The ongoing search for missing San Antonio mom of four Suzanne Clark Simpson continues in a new area.
As the case of a missing Olmos Park mother of four, presumed dead, reaches its one-year anniversary, the missing woman’s family has begun to sell off her assets. But it begs the question: Will her husband, arrested and charged with her murder, stand to profit from the sales?
Suzanne Simpson went missing on October 6, 2024. She was last seen by a neighbor in her affluent suburb of San Antonio allegedly arguing with her husband, Brad Simpson. Witnesses say the two had a tumultuous evening, fighting at an exclusive Alamo Heights country club – The Argyle, before continuing the fight back home.
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The last anyone heard of Suzanne Simpson was when that same neighbor reported hearing her scream from a wooded area near the family estate. Just days later, after exhaustive efforts and piling evidence, her husband, Brad Simpson was arrested. After about a month, he was charged with her murder, though her body has not been found to this day.
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Brad Simpson confers with his defense attorney, Steven Gilmore, before a judge set his murder trial date.
With the matriarch of the family, and seemingly the breadwinner by all accounts, now gone, the family has begun the arduous task of selling off her assets. The luxurious Olmos Park home was racking up mortgage payments and nearly $20,000 in property taxes. A judge approved the sale of the property last month, and it’s officially under contract.
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But with these sales bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars, will it be Brad Simpson’s bank account receiving the deposits? After all, he is the beneficiary listed in her will, as spouses are in many cases. As it turns out, there’s a legal principal that prevents a murderer from inheriting their victim’s estate – though, it’s important to note that Brad Simpson has not been found guilty of any crime yet.
“[If you have a person] who died, and [the beneficiary] caused their death, then they are eliminated, or they’re taken out of being a beneficiary. They’re no longer a beneficiary, and then it would go to the next person or persons listed,” practicing attorney Richard Noll told MySA.
While dropping a beneficiary from a will typically requires a judge’s ruling, Brad Simpson appears to be cooperative with what Noll described reasonable outcomes in the probate process so far. The husband was listed as the primary executor of Suzanne Simpson’s will, but he’s been replaced, seemingly without any legal pushback, by Richard M. Kleberg IV – an investment advisor with Luther King Capital Management.
Further, Brad Simpson willingly signed over his stake in half of the family home at 520 E. Olmos Drive when the executor sought to sell off the family home. Already, the home has been purchased for $1.2 million to help pay off the couple’s mortgage and property taxes. The roughly $440,000 in profit from the sale will now go into a trust for the Simpson children.
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A child’s play toy sites on the front lawn of the Simpson family home in Olmos Park. The house has presumably remained empty since Suzanne Simpson went missing October 6 and her husband, Brad Simpson, was put behind bars shortly after.
While Brad Simpson doesn’t appear to be seeking any financial gain from his wife’s assumed demise, Noll says there’s still some mystery around what could transgress, particularly if the husband is found innocent in his murder case. He’s set for trail in February of 2025, but his wife’s body has not been found despite days-long searches of homes, properties, wooded areas and trash heaps.
A guilty verdict for murder would pretty much guarantee Brad Simpson could no longer be a beneficiary of his wife’s will under the Texas Slayer Rule – a judicial concept which prevents a person from cashing in on their murder victims’ will. However, Noll says an acquittal could spell complicated civil proceedings over rights to what Suzanne Simpson left behind, including the family home and other properties she owned in and out of Bexar County. In fact, Noll says it could easily start to resemble another Simpson case.
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“Remember OJ Simpson? OJ Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his wife. In the civil side, OJ Simpson was sued for causing his wife’s death, and by a preponderance of the evidence, the civil case found that he was … probably responsible for his wife’s death,” Noll said.
For now, it seems the murder trial will have to play out in the criminal courts before there’s any final word on whether Brad Simpson will stand to gain anything from the dissolution of Suzanne Simpson’s estate.