As prosecutors build their case against Brad Simpson, they’re still missing a key piece of evidence — his wife’s body.
Simpson is accused of murdering his wife, Suzanne Clark Simpson, who was last seen in Alamo Heights on Oct. 6.
While not having that crucial piece of the puzzle, Tulsa County (Okla.) District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said prosecutors can still make their case.
“I would say in this (Tulsa County in Oklahoma) office, we’ve had more than our share,” Kunzweiler said.
Kunzweiler said his office has handled at least four cases where they began prosecution without a body, including one in October 2024.
“The advances in technology have made significant inroads in criminal prosecutions,” Kunzweiler said.
That technology includes crash data from cars and surveillance video.
In Brad Simpson’s case, investigators said there’s much to consider.
A recently unsealed murder warrant states that there is surveillance video from a Whataburger in Boerne from Oct. 7 — the day after Suzanne Clark Simpson was last seen.
According to court records, trash bags, a large heavy-duty trash can, an ice chest, and a large bulky item wrapped in a tarp appear in the back of Simpson’s truck.
Later that morning, investigators said surveillance video showed Brad Simpson at a nearby Home Depot. He appeared to be buying two bags of concrete, a construction bucket with a lid, heavy-duty trash bags, Clorox disinfectant spray, and insect repellant, according to the warrant.
The warrant does not state when or how investigators believe Suzanne Simpson was killed.
“In many respects, it becomes seeing is believing,” said Kunzweiler. “How a person died doesn’t necessarily have to be proven.”
On Thursday, Simpson’s attorneys filed a motion for an examining trial, which the former Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood explained is a defense strategy.
“The analogy I give is like playing poker, and someone raises you, and then the defense is going all in and waiting for the government to call them,” LaHood said. “And so that’s what they’re doing.”
The motion is uncommon in Bexar County and estimates that motion has been filed approximately five times in the last five years, LaHood said.
Kunzweiler said evidence and witnesses are critical in cases like Brad Simpson’s.
“Well, the best I can tell you is I have prosecuted cases with less successfully,” said Kunzweiler. “At the end of the day, we have to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt whether a crime was committed and whether that dude over there is the person that committed that crime.”
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
