Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - LANDFILL SEARCH FOR LUX REALTOR-MOM ENDS: HUBBY’S FRIEND DUMPS GUN?

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

The search for missing mom Suzanne Clark Simpson has entered its third week, while her husband remains behind bars and refuses to cooperate with the investigation. Police and search teams have searched four locations around San Antonio, uncovering no new evidence in the mom’s disappearance. After four days, police have ended the search at a landfill in southeast Bexar County. Authorities said they focused on the site after GPS data led them there and were confident they would recover Suzanne’s remains, but now admit they found no evidence during the search. Olmos Park Police have resumed their search for Suzanne Simpson in wooded areas around Olmos Park. They have enlisted the help of Texas Search and Rescue and continue to ask the public to leave the search to professionals. Foot searchers and dog teams are combing several areas for any trace of Suzanne. At his arrest in Boerne two weeks ago, Brad Simpson was charged with unlawful restraint and assault. However, the husband of the missing woman is now also facing a federal gun charge, 10 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. Simpson’s family turned over his arsenal of weapons after Suzanne’s disappearance, including an unregistered Grand Power Stribog SP9 A3, a short-barrel rifle. He also owned several silencers. Simpson’s defense attorney claims police are manipulating public perception of his client with “ludicrous” charges. Steven Gilmore repeats that Simpson reported Suzanne missing immediately after learning she missed kindergarten pickup. He also insists Simpson wanted to cooperate with Olmos Park police but suspected authorities were trying to obtain an arrest warrant when Chief Villegas rescheduled their follow-up interview three times. Joining Nancy Grace today: Jeff Horny - Longtime Friend of Suzanne and Brad Simpson Ben Powers  - Criminal Defense Attorney, Facebook: Legal Powers PLLC, https://legalpowers.com Brian Fitzgibbons - Director of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security, uspasecurity.com, Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security, Fmr. Marine and Iraq war veteran  Courtney Lasky - M.Ed., LBA, BCBA Board-certified behavior analyst, autism expert, True North Behavioral Consulting https://truenorthbehavioralconsulting.com/   Zachary-Taylor Wright - Trending Digital Reporter with MySA; website: MySanAntonio.com; Twitter: @Zachthereporter  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The landfill search for a luxury realtor mom is called off. This as the husband's friend dumps a gun. Did he actually hide the murder weapon? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Monday afternoon, Brad Simpson gets a call because his wife, Suzanne, is now almost 30 minutes late picking up their kindergartner. She was very involved in her children's lives. Not one time has she left her children alone.

No one has heard from Suzanne and isn't answering her phone. What makes it most concerning is that it's not characteristic of her. Hi, I'm Suzanne. I've been in real estate for 13 years. This listing that is now pending has been a great transaction because I was personally friends with the buyers and the sellers. We are devastated by the loss of my sister. I am here to be a voice for my sister and the search will continue and we will not stop until we find her. First you were seeing Suzanne herself doing an ad lib for a property she had just sold. Then you saw her sister from our friends at KABB Fox, San Antonio.

Wow. So much is happening right now in the search for this mom, a missing mom, a luxury realtor, as she has been called, is missing. How did it go down? This, as we learn in the last days, a massive landfill search has been called off. Control room, could I please see a shot of Suzanne Clark Simpson? Because this is very difficult for me to grasp. grasp and I have overseen many landfill searches that this beautiful mom living, breathing, full of vitality, full of love for her children. You could see that just beaming out of her in that short little clip we played for you. She's in front of a sold sign. It's hard for me to reconcile that this woman could be found dead, decaying, decomposing, and a dump, a dump full of rotting food, stinky smells, old furniture, refuse, used diapers. Her, this gorgeous mom. That's what we know right now. The landfill search has been called off. Cadets, I believe 50 of them, were in hazmat outfits conducting a landfill search.

And that is not easy, especially in Texas temperatures. Complete hazmat outfits. That search, after multiple days, ended. Again, thank you for being with us as we continue to help in the search for Suzanne. And right off the top, I want to give you a tip line number. This is a very active search. LA law enforcement needs our help. That number 210-209-2701.

