Ashley Simpson: Boyfriend pleads guilty
As Ashley Simpson’s parents and sister sadly looked on, her ex-boyfriend Derek Favell today admitted to a B.C. Superior Court that he killed her and hid her body for five years. Madame Justice Alison Beames read the charges to Favell, who sat in the prisoner’s box wearing a short hair cut, and an orange jumpsuit. He agreed that he understood a second degree murder charge could send him to jail for life.
It was a moment the family had prayed for. There would be no long trial, instead, Favell would be sentenced in February, following a Gladue assessment which would take into consideration certain factors because he identifies as indigenous. Those factors could impact the length of his sentence, and is required.
What the plea means is that Cindy and John Simpson will have to return yet again at their own expense to Salmon Arm, the place where their daughter took her last breath on April 27, 2016. At the time of her death, she was a vibrant 32-year-old who with Favell had fallen on hard times. Ashley had hoped to return home to her family in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario but she was waiting for Favell to pay her back some unemployment money.
Ashley never got the chance to go home. Instead, her body was found up a logging road not far from her fifth wheel home. Favell had denied he had a hand in her death but was later arrested following an RCMP investigation, and Ashley’s body was discovered and returned home. (The details are still under publication ban.)
The court process has been exhausting for the Simpsons, who are my cousins. Since Ashley’s ashes were returned, they have had to endure a lengthy process of endless inquiries and hearings. They have had to listen to the details of their daughter’s death, the crime cover up and the location of the body in harsh detail as the court heard the pre-trial evidence.
At the same time, they had to raise money to pay for their trip to Salmon Arm, not knowing whether they would be staying half way across the country for days or weeks or months. The process is wearing them down daily. I noticed Cindy had lost a lot of weight from all the anxiety. She is usually the strong one, but the stress has taken its toll on her, and she looks frail and haunted. John is John, an open book, a man consumed by a litany of injustices, from health issues, unemployment, and money issues. Looking at him in the court today from my perch in Ottawa, he looked pale, his eyes hollow under a new hair cut.
Today was just another day in their unending nightmare. Favell will stay behind bars as the Simpsons will return home to continue to live in their own kind of eternal hell.
And February is a long, cold, ways away.
Note: If anyone wants to help the family with the expenses for the next leg of this journey, please reach out. Aeroplan miles accepted.