22nd Tacoma Homicide of 2022: Elisia Simpson
Elisia Simpson's friend was worried about her. The 24-year-old mother of three and her friend had gone out with Elisia's 21-year-old boyfriend, but Elisia had a swollen eye and a bruised arm. It was early May 2022. When they stopped at a gas station and Elisia's boyfriend got out, Elisia began to cry and confided in her friend that her boyfriend had beaten her and pointed his pistol at her. Her friend also noticed that Elisia's boyfriend had begun to space out and mumble to himself. Sometimes he'd sit and rock back and forth.
On May 13, 2022 a coworker Facetimed Elisia and noticed a knot on her face. She did not say how it happened, but told her that was why she had not shown up to work in a week.
At 6:30am on May 16, 2022, Elisia's five-year-old daughter was in her room watching Shrek in Elisia's apartment in the 7600 block of Pacific Avenue. She could hear her mother and her mother's boyfriend arguing in the other room and then she heard a series of gunshots. Before she could do anything else, her mother's boyfriend rushed in the room with a pistol in his hand and pointed it at her.
Elisia's boyfriend then left, locking the door behind him. A neighbor who heard the gunshots took a photo of him leaving and got down the license plate number of the vehicle he left in.
It was not until around 10:00am the next day, neighbors noticed Elisia's three children (ages 2, 3, and 5) on the apartment balcony. One of them told a neighbor that their mother's boyfriend had shot and killed their mother.
Police arrived and finding the door locked, kicked it in. Inside, the officer gathered the three kids in his arms and removed them from the apartment. Elisia's body was found in her bedroom with at least seven bullet wounds in her side as well as a bullet hole in the wall.
Elisia's boyfriend was arrested a few days after her murder.
Elisia Simpson is the twenty-second Tacoma homicide of 2022 and another tragic example of what happens when mental healthcare and domestic violence collide.
It's difficult to find someone who wants to say anything bad about Elisia or ‘CeCe’ as her friends called her. She was great fun to be around and had a great laugh. She was conversant in English, German, and Spanish. She enjoyed the performing arts. And she was a devoted mother to her three young children.
Perhaps there is no other sort of loss that so obviously illustrates the ongoing trauma of losing someone close to you to violence. These three children will grow up without really knowing their mother, a woman who by accounts of friends and family would have done anything for them. Elisia will miss every other major event in her children's lives. And they will notice her absence as will everyone who knew her.
As always, the comment section is reserved for those who knew Elisia and want to share thoughts or memories of her.
For those of you who want to help out, Elisia's family, a GoFundMe has been set up for just that purpose. Just click here.
- Jack Cameron
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