Repeat 210-209-2701. This is the direct line to Detective Hector Ruiz. Please help us find this mom. As we go to air tonight, we're learning a lot. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first, straight out to Zachary Taylor Wright, trending digital reporter, my essay, my San Antonio dot com. Zach, thank you so much for being with us. Zach, what can you tell me? I'm going to move to the news search. They're away from the landfill,

a.k.a. dump. The thought of this mom lying out in a dump is, I don't have the right word for it. It's very disturbing to say the least. The search has moved to another area, but I've got to ask you about this. What about hubby, the husband, friend, now suspect in getting rid of a weapon. What? Absolutely. So new charges were filed this week. James Cotter was arrested for, according to a restaurant affidavit that we received, agreeing to attempt to hide a weapon on Brad Simpson's behalf.

Brad Simpson himself is also facing two additional charges related to this attempt. One for tampering with evidence. Okay, Zach, slow down. Okay. Now, see, if I were putting you on the witness stand, I would have gone through this with you. No compound sentences. You're a journalist. You know what that means.

So let's take each fact one at a time. Because guess who's on with me today? Zachary Taylor, right? Jeff Horny, longtime friend of not only Suzanne, but also Brad. Right now we're talking about a different friend of the husband only. Now, slow it down. Tell me again. I want the jury to hear exactly what you're saying. Okay, go. What? So James Cotter, a friend of Brad Simpson and former business partner in several different endeavors, has been arrested on a third degree felony charge for tampering with evidence. Okay, right there. When you say friend, you mean business friend, like they had, they worked together. Is that how he's a friend? Correct.

They were business partners in Cotter's father's company. And then they've also had a couple of other business endeavors together. So they go way back business wise. Okay. He has been arrested for what? Tampering with evidence. He allegedly attempted to hide. Tampering with evidence. Correct. He allegedly tried to hide or what he allegedly attempted to hide a weapon on behalf of brad simpson um an arrest for an affidavit shows that communications between the two with brad frantically asking for his help oh oh okay with me an all-star panel hold on zach don't move move. Zach Taylor Wright joining us from MySanAntonio.com. Brian Fitzgibbons is with us. Don't move, Jeff Horny. I'm coming straight to you. Brian Fitzgibbons

is with us, Director of Operations, USPA Nationwide Security, who leads a team of investigators specializing in locating missing people. Brian, you heard what Zach just said. Let's analyze it right there before we go one step further. They find the friend, Cotter, okay? They find the friend, obviously, because they have subpoenaed, LA, law enforcement, has subpoenaed the husband's digital apparatus, all of his devices, cell phone, laptop, iPad, you name it. That means all the texts and all the emails. Now, Zach, yes, no, did I hear you say that the husband had frantically contacted friend Cotter to help him get rid of a weapon?

That is correct. He noted how little time he had and needed his friend's assistance. And I believe he said words to the effect of, I don't have much time. Correct. Okay. Okay. Brian Fitzgibbon's amateurs. Do I have to use a legal phrase?

Idiot. He put it in a text. Can you help me get rid of a weapon? I don't have much time. Brian, help me out. Law enforcement was all over that, Nancy. Just like you said, they'd have those digital records. And by October 10th, they were already at his friend James Val Cotter's residence looking at his phone.

It would be later determined that the weapon was hidden. But law enforcement has been right on top of this lead right from the get-go. From the get-go, Brian Fitzgibbons to Ben Powers, joining me, high-profile criminal defense attorney. And you can find him at legalpowers.com. Ben, thank you for being with us. You know what that tells me?

If you're representing this guy, you're in a whole heap of trouble because James Val Cotter is not going to sit lonely in his cell and not tell where and if he hid what I believe to be a murder weapon. We're going to get that murder weapon and we're going to find prints on it unless they thought to wipe them off. And that weapon is going to belong to the husband. Just a wild guess. What about it, Powers? Well, so I think it's important to remember that there's two separate investigations going on at the same time.

