DETROIT (WXYZ) — A Detroit mother says she will not stop searching for answers in her daughter's murder until she gets some.
“I want answers,” Karen Simpson said. “I need answers."
Her daughter Kendra Simpson was murdered in 2018 on the city’s east side in an alleged carjacking. The case has since grown cold.
“What carjacker gone shoot the car up?” she said. “'Cause he can’t drive it anywhere once the car is shot up.”
Karen Simpson spoke out at her daughter’s fourth Crime Stoppers event this week, begging for someone to speak up about what happened to her 29-year-old daughter.
“I want social media or her friends or her so-called friends or anybody that knows what happened that day to say something," she said.
Karen Simpson says there were other passengers in the car at the time of the shooting.
Today, Kendra Simpson would have been 35. And now her mother — still full of grief — says she is frustrated with the police department.
“I feel like the Detroit Police Department has failed me," Karen Simpson said.
DPD spokesperson Dayna Clark said in a statement to 7 Action News:
“The Department aims to keep in regular contact with the families of homicide victim. As cases grow colder, however, follow up with the family becomes less frequent due to limited new information and the need to focus on other cases.
“Families are encouraged to attend the Department’s annual “Never Forgotten” gathering, an event put together specifically for families who desire to speak with management regarding the status of their cases.”
Clark added that “52% of the cases this year have been cleared.”
But Kendra Simpson’s family is still left with no answers about what happened to her on the fateful night that changed their lives forever. She left behind one daughter, Courtney Simpson, who says she is still trying to fill the hole that her mother’s absence has left.
“I need her more than I did back then,” now-16-year-old Courtney Simpson said.
She was 10 when her mother was snatched away from her.
“No one really know how it feels to not have a mama,” Courtney Simpson said.
Anyone with information about Kendra Simpson’s death is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP or the Detroit Police Department at 313-267-4600. Tips to both agencies can be submitted anonymously.
