Boyfriend charged with murder of Ashley Simpson elects trial by jury

The boyfriend of Ashley Simpson has elected a trial by a jury following a court appearance in Salmon Arm yesterday, Mar. 1.

Derek Lee Favell was arrested last December in Kelowna and charged with second-degree murder.

The murder took place April 27, 2016.

Days later Simpson was reported missing from a property on Yankee Flats Road, near Enderby, where she was living with Favell.

She was 32-years-old at the time of her murder.

Simpson is one of several women to have gone missing from the area around that time, including Caitlin Potts, Deanna Wertz and Nicole Bell. In the fall of 2017 the body of 18-year-old Traci Genereaux was found on the large rural property of Curtis Sagmoen, but no one has been charged in relation to her death.

Over the years, the RCMP had provided no updates, until December 2021 when it announced Ashley's body had been discovered in a wilderness area outside of Salmon Arm and Favell had been charged.

One week after Simpson's body was found, Favell was arrested and charged with her murder.

A blog post containing an interview with Favell from 2017 says he'd refused to take a lie-detector test following Simpson's disappearance.

"The rambling exchange went on for more than an hour, during which time Derek bounced from feelings of guilt and remorse to self-pity," reads the post.

Following Favell's arrest, Simpson's mom, Cindy Simpson, told iNFOnews.ca she always knew her daughter had been murdered and suspected Favell.

"I want to look him in the eye, I want to look at him and just let him know, I knew, we all knew," Cindy Simpson told iNFOnews.ca last December.

"He knew what we were going through, and yet he stated his innocence... that is heartless and cruel," she said.

Favell remains in custody and his case will now continue through the court system.

READ MORE: 'I want to look him in the eye:' Ashley Simpson's mother now waiting for justice

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