There's the investigation to Suzanne's disappearance, but there's also a separate ATF investigation into illegal firearms possessed by Mr. Simpson. And so the tampering with evidence could go to the firearms investigation because right now there's no connection to the missing of Suzanne Simpson. It's just a firearm. Don't make me laugh during a murder investigation. The Fed's investigation into the husband regarding the short barrel weapon they found in the home. That investigation is over.

He's charged. He's looking at, what did I say, Jackie? 10 to 15 behind bars and a $250,000 fine. They've already got that gun. This is a different gun. He didn't ask his friend Cotter to hide that gun. He asked his friend Cotter to hide another gun. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Joining me right now, a special guest to whom I earlier alluded, Jeff Horny, longtime friend of both Suzanne and Brad. Brad Simpson, Suzanne Clark Simpson. Mr. Horney, thank you for being with us. Yes, thank you. I know this is very disturbing to you because you're friends with both Suzanne and the husband, Brad Simpson. When did you first learn that she's missing? From a friend that just called me out of the blue and said, can you believe that Suzanne's missing? And I, and I kind of freaked out and said, what, what, what, what? I just talked to her. I just, you know, so that's how I learned, unfortunately. And what was your immediate thought upon learning she was missing? Oh, I, I, my immediate thought is where is her pig husband? Sorry.

See, that was my immediate thought. Where is her pig husband? I thought the same thing. I went to his Facebook page and I said, where are you, Brad Simpson? And I was the only one on there. So I deleted my comment and moved on. But I couldn't believe that nobody else was wondering where he was. And at that time, do we now know where was he? Hiding his gun? Yeah, he was doing something fishy. He had a few hours to do whatever he did or didn't do, you know.

Okay, I've got a question. Could you backtrack for me, Mr. Horney? I want to hear how she ended up with him. It's like a fairy marrying a donkey. How did this happen? Again, I know the Clarks and the Simpsons, and they're both great families. I grew up with Suzanne and her older sister, Teresa, is who I grew up with. And, of course, Suzanne was around.

The older we got, the more Suzanne was around. And then they met in college at the University of Texas, and that's how I met Brad. Brad and I were fraternity brothers at UT and, um, I'd known him from San Antonio for a little bit. And, but then we just, you know, we, we, uh, just became friends. And after college, we both moved back to San Antonio and, uh, just, that's how San Antonio it is. It's a it's a big, small town and everybody knows each other. And and so there were unfortunately, there was a lot of really good folks affected in

this terrible tragedy. And we want to answer. So these two have known each other for quite some time. So how did it end up that he convinced her to marry him? You know, that's a good question. We all thought that he was a man of outstanding character. And and and it's amazing the things you find out. You know what's interesting about what you said, Jeff? So many things, but let me go to Courtney Lasky joining me, board-certified behavior analyst at True North Behavioral Consulting. Courtney, in addition to being a felony prosecutor for over a decade,

I worked at night volunteering at the Batter Women's Center hotline. You know what's amazing, Courtney, is how charming an abuser can be. If you knew public officials' wives calling into that hotline and when you'd see them on TV, butter would melt in their mouth. I mean, they were so charming, affable, friendly, charismatic. But at home, they beat the H-E-double-L out of their spouse. So I'm hearing Jeff Horny say he was an outstanding character. You know, we all liked him. We were fraternity brothers.

But nobody can believe that he could be capable of this. And let me stress, he remains innocent, presumed innocent under the law until he has been proven in court by judge or jury to be guilty. That said, how is that? How can an abuser be so charming? I mean, Courtney, the landfill search has been called off and law enforcement made it very clear they were convinced they would find her there. But this guy, I believe, has outsmarted police. How can he be so charming and convince so many people he's a great guy? We often know with the personalities of domestic violence, the abusers are often charismatic, they're charming, they have a way of convincing the world that they are quality individuals,

while the victim of domestic violence, they often go into the fight or flight or the third response of fawning. And what's fawning is the people pleasing. It's the conflict avoidance. It's pretending that everything on the outside is OK. And unfortunately, that is the most common, especially in these personalities where on the outside, everything's beautiful, perfect. But for Suzanne, it wasn't perfect at home. Jeff Horny joining me, longtime friend of both Suzanne and Simpsons. Jeff, is that true?

