“Actually, no. Like I said. I knew Ellie, at least up until the couple of months before she went missing, kept up some kind of friendship with him. She … I’m sorry to say it. But in my opinion, from what I observed, I felt like she had taken pity on him. She felt bad that he’d alienated everyone else in the group.”
“Objection, witness is speculating.”
“Ms. Wharton-Brent indicated it was her opinion based on her observations.”
“Sustained,” Judge Saul said. “The jury should disregard the witness’s statement about Ellie Luke’s feelings. She has no firsthand knowledge of those.”
“Okay,” I said. “Tell me about your interactions with Jamie Simmons after Ellie disappeared.”
“Well, again, Jamie was just very involved in setting up search parties. Encouraging all of us to put time in whether it was actively searching or putting up flyers or attending vigils. It was like he made it his mission to ensure everyone in Ellie’s class did something. He took her disappearance very hard. That was my observation.”
“Did that seem strange to you?”
Bree shrugged. “Honestly? At the time? No. It was a confusing time. We were so rocked by what happened. Everybody had to deal with it in their own way. I just kind of assumed it was Jamie’s way of dealing with it. It was … well … he was abrasive, almost bullying about making sure we all did something. But I just … I don’t know … we didn’t give him trouble about it because again, I just figured it was how Jamie had to cope. I wasn’t going to get in the way of someone else’s grief process.”
“I see. But you used the word bullying. Can you elaborate on that?”
“Jamie was very much in everyone’s face … in my face … about what we were doing to help in the search. Like he’d ask for time at the beginning of classes to address the whole class. Tell us when and where to meet to help the police search. And if there was a vigil, and I remember two specifically, Jamie was always right up there wanting to be one of the ones to talk. Once, Sarah and Paul Mansfield mentioned they weren’t going to be able to attend one of the vigils. They were going to be out of town. Well, we were all talking about it in the courtyard on campus. Jamie got angry with them.”
“What do you mean?”
“He snapped at Paul and Sarah. Accused them of not caring enough about finding Ellie. That they owed it to her to show up. Jamie got in Sarah’s face and Paul grabbed him by the arm. Pulled him back. It was just extremely awkward and inappropriate on Jamie’s part. In my observation, anyway. And I heard later that he’d befriended Ellie’s family.”
“How did you feel about that?”
“I don’t know. I remember thinking I hope he doesn’t overstep. I hope he’s bringing them comfort and not expecting them to take care of him. But I did recall thinking it was weird.”
“Weird? Why weird?”
“Well, just … I knew Ellie wasn’t super close with Jamie in those last months. I knew she was actually trying to avoid his calls. I saw her do that. So it was another kind of eye roll for me. Like Jamie was glomming on to this poor family and I didn’t think Ellie would have liked it.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I have no further questions.”
“Your witness, Mr. Cutler,” the judge said.
Cutler stormed up to the lectern. “Ms. Wharton-Brent, you have no real idea how Ellie Luke felt about Jamie Simmons, do you?”
“I think I’ve answered that. I saw her annoyance when Jamie kept calling her. I saw her specifically not answer the calls.”
“You never went to the police about any concerns you had about Jamie Simmons when Ellie disappeared, did you?”
“No.”
“You were questioned for nearly two hours by Detective Ritter, isn’t that right?”
“I don’t recall the time, but if you have some record that it was two hours, I wouldn’t dispute that.”
“And at no point in your interview did you raise a single concern about Jamie Simmons? In fact, you didn’t even mention his name to Detective Ritter as being part of your school friend group, did you?”
“Because he wasn’t part of it at that point.”
“But again, you have no idea what Jamie’s relationship with Ellie Luke was, do you?”
“I think I explained what I knew based on what I saw. I don’t have another answer to give you, Mr. Cutler.”
“Did you and your friends talk about Ellie Luke after she disappeared?”
“What? Of course we did. We were all pretty shook up and worried about her. As the weeks went on and we knew the worst had probably happened … it devastated us. We leaned on each other for support as best we could.”
