A property tycoon called in a favor from a longtime business associate just two days after his wife vanished screaming from their San Antonio mansion.
Brad Simpson, 53, sent frantic text messages to his friend and business partner, James Valle Cotter, on Tuesday October 8, telling him: ‘I don’t have much time.’
Simpson’s wife Suzanne, 51, was last seen late on Sunday October 6, out the front of her $1.5million home in the city’s ritzy Olmos Park having an altercation with her husband.
The couple walked toward nearby bushland, where a neighbor heard screams. She hasn’t been seen since. Cops believe she’s dead and a search for her body is ongoing.
Now, Cotter has been charged with one count of tampering with evidence after police discovered an AK-47 inside the wall of his home.
Police allege Cotter helped Simpson hide a weapon that could be tied to his wife’s disappearance, KSAT reported.
Suzanne Clark Simpson, 51, disappeared from her million-dollar home about 11pm Sunday, October 6, after an alleged dispute with her wealthy realtor husband, 53-year-old Brad Simpson
A thorough investigation of the four bed, five bath Olmos Park family home (pictured), worth an estimated $1.5million, has already taken place
Cotter has been charged with one count of tampering with evidence after police discovered an AK-47 inside the wall of his home
According to an arrest affidavit, Simpson text Cotter the day after formally reporting Suzanne missing, writing: ‘If you’re in Bandera, can you haul ass to meet me at your house?’
‘I don’t have much time,’ the initial text read, according to KENS5.
A secondary text allegedly read: ‘Sorry for the urgency but you’re all I got especially now… social media is destroying me.’
Simpson has not been charged relating to his wife’s disappearance. But he is being held on a $2million bond for two misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and unlawful restraint.
When police and specially-trained K-9s searched Cotter’s home, they found an AK-47 inside a wall behind a mounted television.
An orange string was allegedly attached to the gun, which allowed it to be pulled from the hiding place.
Brad Chandler Simpson, 53, of Olmos Park – four miles north of San Antonio – was arrested just three days after his wife Suzanne Clark Simpson, 51, went missing
Suzanne was pictured alone at the exclusive, members-only club, wearing a knee-length dark dress and her hair down over her shoulders
Police allege they have footage of a vault inside Simpson’s home where he stored his weapons, in which an AK-47 was previously visible. When they executed a search of the vault after Suzanne’s disappearance, the AK-47 was missing.
Cotter and Simpson have known each other for 25 years and are longtime business associates.
Meanwhile large scale, widespread search efforts have been underway to locate Suzanne. Police have confirmed they’re looking for a body.
The missing mother-of-four’s own mom, Barbara Clark, revealed the haunting phone call she had with Suzanne just an hour before she was last seen.
Speaking at a vigil set up to honor Suzanne at Lourdes Grotto, Clark said: ‘She called me up and told me things Brad had done to her physically.’
A neighbor told police that he heard the couple arguing from his window and saw the two engaged in a physical fight, with Brad ‘grabbing her upper torso area to gain control of her body,’ a police report said
Brad was allegedly uncooperative during the investigation and did not show up for a follow-up interview. Authorities said the realtor, who worked for Nix Realty Company, went missing after attending a party at The Argyle in the Alamo Heights neighborhood
Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies were seen wearing hazmat suits and bright orange boots as they dug through the waste disposal site near San Antonio
Clark said Suzanne confided in her that about 9pm that night, October 6, Simpson had injured her arm and her back.
‘I came up with an alternative plan for her that she would 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.’
Police released a haunting photograph of Suzanne earlier on the day she vanished, showing her walking through The Argyle in Alamo Heights.
Suzanne was pictured alone at the exclusive, members-only club, wearing a knee-length dark dress and her hair down over her shoulders.
Several hours after this photograph was taken, a neighbor claimed he heard an aggressive fight between Suzanne and her husband.
That neighbor claims he saw Simpson hitting and restraining his wife, before they both wandered off to a nearby wooded area.
Shortly after that interaction, the neighbor alleges he heard screams from the woods.
Olmos Park Police Chief Fidel Villegas has since confirmed: ‘That night we think she was in distress.’