Was he nice guy, charismatic, engaging? Yes, yes. Again, the area in which he's from is a very close-knit area, and the place where they were beforehand at the Argyle is a meeting place for a lot of my friends in the Alamo Heights area. And it's a drinking establishment. And unfortunately, I think that whenever there is alcohol involved in anything, it puts a whole other level of, oh, I don't even know what the word is. It screws a lot of things up when folks have been drinking. Suzanne and Brad were invited to a party there.

The Argyle is a very exclusive club in San Antonio. It's a very high membership to join that club. Brad and Suzanne Simpson return home from dinner at the Argyle. A neighbor hears loud arguing from their home. So we're holding out hope that maybe, you know, maybe she's trying to be away from the home to get away from that situation. That's not totally uncommon. But what is uncommon, what is unusual, is that this was a woman who worked and was very dependable

and loved her children and was always in contact with her children and her family and her friends. You are hearing the Los Alamos PD chief, Fidel Villegas, and more from the chief. We would love for her to be alive, obviously. There's nothing concrete that says she's not alive. And again, I owe it to the family. We all owe it to the family to speak of her in a way where other people have been found,

like I said, injured, in distress, lost, troubled, hiding away. All of those things are possible. That from our friends at WOIA News 4 to Jeff Horny, longtime friend of both Suzanne and husband, Brad Simpson. Jeff, do you believe, I mean, her youngest child is still in early childhood education. That has to be dropped off and picked up.

You know, I wonder if he took her that morning and we have confirmed through the school that he did drop the children off. So if he dropped them off that morning, he didn't know she was gone because usually she drops them off. Do you believe that Suzanne would ever not show up to pick her child up from school? No, absolutely not. Every time I, every time we talked, the baby was with her and not, you know, the baby's in, in a fifth grader now. So it's not, she's not a baby, but I'm sorry, she's five. Um, so no, never. And another thing that I want to mention too, is that, you know, it doesn't take in South Texas. It does not take very long to get out to a a desolate area. You know, we're an hour away. We're two hours away from the border. In South Texas, there are many, many ranches and places that, especially now that his partner had been arrested, no telling what he did to assist him, you know.

So I want to, you know, remember that, too, is that if he had help, no telling where she is. Because, again, it doesn't take any time to get to nowhere in South Texas. And just think about it. Just think about it, Jeff. If he asked someone to get, I mean, what friend goes along with hiding a potential murder weapon? This was a man that was in there live. Sorry to interrupt you. This was a man that was at dinner parties and and, you know, was was considered a friend. And yeah, that's another thing. I don't get that. And I don't understand why the dude, their neighbors didn't call the cops.

And and that's that's the one that hurts the worst yeah because at the very beginning and i've seen this jeff in so many cases of domestic abuse that's really a nice way of putting beating the hell out of the woman yeah you know you remember that picture of uh nicole brown with the huge eye, just black and swollen, and the look on her face. She had been beaten like a yard dog. I mean, that's what domestic abuse is. But so often, Jeff, people hear a scream, they know it's happening, they hear the yelling, and they don't want to get involved and if if if if and i'm not faulting the neighbor because without the neighbor would have

nothing right now but if police had been called at that first scream maybe you know when they first heard the argument maybe she would be alive but But again, in the neighbor's defense, sometimes you hear an arguing thing. Oh, they're arguing again. Yeah. And that's that. They're having another fight. Yeah. I agree with that.

Oh, yeah. So this is what we know right now. The search has moved. The search is moved. The search has moved. And, oh, following up on what Jeff Horning just told us, to Ben Powers, high-profile criminal defense attorney. Ben, if he would ask a friend to hide potentially a murder weapon and the friend went along with it because now he's charged with tampering. If he had said, hell no, I'm not hiding a gun for you, then he wouldn't be charged right now with evidence tampering. So I'm deducing that he hid the gun. So if he would ask that friend to hide a gun, would he ask someone to hide a body?

