Maryland authorities spent more than two months investigating Ashley Silverman’s death before charging Jason Simpson with murder.
CECILTON, Md. — When Maryland State Police entered a West Main Street home before 2 a.m. on June 18, they were responding to a report of a person in medical distress, not a reported homicide. More than two months later, the same call had become a second-degree murder case.
The shift from emergency response to homicide prosecution followed an autopsy ruling, scene processing, interviews and a review of statements that investigators said did not fit the physical evidence. Ashley Silverman, 28, was pronounced dead at the Cecilton residence. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore later classified her death as a homicide caused by asphyxiation. On Aug. 28, state police announced that Jason Timothy Simpson, 28, had been charged with second-degree murder after consultation with the Cecil County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The state police announcement was deliberately limited. It said troopers from the North East Barrack responded to the 100 block of West Main Street at about 1:45 a.m., found Silverman and also found Simpson at the residence. Investigators from the agency’s Homicide Unit were called, while technicians from the Forensic Sciences Division processed the scene. Police said Simpson initially was charged in an unrelated incident but did not identify that matter in the homicide news release.
Details of why investigators came to suspect Simpson emerged more fully through court records reported by The Cecil Whig and Law&Crime. Simpson allegedly told detectives that Silverman came to the home on June 17 and made repeated statements that she wanted to kill herself. According to his account, she knocked on the door, was not allowed inside and then went around to the backyard. Simpson said he turned his attention to two children who were crying in the house.
He allegedly told investigators that he later saw Silverman hanging from a swing set behind the residence. Simpson said he brought her to the house in a wagon and eventually called 911. That account offered investigators a proposed sequence of events, but detectives then compared it with the property itself. The comparison produced one of the most significant conflicts identified in the charging narrative.
The swing set was approximately 155 feet from the house, according to the reported court documents. Investigators also determined that the backyard was almost completely dark. Police concluded that Simpson could not have looked from the residence and seen Silverman hanging where he claimed she was. The court record described the claimed observation as an impossibility. Detectives also said they believed the scene had been arranged to resemble a suicide rather than reflect how Silverman actually died.
That conclusion did not depend solely on the distance to the swing set. Investigators examined the timing of Simpson’s calls and the consistency of his statements. According to the court records, Simpson called his mother three times before contacting 911 and then waited at least another 30 minutes before making the emergency call. He also reportedly told police at one point that his mother had been at the scene. She later told investigators she had not been there.
Another discrepancy involved Silverman’s recent presence at the home. Simpson allegedly said she had not been there for several months. Neighbors told police they had seen her at the property two days before her death, according to the court records. Those statements gave detectives another point at which an outside account conflicted with Simpson’s description. The publicly available material does not identify every witness interviewed or every piece of evidence recovered at the home.
The medical examiner’s findings provided an independent determination about the manner of death. State police said Silverman was transported to Baltimore after being pronounced dead and that the medical examiner subsequently ruled she died by asphyxiation and that the manner was homicide. Authorities have not made a full autopsy report public in the sources reviewed for this account. Nor have state police publicly disclosed a suspected motive for the killing.
The investigation extended beyond the night Silverman died. Detectives reviewed Simpson’s relationship with her and the history of law-enforcement and court involvement between them. Law&Crime reported that Simpson told investigators the relationship had a history of domestic violence and that a judge had recently approved a protective order against him. The same report cited earlier cases involving allegations that Simpson assaulted Silverman.
One earlier case resulted in a second-degree assault conviction connected to a September 2024 incident. According to reporting based on Cecil County records, Simpson had been accused of charging at Silverman with a knife after she took his phone. He received a two-year sentence that was suspended, followed by 18 months of probation. About 10 days after that conviction, he was arrested again in connection with an incident in which he allegedly choked Silverman, according to the report.
The later arrest was reported as violating Simpson’s probation and an active protective order. Those previous cases form part of the history between Simpson and Silverman, but they are legally distinct from the homicide prosecution. A prior conviction or protective order does not establish that a defendant committed a later killing. Prosecutors must prove the elements of the murder charge with evidence admissible in the present case, and Simpson retains the presumption of innocence.
Investigators also documented conduct after Silverman’s death. Court records cited by Law&Crime said Simpson was seeking dates on Tinder shortly afterward. He allegedly portrayed himself as a widower with no “baby momma drama,” despite having described himself as Silverman’s boyfriend and sharing children with her. The dating-app statements attracted public attention, but authorities have not said they are the sole or principal basis for the murder charge.
Silverman was the mother of four young children, according to published reporting: 11-month-old twins and boys ages 3 and 4. Law&Crime reported Simpson was the father of two of her children. The public sources reviewed for this story do not provide reliable, current information about the children’s placement or care after Silverman’s death. Their identities and other private details are not necessary to explain the criminal case.
By late August, the investigation had progressed far enough for detectives to consult prosecutors. State police said Simpson was arrested without incident on a Thursday morning and taken to the Cecil County Detention Center, where he was held without bond. The agency continued to call the investigation active and ongoing, leaving open the possibility that detectives were still collecting evidence even after the murder charge was filed.
WBAL-TV reported that Simpson appeared in court after his arrest and that another homicide-case proceeding was scheduled for Nov. 24. The station also reported separate charges tied to a February incident involving Silverman, including first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Those proceedings were distinct from the homicide case, and the public material reviewed for this report does not establish their ultimate disposition.
The case therefore remains at the prosecution stage rather than the point of a final finding of guilt. No reliable source reviewed as of Oct. 19 showed a conviction, acquittal or dismissal of the second-degree murder charge. What investigators have alleged is that a call originally reported as a medical emergency concealed a homicide and that Simpson’s description of a backyard suicide was contradicted by the scene, witnesses and the medical examiner’s findings. Whether prosecutors can prove that allegation will be decided through the court process.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.