cowboy-style boots.”
Location data from the vehicle tracked Simpson heading west toward Bandera and into Medina County. He continued to turn his cellphone on and off.
A license plate reader camera captured the truck returning to Boerne at 1:41 p.m. with the blue tarp no longer visible and the firewood rack repositioned in the truck bed.
At 3:27 p.m. footage shows Simpson picking up his daughter from school with only the ice chest and the heavy-duty trash can remaining visible in the truck bed.
At 4:07 p.m. Simpson would take his car to the Bubble Bath Carwash where he was observed on camera cleaning the driver front side and rear left passenger side of the vehicle where police would later find dried cement splashes.
On Oct. 8, Texas rangers obtained an arrest warrant for the initial charges of assault-family violence and unlawful restraint.
Simpson was arrested in Kendall County on Oct. 9 where authorities say “he did not appear surprised at the time of his arrest nor did he question why he was being arrested.” He invoked his right to an attorney while being questioned over the physical altercation between him and Suzanne on the night of Oct. 6.
After the Arrest
Texas Rangers executed a search warrant on the Simpson home shortly after the arrest. During the search they observed an indention on the wall at the bottom of the stairway, investigators spoke with one of the Simpson daughters and confirmed it had not been there when she previously visited.
Rangers asked the Simpson’s housekeeper to identify the type of trash bags the family used. She described the bags as white with red handles.
Later that afternoon a search warrant was executed at Brad Simpson’s property in Bandera, where they located a ground-level burn site with a burnt laptop and multiple cellular devices. Three cellphones belonging to Simpson were later recovered from the burn pit.
Search warrants were obtained for call detail records for both Brad and Suzanne’s cellular services and the phone Simpson had on him at the time of his arrest. FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety analysts would find two notes in his device titled “This next life” and “Last will and testament.”
Both notes were created on Oct. 8, in them he apologized for physically assaulting Suzanne in August of 2023 and again on the night of her disappearance.
On Oct. 10, Texas Rangers executed a search warrant on his truck where they found blood that would later be identified as belonging to Brad. That same day they interviewed James Cotter, a longtime business associate and friend of Brad Simpson.
Upon reviewing text communication between the two, authorities would find messages sent throughout the day on Oct. 8.
At 4:35 p.m., Simpson texted Cotter “If you’re in Bandera can you haul ass and meet me at your house?” … “I don’t have much time…”
Cotter responded, “I will be there in 40 minutes.”
Simpson responded, “OK, make sure and leave all that shit into the pump house, especially the gun.”
At 8:31 p.m., Cotter sent Simpson the following message, “Get over here!! I won’t tell anyone.” Followed by, “You’re my brother.”
On Oct. 21, investigators executed a search at Cotter’s home. There they discovered an AK-47 rifle hidden behind a wall-mounted television in his bedroom. He is accused of hiding the AK-47 for Brad two days after Suzanne disappeared.
Cotter was arrested and charged with tampering with evidence and possession of a prohibited weapon. He posted bond on Nov. 8.
On Oct. 23, the rangers interviewed Suzanne’s personal banker who disclosed that Brad would regularly take away Suzanne’s phone. The banker told rangers that Suzanne advised her in August of 2024, that if she went missing to look for her in a lake.
Barton Tinsley Simpson makes an emotional plea to his brother Brad Simpson on Nov. 8 to cooperate with authorities so they can find Brad’s wife, who has been missing since Oct. 6. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report
After the Murder Charge
On Nov. 7, Brad Simpson was formally charged with murder while in custody at the Bexar County Jail.
A Bexar County grand jury later indicted him on four counts: murder, tampering with a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and possession of a prohibited weapon. He was arraigned in December and entered a plea of not guilty. That same month, James Cotter was also indicted.
In the first months of 2025, Simpson’s defense attorneys sought to weaken the charges. They filed motions to quash parts of the indictment, arguing prosecutors had failed to specify what act caused Suzanne’s death.
Without a body, the defense claimed, the murder charge was too vague.
The state countered that the evidence — surveillance footage, digital records and witness testimony — established enough for the case to move forward.
On April 29, Judge Joel Perez denied the defense’s motion to quash the indictment, ruling prosecutors had alleged enough to let the murder charge stand.
Two months later, in a June hearing, Perez ordered prosecutors to finish turning over all discovery by Aug. 1. That included reports and files held by Olmos Park police, the Texas Rangers and multiple forensic labs.
Defense attorneys argued that they were still missing key evidence. While prosecutors acknowledged the delays they argued that the scope of the investigation — spanning multiple counties, agencies and forensic reviews — made the process complex.
When the Aug. 1 deadline passed, prosecutors returned to court. On Aug. 5, prosecutors told the judge that the July 4 Hill Country floods had pulled Texas Rangers and other investigators into disaster response mode, setting back the Simpson case.
They also pointed to technical problems formatting thousands of files for transfer. Perez granted the request, giving the state additional time.
In the same hearing, Perez modified Simpson’s no-contact order to allow limited conversations with his son Rowan about parenting issues, while continuing to bar any discussion of the case.
As discovery deadlines were pushed back, prosecutors pressed forward with subpoenas. In August, the state issued subpoenas for all Child Protective Service and Texas Department of Family and protective service records relating to the Simpson family and their four children.
Brad Simpson leaves a hearing in February at the 437th District Court. Simpson, 54, is accused of murder and tampering with evidence in the case of his missing wife, Suzanne Clark Simpson. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report
But even with that extension, problems continued. At a Sept. 8 hearing, Perez noted that discovery still wasn’t fully complete and that file formatting remained an issue. He extended the deadline again, this time to Sept. 22.
In the same hearing, Perez modified Simpson’s no-contact order to allow limited conversations with his son Rowan about parenting issues, while continuing to bar any discussion of the case.
On Sept. 9, the state subpoenaed therapy records from the two youngest Simpson children extending back to Oct. 9, 2024.
On Sept. 17, Judge Perez heard arguments from James Cotter’s attorneys, who asked to have his GPS ankle monitor removed. The state argued that due to the ongoing investigation and Suzanne Simpson’s body still not being found they would not agree to the request. Perez denied the request, but said he would consider it at a later date.
Cotter is set to return to court later this month.
Five days later, when Simpson appeared in court on Sept. 22, Perez ruled that both prosecutors and defense attorneys now had the discovery materials they needed to proceed.
He scheduled the pretrial hearings for Jan. 20, 2026 and set jury selection to begin Feb. 13, with juror questionnaires and selection to follow.
The Simpson family’s Olmos Park home — where investigators believe Suzanne was last seen alive — was sold for about $1.2 million in September. That money will be used to pay off the mortgage and property taxes that have accrued with the remaining funds entered into a trust for the Simpson family children.
Back in the courtroom, prosecutors pressed forward with another round of subpoenas in the final days of September.
On Sept. 26, they requested financial records from Brad Simpson’s Chase and Bank of America accounts, along with card transactions tied to Suzanne’s Bank of America, TD Bank and UBS accounts.
Then on Sept. 29, prosecutors subpoenaed Suzanne’s Bank of America records dating back to June 1, 2024.
The latest round of subpoenas came on Sept. 30 as the state is seeking more records from James Cotter’s Chase bank account and Suzanne’s Bank of America account, again — both noted as unserved at the time of reporting.
With Suzanne Simpson’s body still undiscovered and pretrial hearings set for Jan. 20, Brad Simpson remains in the Bexar County Jail.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call San Antonio’s Family Violence Prevention Services at 210-733-8810 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. The hotlines are open 24/7. Find local resources here.