Think about it. And did you just hear what Jeff said, how close this is to the Mexican border? For all I know, she could be across the border right now. Well, so with the nature of the investigation leading to the charges of the friend that was asked to hide the gun and presumably did hide the gun, that tells us that the investigators have access to Mr. Simpson's phone, which will include things like GPS data, cell ping tower data, other ways to track his movements that night. And it'll draw a radius of where he went from the home in the key hours following that argument that the neighbor says that they witnessed. And that should help to set some boundaries and some parameters for where should be searched if Mr. Simpson has any

culpability in Ms. Simpson's disappearance. Well, you know what, Ben Powers? Now I see why you win so many cases. Fitz Gibbons, I was just thinking of our mutual acquaintance, Alex Murdoch. His own cell phone, his wife's cell phone, his son's cell phone, and his his Murdoch's nav system and his state of the art Suburban did him in because you can see exactly what time he cranked up that Suburban to leave the double murder scene where he left his wife Maggie and son Paul bleeding dead. You can see when he put it in reverse, when he shut the doors even on that nav system, when he put it in reverse, then put it in drive, then took off and then slowed down.

You can tell he let the passenger window down. These things are awesome. Throws out Maggie's cell phone where it's found on the side of the road, lets the window up and continues on to where else? To mommy's house so he can hide out and have an alibi there. These nav systems, amazing. And like Powers just said, the power of the ping, right? If he was dumb enough to take his cell phone with him to hide Suzanne's body, we got him. No, actually we don't have him, Fitzgibbons, because I think they were looking at those pings and that led them to the landfill where they found nothing.

Yeah. And I'll tell you, Nancy, there's an important point to be made here. They may have not found anything at the landfill. These searches are being driven by that data. Additionally, with Cotter, the friend, there's an important thing that we left out here. He said to police that he retrieved a .22 caliber rifle at Simpson's request. This is simply not true. This is in the arrest affidavit that they found a Chinese made AK-47 hidden in the wall of his house. So we have two key things to highlight here. Cotter lied to police, number one, about his assistance he provided to Simpson. The second thing is that there's an informant involved that led police back to Cotter's house.

So police are all over this cell phone data, the messages, the pings, all of it. Almost Park PD are desperately searching for a missing mom of four. She was last seen on surveillance outside that ritzy Argyle Club. A neighbor hears loud arguing from their home. Brad was like trying to hold her down. It looks like Suzanne is trying to get away. Then there was silence and that's when he heard the screams. Olmos Park police resumed their search for Suzanne Simpson in wooded areas in and around Olmos Park. Cops have enlisted the help of Texas Search and Rescue and are asking the public to leave the search to the professionals. Foot searchers and dog teams are combing several areas for any trace of Suzanne. Make no mistake about it, this is a huge blow,

a huge blow to law enforcement. After days and days in Texas heat looking through a landfill dump, they had to call it off. And they were very clear as they started that search that they believed they would find Suzanne there. What led them to believe that? And why was she not there or could they not find her by the time they had finished the search? That's a huge blow. Now the search has moved to a new location. I guarantee you guided by PING's and NAV system connected to the husband, Brad Simpson. Also at this time, Simpson demanding the court allow him to see his children amidst the search for his missing wife. Fat chance. Legal term, snowball chance in hell. There is a no contact order in place because remember, and, and, and it's, it's true very quickly, Courtney Lasky, when the husband, the father, the male partner in the home has beaten

or abused the mother, then they don't get to have access to the children because they are familial abusers. Absolutely. And this goes back to that characteristic we talked about, about that manipulation piece. So right now, Brad could be trying to manipulate the media, get his perspective of I'm a father. I'm loving. I care for my children. But we know with this behavior that it escalates over time. And he might have been demonstrating similar abuse to the children in different ways. It could have been mental, verbal abuse. We don't know, but we do know that these children need to be protected and until we can prove that he is innocent and he is good to these kids, it's not happening. Straight out to Zach Taylor, right?

Zach, tell me the location of the new concentrated search. Currently, law enforcement is searching in wooded areas close to the family's Olmos Park home, which is on the north side of San Antonio. Now, Zach, isn't it true that that is where the neighbor heard a scream? Absolutely. The neighbor reported going out to find the couple and hearing the scream just outside their Olmos Park home. Well, you're absolutely right. This occurred after the couple came home from that ritzy country club, dinner club, a.k.a. drinking club, the Argyle. Listen.

