SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane man is under investigation for a drug-induced homicide after his family member Sharon Simpson-White, 64, was found dead in her apartment earlier this month.
Police suspect the 33-year-old man killed Simpson-White by administering a lethal dose of a controlled substance such as methamphetamine of heroin. The suspect is also under investigation for first-degree robbery and assault.
The suspect has not yet been arrested but police are pursuing leads to find him, according to court documents.
According to court documents, a family member told the suspect’s older brother that he received a call from the suspect about Simpson-White’s death.
The suspect vaguely told the family member that Simpson-White was dead, according to court documents. He did not indicate how the death happened or where his relative was found.
According to court documents, the suspect's relative drove straight to Simpson-White’s home after receiving the phone call. He said the suspect ran away as soon as police arrived.
He told police that the suspect is a transient who is “mentally ill, unstable and a heavy drug user,” according to court documents. He said the suspect sometimes stayed with Simpson-White at her apartment.
When medics arrived at 64-year-old Sharon Simpson White’s apartment on June 12, they found her lying on her back on the living room floor, according to court documents. Investigators say there no signs of struggle or trauma on her body.
Investigators say the suspect became extremely aggressive and agitated when they tried to revive Simpson-White, according to court documents. He told them he did not want her to be revived.
One family member heard the suspect yelling at medics, “Leave her alone! Leave her alone!” He added that this what she wanted and asked them to stop working on her.
Another family member told investigators that the suspect called her prior to Simpson-White’s death and said it looked like she was “taking her last breath,” according to court documents.
Investigators say they found a broken pipe commonly used to smoke methamphetamine on the kitchen sink, according to court documents. They also found the words “die” and “kill” carved into a bedroom wall, along with a small amount of blood on another.
Simpson-White’s boyfriend later told investigators that there had been conflict between Simpson-White and the suspect because he had been coming over to ask for money, according to court documents.
The boyfriend said the suspect became more aggressive and persistent when Simpson-White would not give him money, according to court documents.
He also told investigators that he saw the suspect give Simpson-White what he thought was heroin from a loaded syringe to help with her pain, according to court documents. Court documents say that Simpson-White was diagnosed with several chronic health conditions.
Simpson-White’s boyfriend said this was not the first time she had used heroin but that she very seldom did, according to court documents. He said he believed the suspect was responsible for possibly overdosing her.
Another woman told investigators that Simpson-White had mentioned having her a relative “give her something to put her out of her misery,” according to court documents.
She also told investigators that the relative altered his appearance by shaving his head, according to court documents.
The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s says Simpson-White’s cause of death is pending the results of a toxicology report.
According to court documents, Simpson-White’s boyfriend also told an apartment employee that the suspect “beat the s--- out of him” and struck him over the head with a metal pipe, according to court documents. He spent three days in the hospital.
Surveillance video from the apartment shows the suspect and a woman going into the apartment at about 11:40 p.m. on June 11 before Simpson-White’s death. The woman then used the stairs to leave the building when medics arrived.
Police are still searching for the woman in the video, according to court documents.
When police searched Simpson-White’s apartment, they found a kitchen knife, a glass pipe with residue a white powdery substance, and a metal road, among other items, according to court documents.
