The investigation crossed county lines before authorities identified Amber Simpson’s remains and accused four people of concealing her body.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Amber Simpson’s case began with unanswered questions about a Kansas City woman’s whereabouts and moved about 90 miles east to a rural Saline County property, where investigators found her remains and eventually brought felony charges against four people.
The distance between those two places defines much of the investigation. Simpson, 41, was the subject of a Kansas City missing-person inquiry in early June. By June 18, detectives and Saline County deputies were searching property near Nelson after receiving information that she was dead and that her body had been taken there. Weeks later, forensic testing confirmed the remains belonged to Simpson. Prosecutors have since accused Damon Thomason, Felix Watson, Brianna Nicole Willis and Joseph Kitara of crimes involving the disposal or concealment of her remains. No one has been charged with her killing.
Before investigators reached rural Missouri, police were trying to establish where Simpson had gone. A June 9 public notice said she had last been seen May 27 in the area of Kensington Avenue and East 23rd Street near Ashland Square Park. Family members were concerned about her safety, and police asked the public for information. Other official descriptions later gave earlier dates, however. Kansas City police said the original June 3 report indicated Simpson had last been seen around May 10, while a Missouri State Highway Patrol bulletin listed May 3 as her last contact.
The differences matter because investigators are trying to reconstruct a period that ends with Simpson’s remains at the Nelson property. The publicly available reports do not explain whether the dates represent separate sightings, a correction to earlier information or conflicting witness accounts. They do show that police were seeking information from people who may have encountered Simpson during May. When her remains were identified, Kansas City detectives specifically renewed that request as part of the death investigation.
A tip supplied the geographic link to Saline County. Charging records say Kansas City police received information alleging Simpson had been killed and her body burned near Nelson. The Saline County Sheriff’s Office became involved, and authorities obtained a warrant for property along 116th Road. Investigators searched the location June 18. The property was identified as belonging to 54-year-old Damon Thomason, placing the case on rural land far from the city neighborhood cited in the earlier missing-person announcement.
The search produced the evidence that transformed the investigation. Authorities said tire tracks or other indications led officers toward a burn area. A cadaver dog alerted there, and investigators recovered human bones among other burned material. A forensic anthropologist from the University of Missouri helped collect numerous bones in and around the site. The specialist concluded that their condition reflected an extended fire or more than one period of burning. Investigators also reported finding animal bones and burned tires, requiring specialists to separate human remains from other material.
That rural scene also generated allegations against the first two defendants. Thomason allegedly told detectives that he eventually saw a bone large enough to make him suspect human remains had been burned on the property. He said Watson had used the burn area and acknowledged telling him to clean it up, according to the probable cause material. Thomason denied helping burn Simpson’s body. Watson told investigators that a man and two women had appeared at the property and gone toward the area behind the house, but he denied knowing what they intended to do.
Investigators said Watson acknowledged burning ordinary debris but denied knowingly burning a body. A medical bracelet associated with him was reportedly recovered near the human remains. Court documents say detectives questioned him about how the bracelet reached the area; Watson gave explanations before requesting a lawyer and ending the interview. Prosecutors later charged both men with abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution. Those allegations concern conduct at the property rather than an accusation that either man killed Simpson.
The case then shifted back toward Kansas City when authorities identified two more people they believed were connected to the events. Deputies said Thomason and Watson identified Joseph Kitara, 34, and Brianna Nicole Willis, 35, as being present on the property the morning of May 28. Investigators also said Kitara’s cellphone data placed him in the Nelson area that morning. Prosecutors eventually filed the same two types of charges against Kitara and Willis, bringing the total number of defendants to four.
Information about Willis introduced the most serious accusation yet, but it remains unproved. According to court documents summarized by local news organizations, an anonymous tip accused Willis of killing Simpson. A witness separately told police Simpson was involved in a sexual relationship with Willis’ business partner and alleged that Willis killed her before the body was taken away for disposal. Authorities have not announced a murder charge based on those claims. Without such a charge or an adjudicated finding, the allegation remains a witness account under investigation rather than an established explanation of Simpson’s death.
Kitara’s movements became relevant for another reason. Authorities said that after his phone was detected in the Nelson area on May 28, he later was involved in a Missouri State Highway Patrol pursuit on Interstate 70 that ended in Independence. He faced separate charges arising from that chase and was being held without bond when prosecutors added the Saline County allegations. The pursuit does not establish his role in Simpson’s death or the handling of her remains; investigators cited it as another piece in the chronology surrounding his movements that day.
The identification process brought the two ends of the geographic investigation back together. Kansas City crime laboratory personnel obtained DNA from the remains, and the medical examiner confirmed that the bones belonged to Simpson. Police announced the identification in late July. Until then, investigators had a rural scene and suspected human remains linked to a Kansas City missing-person case. The DNA result provided the confirmed connection between the woman being sought in Kansas City and the evidence recovered near Nelson.
The route from Kansas City to Nelson still contains major gaps. Publicly available records do not establish exactly when Simpson left Kansas City, how she traveled to Saline County, whether she was alive when she arrived there or where she died. Investigators have not released a cause or manner of death. They also have not publicly reconciled the differing last-seen dates. The anonymous information describes one version of events, while cellphone records, the defendants’ statements and the physical evidence provide separate pieces that investigators and prosecutors must evaluate.
Simpson’s family later returned attention to Kansas City rather than the rural crime scene. Friends and relatives held an Aug. 21 vigil at Ashland Park, releasing balloons and lighting candles in her memory. Her niece described Simpson as funny and emphasized her place in the family as a mother, sister and aunt. Earlier relatives similarly described her as someone who welcomed and helped other people. The gathering took place near an area identified in one of the original missing-person notices, bringing the story back to the community where the search had begun.
The case now remains divided between what has been established and what has not. Authorities found and identified Simpson, four people have been charged over the alleged handling of her body, and investigators have developed a timeline reaching from Kansas City to a rural Saline County property. But no homicide charge had been announced in the latest reporting reviewed, and the public record still does not say how Simpson died. The geographical mystery has narrowed; the central question of responsibility for her death remains unresolved.
Author note: Last updated September 9, 2026.