An hour after Brad and Suzanne Simpson return home from dinner at the Argyle, a neighbor hears loud arguing from their home. The yelling seems to get louder and the neighbor peeks out of their window, shocked to see the Simpsons neighbor hears loud arguing from their home. The yelling seems to get louder and the neighbor peeks out of their window, shocked to see the Simpsons in a physical fight outside their home. It looks like Suzanne, still dressed from dinner, is trying to get away, but Brad Simpson keeps pulling her back. The couple eventually moves out of the neighbor's sightline. Jeff Horny joining me along with Zach Taylor-Wright, Jeff, longtime friend of both Suzanne and the husband, Brad Simpson. Jeff, have you ever seen the home in which they're currently living? Oh, yeah. Yes.

Tell me about the home, and I want to also hear about the forest, the heavily wooded area surrounding the home. Well, again, the home is on the main street. It's's on palmas drive the main street of of this of this area and um behind their house as you can see there's some wooded area but also um i guess it would be north of their house uh is is a highway 281 and and underneath that, right, I'm talking almost directly where they live, is a, it's a dam. It's a, it's a, it's called the Almas Dam, and there are, it's a creek bed, and if water was running through there, there's no way that they, anything would stick around, I don't think, but there's, it's, they have to cover a lot of area. I don't know the exact acreage of the Palmas Basin, but it's a, it's a large, it's a large area,

and there's a lot of woods, and, you know, some homeless folks live out in the woods and, you know, they even found a firearm out there from somebody else. So I guess if you were to hide a body somewhere, that would be a good place, you know. They got to bring out the cadaver dogs. It's very, very difficult to bring dogs into that terrain. Very heavily wooded area. We're talking about a 32 square mile area. Seemingly impossible. Brian Fitzgibbons, we've heard from Jeff Horney about the exterior and the forest terrain outside the home as well as a dam. But Brian Fitzgibbons, you pointed out something very, very interesting to me about the location of that AK. Tell me that.

Nancy, so Brad Simpson texted his friend and business associate, James Val Cotter, apparently to move a firearm. Now, police were in Cotter's residence speaking to him as early as October 10th. At that time, Cotter told police that he moved a.22 caliber rifle for his friend Brad Simpson. This has turned out in the arrest affidavit to appear to be a lie. Police, with the assistance of a canine specifically trained to detect firearms, alerted on a wall that had a TV mounted to it in Cotter's residence. Police removed a portion of that wall and found an AK-47 that had belonged to Brad Simpson stuffed and hidden behind that wall. Mom of four, Suzanne Simpson is a no-show, failing to pick up her children from

school. Her husband reports her missing. Where is Suzanne? Stephen Gilmore pokes holes in the Simpsons neighbor's statement to police. Gilmore asserts that a person invested enough to leave their home with a flashlight to search for a fighting couple would have called police after hearing screams. Gilmore also points out that Suzanne's phone last pinged a half mile from her home at 7.15 a.m. Monday morning, not lining up with the neighbor's timeline, which suggests Brad Simpson discarded his wife's body and belongings late Sunday night. I agree and disagree with the defense attorney's attack. All the state's eyewitness or earwitnesses are going to be attacked on cross-examination. That is a given. So that witness, straight out to you, Ben Powers, is going to be attacked. And the defense attorney's got a little something to work with. If he went out looking with a flashlight, why didn't he call police?

Well, I don't know why he didn't call police, but that does not mean he didn't see or hear what he saw and heard. Well, so it might mean that he didn't see what he claims he saw and heard. You know, there's obstructions in the photos that have been shown of the home as far as there's a fence line, there's trees in front of the house, other factors like it was late at night, so the lighting might have been bad. And then there's the glaring issue of the neighbor never reported anything. You know, the first person to report that Suzanne Simpson was missing was Brad.

