The husband of still-missing Texas mom of four Suzanne Simpson has been charged with her murder.
Real estate tycoon Brad Simpson, 53, was charged late Thursday while already in jail for other charges tied to the disappearance a month ago of his wife of 22 years, whose body has yet to be found.
He was removed from the Bexar County Jail for questioning by Texas rangers on Thursday and hours later was charged with Suzanne’s murder, a law enforcement source told KSAT.
He was originally arrested on Oct. 9 and charged with prohibited weapons, evidence tampering, unlawful restraint and bodily injury to a family member in the case.
He is now being held on a $5 million bond. The judge in his case ruled that his arrest affidavit be sealed for 30 days, News4SA said.
“It is heartbreaking, but it brings our family some peace to know that authorities have gathered sufficient evidence to feel confident in moving forward with charges,” Brad Simpson’s brother, Barton Simpson, told the KSAT in a statement.
“This also helps us to come to terms with the reality that Suzanne is no longer with us, allowing us to begin a difficult grieving process and focus on rebuilding our lives, especially for the sake of the children and our extended family. We remain appreciative to all law enforcement involved for their professionalism in dealing with this situation.”
Suzanne Simpson, a real estate agent, vanished after she and her husband allegedly got into a shouting match after she returned home from a party at the Argyle, a private club in Alamo Heights.
Just an hour before she disappeared, Simpson supposedly told her mother that Brad had been physically abusing her.
A neighbor also told police he saw the couple fighting outside their Olmos Park home between 10 and 11 p.m. that night. The same neighbor claimed that the pair went into the woods a short time later, where he heard “two or three screams.”
An hour later, Brad allegedly left the house in his pickup truck and did not return for two or three hours, the neighbor said.
Authorities searched a local landfill for her remains for weeks and were “confident” she would be found — however her body has yet to be discovered.
Brad’s former business partner, 65-year-old James Valle Cotter was also arrested at his home last month on a third-degree felony charge of tampering with evidence with intent to impair an investigation, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced.
Cotter allegedly attempted to dispose of a weapon for Brad, which may have been linked to her death.
On Wednesday, Suzanne and Brad’s eldest daughter, Chandler Simpson, accused her father of killing her mother and trying to leave him.
“My mom was a victim of abuse from my father,” the 20-year-old wrote in a series of Instagram posts, exactly a month after her 51-year-old mom was last seen during a violent fight at home.
“My father took my mother’s life in a state of rage and control,” she wrote.
“My mother tried to leave my father and lost her life,” the grieving daughter alleged.
