Investigators recovered heavily burned human bones at a Saline County property before prosecutors charged four people with concealing Simpson’s remains.
NELSON, Mo. — A DNA identification from human remains recovered at a rural burn site became the central physical link in the investigation of Amber Simpson’s disappearance, a case that now has four defendants accused of concealing evidence but no one charged with causing her death.
The evidence developed in stages. Investigators first had information from people, including an anonymous tip about Simpson’s death and statements from people connected to the rural property. They then had a location, a search warrant and a field where a cadaver dog alerted near a burn area. Finally, forensic specialists recovered human bones and Kansas City crime laboratory personnel obtained DNA that identified the remains as Simpson’s. That progression turned a missing-person case into a death investigation and gave prosecutors a basis for charges involving what allegedly happened to her body after she died.
When Saline County investigators searched the property on June 18, they encountered a mixture of material that made the scene more complicated than a simple recovery site. Court records described a burn area containing animal bones, burned tires and human remains. Investigators also found a burned fire poker, and reporting on the charging documents said other evidence was recovered close to the bones. A forensic anthropologist from the University of Missouri assisted authorities and recovered numerous human bones from in and around the burn pile. The specialist attributed their severe deterioration to either an extended fire or repeated burning over time.
The condition of the remains made forensic identification especially important. Kansas City police later said its crime laboratory extracted DNA from material recovered at the scene, and the medical examiner ultimately identified the remains as those of 41-year-old Simpson. One account of the probable cause documents said DNA obtained from tissue associated with a femur fragment was more than a billion times more likely to have come from Simpson than from an unknown person. The identification answered whether the remains belonged to the missing Kansas City woman. It did not answer how she died.
That gap separates the strongest confirmed forensic conclusion from the most serious allegation in the case. Authorities have said an anonymous tip claimed Simpson had been killed and her body burned at the Nelson-area property around May 28. Later charging material included a witness allegation accusing Brianna Nicole Willis, 35, of killing Simpson after a dispute involving Willis’ business partner. Investigators used those statements as leads, but prosecutors had not charged Willis with murder as of the latest reporting reviewed. No other defendant has been charged with killing Simpson either.
Instead, Willis and Joseph Kitara, 34, face the same two categories of felony allegations previously filed against property owner Damon Thomason, 54, and Felix Watson, 30: abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution. Those charges focus on the treatment and alleged concealment of Simpson’s remains. Prosecutors still would have to prove the accusations against each defendant. The fact that four people have been charged in connection with the remains does not amount to a judicial finding that any one of them caused Simpson’s death.
The statements attributed to Thomason and Watson helped investigators describe what allegedly happened at the rural site. Thomason told detectives he had seen what appeared to him to be a large leg bone after material had been burned, according to the probable cause statement. He allegedly said he had become suspicious that the remains could be Simpson’s and acknowledged telling Watson to clean the area. Thomason denied helping burn her body. Watson told investigators that a man and two women had arrived at the property and gone toward the field but said he had not accompanied them there.
Watson also acknowledged burning items such as paper, cardboard or tires in the area, according to varying accounts of the interview, while denying knowledge that Simpson’s body was being burned. Investigators said a medical bracelet associated with Watson was found near the remains. When detectives confronted him with that evidence, court records say he gave explanations for how the bracelet might have reached the area and then ended the questioning, requesting an attorney. His decision to stop the interview was his legal right and does not establish guilt.
Kitara entered the evidentiary picture through different material. Investigators said cellphone information placed his device in the Nelson area on the morning authorities believe Simpson’s body was taken to the property. Deputies also said Thomason and Watson identified Kitara and Willis as people who were present there around that time. Separately, authorities accused Kitara of leading Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers on an Interstate 70 pursuit before his arrest in Independence. Reporting in August said Kitara was already being held without bond on allegations arising from that chase when the Saline County case was filed.
The timeline before the alleged disposal remains less settled. A Kansas City police missing-person announcement issued in June said Simpson had been seen May 27 around 23rd Street and Kensington Avenue. Later police information described the June 3 missing-person report as saying she was last seen around May 10. A Missouri State Highway Patrol bulletin gave May 3 as the date of last contact. Meanwhile, probable cause material placed the alleged burning of Simpson’s body on May 28. The public record therefore contains several different descriptions of when Simpson was last known to be alive, and authorities have not publicly explained how those dates fit together.
Police have been more consistent about what happened once the Saline County search began. Kansas City missing-person detectives worked with the sheriff’s office after information directed them to the Nelson-area property. The June 18 warrant produced the remains. Forensic work continued for weeks, and police publicly announced Simpson’s identification near the end of July. Kansas City authorities then described the investigation as a death investigation and asked to hear from anyone who had contact with Simpson during the first part of May. Detectives also said they were coordinating with prosecutors in both Jackson and Saline counties.
The physical evidence cannot by itself resolve every part of the case. The presence of Simpson’s remains establishes where they were recovered; the condition of the bones supports investigators’ conclusion that they were exposed to substantial fire; DNA establishes identity. None of those findings, standing alone, identifies a killer, proves the accuracy of an anonymous accusation or supplies a cause and manner of death. Police had not publicly released an autopsy finding or comparable determination explaining how Simpson died in the reporting reviewed for this article.
For Simpson’s relatives, the identification ended the uncertainty of a missing-person search but opened another period of waiting. Family members later gathered at Ashland Park, near the Kansas City area where one police bulletin said she was last seen, for a candlelight and balloon vigil. Relatives remembered her for humor, generosity and the roles she held in a large family. Their statements stood apart from the technical details of the investigation while underscoring why the unresolved part of the case matters: authorities know whose remains they found, but they have not publicly established who is legally responsible for her death.
The four defendants were scheduled for additional court proceedings in August. No verified subsequent report reviewed for this article showed that prosecutors had filed a homicide charge or that the death investigation had been closed. For now, the forensic evidence has answered the question of identity and supported criminal cases over the handling of Simpson’s remains. The much larger question of how she died remains open.
Author note: Last updated September 9, 2026.