And it's actually Brad's report that brought the police to the neighbor to interview him and get his statement. I'm not down with that, Powers, and I'll tell you why. Because the witness was very clear that he could see them and then, arguing in the driveway, and then they walked out of his sight line behind some trees. That is rich in detail and it seems believable. Also, I'm pretty sure the police have gone to his vantage point to determine whether he could see what he says he saw. And also Jeff Horny, a longtime friend of Suzanne and Brad Simpsons. She left that posh club. She was walking off. Let's see that photo alone in her

nice outfit. She was stomping out of there for a reason. Okay. It wasn't like her husband was escorting her politely to the car. There she goes. She's there with him and she's leaving alone. All right. That tells me they were having an argument. Yeah. Don't forget that she had, she evidently somewhere in between here and the house, she called her mother and her mother said that she was saying that Brad had struck her in the stomach. And, uh, and I guess it hit her a couple of times and she was hurting. So, um, you know, her mother was the last one to talk to her, I assume in between that time. Um, so, you know, so we know that, that he, there was more going on than just a little,

uh, pushing and shoving, you know, not that, and that even that's not right. Yeah. And that leads up to what the neighbor says he observed in the in the driveway. OK, and we know the single most dangerous time for a woman is a when she's pregnant, which homicide, the number one cause of death for pregnant women, not blood pressure or heart attack, homicide. And two, when she's trying to leave an abusive situation, then on top of it all, if my husband was missing, I would be lying on the courthouse steps, screaming, find my husband, Help me. But what is he doing? He's being uncooperative. Listen. 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. Brad's refusal to cooperate is unacceptable. Simpson's brother went on to say their family is shattered and will stop at nothing to bring Suzanne home.

Suzanne and I had an opportunity to talk an hour before a lot of this has happened. My speculation is maybe the whole thing is alcohol-related because when she got back, she called me up and told me the things that Brad had done to her physically. Well, I came up with an alternative plan for her and hoped that she'd move in with me and have her little toddler go to the elementary school in my neighborhood. I never got to tell her the plan. That is from Suzanne's mother and from our friends at WOAI News 4.

Jeff Horney, longtime friend of Suzanne and Brad Simpson. That's what you were telling us, that the mom learned he had punched Suzanne in the stomach and more. And, you know, Jeff, I learned this not only from the Battered Women's Center there in Atlanta, but from all the years of prosecuting. It's not a statistic. It's anecdotal for me that when a woman has in place a plan and the mom had a plan to move in with her and they were going to put the little girl, the five-year-old, into the local school right down the street from the grandma. But they didn't have time to implement the plan. We're talking about minutes, you know. If Mrs. Clark had a little more time, maybe she could have gone and picked them up.

It's just tragic, man. I can't even imagine. You know, Suzanne was a little tiny thing. I can't imagine these two guys, you know, throwing her body around in all these different trash cans. And it's terrible. And she didn't deserve that at all. Jeff Horney, my thoughts exactly. And as Zach Tellerite was telling us earlier, Jeff, the husband said, quote, I don't have much time. His business partner hid an AK-47 for the same sentence with Suzanne is just, it's beyond words, Jeff.

I have a question for you. Why can't they go to Brad and say, look, your gig is up. Tell us where she is. I don't understand why they can't go to him and get him to tell us where she is. He's done. I'll tell you that. I'll tell you, Jeff. Because once he admits he knows where is her body, that means he put her there.

That means he killed her. And right now, cops don't have a body. And many people believe no body, no case. He's actually sitting in a cell right now thinking he's going to beat this thing. If he and his buddy can keep their yaps shut, he may just be right. That's why. And just like in his last sentence, I don't have much time. It's all about me, me, me, me, help me forget about Suzanne. Forget about her decomposing body. Forget about the little five-year-old girl wanting mommy, seeing mommy beaten up with bruises and taking her cell phone away.

That's her last memory of mommy. And he is sitting in a cell right now, gnashing his teeth and switching his tail, wondering, how can I beat this rap? That's why. If you know or think you know anything about the disappearance of Suzanne Clark Simpson, we beg you to call Detective Hector Ruiz. 210-209-2701. Repeat. 210-209-2701. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.