“He started to cross a line,” she said. “Jamie would make inappropriate comments. Come-ons.”
“To you?”
“Yes. To me. He kind of burned through every female in the group. First, he’d start calling all the time. Wanting to meet up outside the study group. Then he’d start bringing gifts. Little trinkets. He tried to give me a necklace one time. Flowers another. He did the same thing to Shante and Lisa.”
“How did you handle it?”
“I was polite at first. Jamie was just … I don’t know. He just didn’t vibe well with the rest of the group. He was too intense somehow. When he started coming on to me, I told him I had a girlfriend. He backed off and things were sort of normal after that. But then he moved on to Shante. It got awkward in the group after that. We started making plans to meet without him. Shante wasn’t comfortable around him. Neither was Lisa.”
“What about Ellie?”
“Well, what I’m describing, how Jamie burned through the group. This happened over the course of about two years. Freshman to junior years. It wasn’t all at once. It was gradual. That first year, we were all kind of joined at the hip. But by the time we were juniors, Jamie was really on the outside of it. I personally didn’t see him much at all. Ellie still did.”
“She did. Did Ellie know about your experience with him?”
“I told her,” I said. “I know Shante and Lisa did too.”
“Why did you tell her?”
“It was just kind of a known thing within the group. That Jamie was on the make. That we didn’t feel like his friendship was genuine. That he was looking to hook up.”
“How did Ellie feel about all this, if you know?”
“The thing with Ellie. She was just nice. She never had a bad word to say about anyone. She was one of those people who was always gonna take in a stray, you know? So I think she felt a little sorry for Jamie. As far as we knew, he didn’t have any other friends. He just put people off. Came on too strong. Seemed to have an agenda. So of all of us, Ellie was the last one to maintain a friendship with Jamie.”
“How would you describe Jamie and Ellie’s relationship in the months before her disappearance?”
“Well, she went missing right around spring break our junior year. I know she was still communicating with Jamie that previous Christmas. Just before Christmas. She was going to meet him for coffee. She told me that and I remember having a reaction.”
“What kind of reaction?”
“I just rolled my eyes, you know? I asked her why she was still giving him the time of day. She knew how the other women in our friend group felt. But Ellie felt sorry for him, I think. That she felt sorry for him because he didn’t have any family and was going to be alone on the holiday. So he asked her to meet him for coffee. She didn’t see the harm in that.”
“Do you know how that meeting went?”
“I don’t. But I know when we came back after break, Ellie was different.”
“How so?”
“She was like the rest of us. Didn’t want anything to do with Jamie.”
“How do you know that?”
“We were sitting in class, just before class started. Jamie tried to call her on her cell phone. She saw the caller ID and got mad. She didn’t answer. She just clicked it off. He called two or three more times right after. She seemed upset. And as far as I know, she never met with him again after that.”
“Was there anything else you witnessed about Jamie and Ellie in those weeks before she disappeared?”
“No. But I never saw her with him. As far as I knew, they weren’t talking. And I have to be honest, I didn’t think much of it. Jamie was just kind of this annoying guy in our classes. We just all stopped hanging out with him. I can’t say I thought much about him after that. The school year went on. Then Ellie disappeared and it was just all so awful.”
“I can imagine. What did you tell the police when you were questioned?”
“There wasn’t much I could tell them. I knew Ellie was working for that home health aide agency. During that time, I can’t say I saw her much outside of class. We were all so busy with our studies and our jobs and gearing up for our senior year and finding placements after that. Ellie going missing just came as such a shock to all of us.”
“Did you have any interactions with Jamie Simmons after Ellie went missing?”
“Yes. He was very involved in trying to organize search parties for her. He took her disappearance very hard.”
“Did that surprise you?”
